2. How Can a Partnership Help an M&A Process?
Involving an IT partner with knowledge and experience specifically in healthcare M&As can help organizations meet the demand for scale, especially with larger M&As. An expert partner, for instance, understands that thousands of endpoints are involved in clinical operations. Those endpoints are not limited to a single workstation but include any patient-facing device. A partner can help an organization identify all those endpoints and the versions of connected operating systems, and identify any vulnerabilities that may be breached, as part of a migration plan and security infrastructure assessment.
From our experience, for instance, we have industry-specific runbooks and playbooks that showcase CDW’s depth of knowledge in this sector. When a healthcare system reaches out to let us know about an upcoming acquisition, we can help with due diligence and scale on their behalf.
EXPLORE: Why planning is key to managing health IT integration during an M&A.
Because of CDW’s expertise, we’re mindful of healthcare-specific aspects such as the revenue cycle and clinical workflows. We know how to work with conversions of data and electronic medical records systems, how to manage identity migration, and how to minimize impacts to business operations and clinical experiences. As a partner, we take the time to understand the culture of a healthcare system and make sure we're removing any operational burdens.
3. When Should a Healthcare Organization Involve an IT Partner?
Ideally, a partner should be involved in the M&A process as early as possible, before a public merger announcement. But coming in right after an announcement can also work. From our experience, we’ve been involved at the preplanning phase alongside health systems.
A partner that is brought in early on understands the business and IT integration objectives from the beginning, has an easier time helping with integration and can do a lot of the heavy lifting. A partner that is in place before day zero can perform unbiased assessments sooner and make sure security is central.
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