When companies are bought, sold, merged, or restructured within a larger portfolio or estate, the systems they run on rarely align. ERPs, CRMs, PMRs, EPOS platforms, and other automated data flow systems are often built around assumptions that no longer hold once organisational boundaries shift.
The problem
Disparate enterprise systems are rarely designed to talk to each other. When they must, the result is often brittle point to point integrations, data inconsistency across platforms, functionality gaps where no single system covers the need, and migration risk that increases with every passing month.
This becomes especially acute during acquisitions and divestitures, where speed matters but the underlying systems were never designed to be separated or combined.
What I do
I architect abstraction layers that sit between these systems, creating a unified surface that enables data, transactions, and workflows to flow coherently regardless of what sits beneath.
This involves mapping the real data and process dependencies across platforms, designing integration layers that decouple systems from each other, unifying functionality that would otherwise be mismatched, non existent, or too narrowly tailored to a single industry's needs, and ensuring the abstraction layer itself is maintainable and evolvable.
When this applies
This work is most relevant when organisations are undergoing portfolio restructuring or M&A activity, when multiple acquired businesses need to operate as one, when data must flow reliably between systems that were never designed to connect, or when the cost of replacing underlying systems outweighs the cost of bridging them intelligently.
What changes
Transitions become smoother because the abstraction layer insulates operational continuity from platform changes. Systems that previously required manual reconciliation begin to flow automatically. And the organisation gains the ability to swap, upgrade, or retire underlying platforms without disrupting the business processes that depend on them.