Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have become a core growth strategy for professional services firms, but too often the promised benefits are delayed or lost entirely due to a hidden and underestimated issue: fragmented financial systems.
New research conducted by Vanson Bourne across 600 midmarket and enterprise professional services firms in the US and Europe reveals that while executives are prepared for cultural and organisational complexities, they remain underprepared for the operational drag caused by outdated, disconnected financial infrastructure.
Most firms surveyed said M&A was harder, slower and more expensive than anticipated. While some deals close within a few months, the average timeline was eight months and 20% of firms took over a year. A striking 86% said it took longer than expected, resulting in lost momentum, disrupted daily operations and diminished deal confidence.
When asked to identify the top challenges, respondents cited both business and technology blockers. On the business side: inconsistent financial data, organisational churn and stakeholder misalignment. On the technology side: talent shortages, incompatible systems and lack of standardised back-office processes.
Technology gap
The term ‘joined-up systems’ featured prominently in responses, but what does that mean? At its core, it is the ability to deliver a single, real-time financial view across all entities, geographies and functions, before, during and after a deal.
Instead, most firms are working with fragmented platforms, manual workarounds and static tools. Only 46% have automated any significant portion of cashflow management, with 88% saying it is difficult, and nearly half still depending heavily on Excel.
This fragmentation isn’t just a nuisance; it is a liability. It leads to decision-making blind spots, drains resources and delays integration. On average, finance teams waste 44 hours per week correcting discrepancies across systems, equivalent to a full-time employee. Even senior leaders report spending up to two days per week reconciling financials at year-end.
Four actions to make M&A work better
M&A isn’t going away. In fact, 58% of surveyed firms acquired another company in the last five years and nearly half were themselves acquired. So what can firms do to improve integration and return on investment (ROI)?
Modernise your financial architecture
Legacy and on-premise tools weren’t designed for M&A. Firms need cloud-native, multi-entity platforms with unified ledgers, embedded analytics and audit-ready integrations. Automation is only part of the story; the architecture must support agility, transparency and scale.
Standardise core financial processes
Inconsistent reporting frameworks, charts of accounts and approval workflows create downstream delays. A harmonised set of processes, ideally templated across legal entities, ensures data flows without friction from day one.
Prioritise real-time insight
Finance leaders need to shift from retrospective reporting to real-time visibility. This means minimising manual tasks like reconciliation and expense tracking, and enabling scenario modelling, forecasting and real-time variance analysis.
Build an integration playbook
As many as 90% of respondents said they see value in third-party support, but that support should go beyond just technology selection. Firms need repeatable integration playbooks: how to assess systems pre-deal, align data models and execute within a 100-day plan. External partners can accelerate this and bring benchmarking insights from other successful integrations.
Integration and the opportunity
Disjointed systems are not just an internal problem. Buyers increasingly factor tech maturity into valuation models. A firm with legacy systems may command a lower price or be passed over entirely. This is especially true for firms under 1,000 people, who bear the brunt of manual effort and face greater risk of burnout during peak periods.
Yet many organisations remain under-equipped. Just 64% of firms said they have an accounting suite and only 53% reported having an ERP system, leaving nearly half of respondents without the core infrastructure needed to integrate or scale efficiently.
These issues also affect more than just finance. Year-end system limitations have knock-on effects across staff wellbeing, with 61% citing negative impacts and 73% saying streamlining year-end reporting would reduce burnout.
Operational readiness
Firms overwhelmingly (90%) agree they need to invest in modern systems. The motivation is not just operational efficiency; it is strategic viability. Without a unified view of financial performance, firms risk slower integrations, reduced valuations and diminished returns from M&A activity.
Now is the time to invest, not just in tools, but in a deliberate systems strategy that ensures your firm is ready to scale, integrate and grow.
