Even in the best of circumstances, mergers and acquisitions can be painful for the parties involved. They may be logical for the business, but trying to knit together two disparate systems can be a nightmare for its IT staff. In particular, for the IT security team, which is typically responsible for any compliance problems.
If assembling two IT security infrastructures seems daunting, imagine putting together two companies at different stages of the compliance process. Thankfully, it may not be as bad as it seems. The two key factors determining the difficulty of meshing compliance efforts are the industries of the partners, and the specifics of the particular compliance provisions they must meet. Creating a unified compliance team, consisting of compliance staff from both companies, is an effective way to ease the process.