Running the program: IMO, clean teams, Day 1, Day 100 and the TSA

An SAP integration does not run as a normal SAP project. It sits inside a deal with a signing date, a closing date, antitrust rules, a seller who may still provide services, and executives who measure success in synergies. This lesson covers the program mechanics an SAP lead must work within: the integration management office, what IT may and may not do before close, the Day 1 and Day 100 plans, and transition service agreements and their exit.

The integration management office

Big integrations use three tiers: an executive steering committee, an integration management office (IMO), and functional workstreams. EY describes an IMO that owns the integration roadmap, resolves cross-functional issues and challenges workstream charters against Day 1 requirements, meeting weekly. McKinsey argues that the IMO should report directly to a CEO-led steering committee and be staffed with top performers, because a conventional PMO is poorly suited to capturing breakthrough value. The SAP workstream is one of several, alongside HR, legal, tax, treasury and commercial integration.

Before close: clean teams and gun-jumping

Between signing and closing, the two companies are still independent, and if they compete, antitrust law limits what they may share and do. The US Federal Trade Commission's guidance says the risks last until the merger closes, that sensitive information includes current and future prices, strategic plans and costs, and that information shared should be narrowly tailored to diligence or integration planning. Clean teams should exclude people responsible for competitive pricing or strategy. In January 2025 the FTC announced a record $5.6 million civil penalty against XCL Resources, Verdun Oil and EP Energy for gun-jumping, which included control over the target's ordinary operations before close.

Test data follows the same rule. Before close, no copy of the target's production data belongs in the buyer's test systems unless it is anonymized and cleared by counsel. Contoso's architects received Alternadores' system inventory, its legacy data model and its interface list before close; the customer overlap with Contoso's fleet business was analyzed only by external advisers in the clean team, and Hannah's matching on real customer records started after close.

Day 1, Day 100 and the end state

Day 1 is set by the deal, so plan backward from it. EY advises evaluating Day 1 readiness 30 to 45 days before close and focusing on Day 1, Month 1 and Quarter 1 reporting. Day 1 for an SAP program is about must-haves, not integration: the legal entity can trade, pay, get paid, pay its people, close its books and report to the new owner, and access is segregated. Contoso's deal closed on September 1, 2026, three weeks after its own conversion went live.

Transition service agreements

When a business is bought out of a larger group, the seller usually keeps running some services for a fee under a transition service agreement (TSA). A reverse TSA runs the other way: the buyer provides services to the seller, for example when staff who supported the seller's other units transfer with the business. PwC reports that TSA exits typically take 12 to 24 months, are achievable in 6 to 12, and involve more than 1,500 design decisions; EY expects a draft TSA exit plan within 90 days of closing. A TSA schedule should say how each service is delivered, disputed and exited, with service levels, fees and an end date.

Alternadores was bought from a family holding group whose shared-services center hosts the legacy ERP, the IT help desk and payroll. The TSA runs until April 30, 2027. That end date was chosen so the legacy ERP stays available read-only for about twelve weeks after the Wave 2 go-live, through the first two month-end closes in SAP S/4HANA, and so that the TSA exit and the go-live weekend never fall in the same window.