EXPLORING SUCCESS FACTORS FOR IT CARVE OUTPROJECTS

Carve out projects have recently become an emerging issue in practice and theory given the diversityof strategic foci of companies as well as recent merger and acquisition activities of firms. This paperhighlights the relevance of IT in such carve out projects. IT depicts their characteristics and specificfeatures with regard to general IT projects as well as success factors for the management of IT carveouts. Based on a systematic literature review, we conducted 18 exploratory expert interviews withdifferent stakeholders involved in the management of IT carve outs. We can show that the perceptionand acknowledgement of the IT function within the overall carve out project is broadlyunderestimated. We elaborate on learnings for the successful management of the IT function within acarve out project: the involvement of IT executives in the early phases of carve out contractnegotiations; improved IT due diligence processes for a better anticipation of IT costs; early analysisof the target enterprise architecture.[...]