Putting Two and Two Together

In fact, Morelli says, "[That resistance] is a big part of the reasonthese projects fail. Businesspeople get into implementation, getoverwhelmed and either fight it or give up on it."

"I think, for the most part, businesspeople can appreciate the amountof effort that has to go into integration. But let's face it, theydon't really understand the guts of it," agrees Linda Reino, CIO atUniversal Health Services (UHS), a $2.6 billion hospital-managementcompany in King of Prussia, Pa.

Yet getting businesspeople on board integration projects is a criticalissue, says PHH's Talbot. "If you don't get the business aspect ofintegration nailed, you may as well just stop."

Nailing that business aspect, however, means managing the changeswrought by integration, and that's a huge up-front task lackinginstant gratification, says Gartner's Karamouzis. Just one example: Asintegration links processes across departments and divisions,executive sponsors will need to gird themselves for the turfskirmishes that inevitably flare when the walls between departmentscrumble.

Sounds hard? It is. But there are things business executives can do tomaximize the chances of success for integration projects.