Case Study

M&A divestment - Alaska

Name: PXL Collective
Price range: $

A large multinational oil and gas company required IT services in the $5+ billion sale of its upstream and midstream interests in Alaskan assets.

To ensure the safe and successful divestment of these assets, comprehensive IT services support was essential. We managed all requirements including the transfer of data, applications, licenses, and hardware, as well as the management of 2,000 users, 500 applications, and over 20 TB of data across multiple environments. Our approach aimed to limit downtime and disruption during the change in control, thereby maintaining safe operations throughout the transition.

Objectives:

Develop guiding principles and processes agreed with buyer and seller, including transfer of data, applications, licenses, and hardware.
Disposition management for 2,000 users, 500 applications, and over 20 TB of data in multiple environments.
Limit downtime and disruption during change in control in support of safe operations.
Manage communications across multiple locations to ensure all parties are kept informed of progress.
Complete all activities in adherence with COVID-19 protocols.

Technology in Scope:

O365 and licensing
Windows 10
End-user desktop services
Local, Regional, and Global Infrastructure
NetApp
ADO
Windows Server 2012 and 2016
Citrix

Implementation:

Provided program and project management expertise.
Supplied a cadre of technical resources to support divestment planning through to execution.
Ensured compliance with seller’s digital security requirements:
1. Wiped and refreshed corporate Windows images (end user and server).
2. Wiped and refreshed network devices.
3. Wiped and refreshed storage devices.
Designed and executed a unique transformation:
1. Migrated all in-scope hardware from the corporate network to a vanilla shared zone environment.
2. Migrated all in-scope applications from the corporate network to a vanilla shared zone environment.
3. Migrated all in-scope data from the corporate network to a vanilla shared zone environment.
Conducted extensive design, planning, and execution during the pre-close stage.
Enabled a near flip-of-the-switch transfer from seller to buyer

Delivered outcomes:

Scheduled downtime during CIC for the critical PIN/PCN environment was completed in under seven minutes. Corporate infrastructure was restored with the majority of functionality within 13 hours.
End-user devices excluded from legal hold were collected, cleansed, and returned to the buyer. Devices under legal hold were processed according to all required chain of custody processes.
IT was listed as the highest risk area at the announcement of the divestment and concluded with accolades from leadership from both companies.
The migration of assets from the corporate to shared-zone environment was executed while the seller maintained ownership and was done without unplanned outages.