Expectations are especially high in the wake of acquisitions. "Senior executives will come to the IT group and say, 'We want it yesterday,'" says David Oles, IT director of research and development at Rent-A-Center (RAC) in Plano, Texas.

Growth by acquisition is a way of life for RAC, which sells home furnishings and consumer goods via rent-to-own agreements. Hence, Oles and his staff have learned to change direction on a dime. "In one case, we converted [systems for] 27 stores over a two-to-three-day period," recalls Oles.

To move this fast, RAC has learned to lean heavily on its business partners. For instance, when the corporation plunged recently into the personal financial services industry by acquiring several check-cashing and payday loan centers, RAC moved in lockstep with two point-of-sale software vendors. "Our partners have the checklists ready, and they go in to configure hardware and install the software quickly," notes Oles.

Hold hands

"Forget the technology piece of it. You first have to deal with the fact that you now have this group of five to 10 people who once had the ability to act fairly autonomously and now have a new corporate entity and new processes to follow. There can be a lot of separation anxiety," Micali says.