From M&A Nightmare to Digital Foundation Success

When Two Became One: A $2.8 Billion Integration Story

Sriram Kalyan had a problem. As Head of Applications and Data at Nutrien Ag Solutions Australia, he inherited what he calls "the perfect storm" – duplicated systems, fragile integrations, and the sudden departure of key platform experts right after a major agricultural merger.

"We had 2-3 systems doing the same job," Kalyan explains in the latest Enterprise AI Hub podcast. "Everything was held together by what I'd call 'digital duct tape.'" The merger of two major Australian agricultural companies had created an IT landscape that was both expensive and dangerous – a ticking time bomb in the world's most volatile industry.

Leadership Alignment: The Game Changer

What transformed this nightmare into success wasn't technology – it was mindset. "The biggest shift came when leadership stopped viewing IT integration as a cost center and started seeing it as strategic investment," Kalyan reveals.

The approach was disciplined: instead of trying to fix everything at once, they prioritized platforms based on business impact. Critical customer-facing systems first, internal tools second. "We learned to live with imperfection while building toward excellence."

This wasn't just about consolidating servers – it was about creating a foundation for future growth, cloud transformation, and enterprise scale.

The CIO's Dilemma: Speed vs. Stability

For enterprise leaders facing similar challenges, Kalyan's experience offers a crucial insight: the tension between moving fast and maintaining stability isn't just technical – it's cultural.

"Every system had its champions," he notes. "People who'd spent years perfecting workflows suddenly faced change." The solution wasn't to ignore these concerns but to make them part of the transformation process.

The result? What started as operational liability became competitive advantage. Nutrien now operates on a unified platform that supports rapid expansion and innovation – exactly what you need in agriculture's increasingly digital future.