Passage is the DPEX Consulting method for the digital, change and people side of mergers and acquisitions. It runs across four stages: Sound (pre-deal read), Pilot (plan), Transit (execute), and Harbour (measure and realise), with Bearings as the on-ramp when DPEX is engaged after the deal has closed.

How is Passage priced?

The reads are fixed price and the crossing is value share. Sound or Bearings is a defined output at a fixed fee, quoted inside 48 hours. Transit and Harbour are base plus value share: a modest monthly base plus an agreed percentage of synergies realised against the baseline set in Pilot. Daniel never charges a day rate.

Can DPEX be brought in after the deal has closed?

Yes. The Bearings on-ramp is a rapid orientation sprint of one to three weeks that reconstructs the position a full Sound assessment would have established, then the integration picks up at Pilot. This is the standalone post-merger integration engagement.

What does Passage cover?

Five dimensions scored at every stage: Digital and Technology, Change, People, Readiness, and Value and Outcomes. Inside Digital and Technology, twelve domains are assessed: Applications and ERP, Data and Analytics, AI and Automation, Infrastructure and Cloud, Cybersecurity, Integration and Middleware, Networks and End-user Compute, Digital Products and Customer, Licensing and Vendor Contracts, IT Operating Model, Technical Debt, and Compliance and Sovereignty.

How does Daniel use AI inside Passage?

AI sits in the method twice. As subject, when assessing whether a target's AI is real capability or a thin wrapper, who owns the models and training data, and the AI risk posture. As accelerant, when Daniel uses AI to draft red-flag summaries, map workstreams, generate first-cut charters, and pressure-test the value case. The judgement stays with Daniel.

Passage™ · The M&A integration method · By Daniel Xuereb

Deals close on paper. They succeed in the integration.

Passage is my method for the digital, change and people side of a deal. Four stages, one continuous thread, from the read that should shape the negotiation to the report that proves the value landed. The integration method for digital, change and people.

Sound → Pilot → Transit → Harbour

Run the two-minute fit check See the four stages

The problem it solves

Most firms can run a deal. Far fewer can land one.

0%+
of acquisitions fail to deliver their expected value, most often in execution, not the deal terms: 40-60%
of deal synergies now run through technology and data workstreams: #1
cause of value leakage is people and change: the capability that quietly walks out the door

Passage exists for one reason. Most firms can run a deal, and most can write a plan. Far fewer can carry the digital, change and people threads from the first read all the way to realised value, with one method and one source of truth.

The method

Four stages. One continuous thread.

Sound

Pre-deal

Measure the depth and the hazards before you commit.

Read the digital, change, people and readiness truth that should shape the deal. Never the price or the legal position; that stays with the deal team.

What this stage does

Score the target across the five Passage dimensions
Surface red flags, key-person risk and integration complexity
Size the integration effort and cost before signing
Flag conditions worth reflecting in terms and earn-outs

Primary output

Risk & Readiness Profile. A decision-grade read that informs the negotiation.

Pilot

Plan

Chart the course: the integration plan and the Day-1 design.

Convert the read into a formal, sequenced integration plan with a clear Day-1 and 100-day design, owned by an Integration Management Office.

What this stage does

Stand up the IMO and workstream charters
Sequence the roadmap and map interdependencies
Design Day-1 and the 30, 60 and 100-day milestones
Set the value-realisation baseline and measures

Primary output

Integration Plan. Charters, roadmap, RACI, Day-1 and 100-day plans.

Transit

Execute

Make the crossing: run the integration as a managed portfolio.

Run the integration as a managed portfolio: deliver the workstreams, drive adoption, and hold the line on the plan while managing risk and change.

What this stage does

Run portfolio governance across all workstreams
Track RAID, dependencies and milestone roll-up
Lead change, comms and adoption to the front line
Re-plan as reality moves; protect the value case

Primary output

Live Portfolio Control. Tracker, status cadence and exec read-outs.

Harbour

Measure & realise

Arrive and prove it: realise the value and bank the lessons.

Confirm the value the deal promised was realised, retire the integration, and bank what was learned for the next Passage.

What this stage does

Measure benefits against the Pilot baseline
Confirm adoption and operational stability
Run the lessons-learned and close the IMO
Hand to business-as-usual with a value report

Primary output

Value Realisation Report. Did the thesis hold? Evidence, not assertion.

The PMI-only on-ramp

Bearings

Brought in after close? Get your position, fast.

Bearings is the rapid orientation sprint I run when the deal is already done and there is no Sound assessment to inherit. In one to three weeks it reconstructs the position the pre-work would have given, honestly flagging what is still unknown, then the integration picks up at Pilot. Skipping the pre-work is a designed entry point, not a gap.

Primary output

Bearings Brief. A lighter Risk & Readiness Profile, gaps flagged honestly.

The assessment spine

Five dimensions, scored the same way at every stage.

Digital & Technology

Systems, data, AI, architecture, cyber, technical debt.

Change

Magnitude, comms, adoption, ways of working.

People

Key-person risk, capability, culture, retention.

Readiness

Ability to operate, absorb, sustain and go live.

Value & Outcomes

What the integration must deliver, and how it is measured.

Scored 1 to 5: Absent, Emerging, Defined, Integrated, Leading. Every dimension can be marked N/A, so Passage scales from a small bolt-on to a complex multi-entity integration without losing its shape.

Coverage that scales

Twelve digital domains. Each one assessed, or marked N/A.

Applications & ERP

Data & Analytics

AI & Automation

Infrastructure & Cloud

Cybersecurity

Integration & Middleware

Networks & End-user Compute

Digital Products & Customer

Licensing & Vendor Contracts

IT Operating Model

Technical Debt

Compliance & Sovereignty

AI & Automation is called out deliberately. In the modern deal it is both a value driver and a risk surface, so Passage treats it as a domain in its own right and threads it through every other.

AI in Passage

AI sits in the method twice.

AI as subject

What you are assessing and integrating

Is the target's AI real capability or a thin wrapper?
Who owns the models, the training data, the IP?
Data provenance, consent and sovereignty
AI risk posture: NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001
Key-person dependency around the AI that matters

AI as accelerant

How I run Passage faster

Draft red-flag and diligence summaries from the data room
Map workstreams and surface interdependencies
Generate first-cut charters, plans and comms
Synthesise status and exceptions across the portfolio
Pressure-test the value case and scenarios

Grounded in source documents, with a human in the loop on every judgement. AI drafts; I decide.

Not a deck. A working method.

Passage ships as a complete artefact suite.

Every stage has its working instruments, built and refined in real integrations: the Sound assessment and costing engine, the Bearings guide, stage playbooks, the live Transit tracker with its dashboard, RAID and multi-year value tracker, the stakeholder register with power-interest mapping, and the Harbour board read-out. One source of truth, read at four altitudes: the board sees the one-page story, the doers work the same live tracker beneath it.

In the suite

01Sound assessment & costing engine
02Bearings rapid-orientation guide
03Pilot playbook: IMO, charters, Day-1 design
04Transit playbook and live portfolio tracker
05Stakeholder register and engagement kit
06Harbour playbook, value report and board read-out

How Passage is priced

The reads are fixed price. The crossing is value share.

Passage prices the way everything I do is priced. Never a day rate.

Sound or Bearings

Fixed price per output

The Risk & Readiness Profile or the Bearings Brief is a defined output at a fixed fee, quoted inside 48 hours of the brief. You know the cost before you commit, and the read is yours whatever you decide about the deal.

Transit and Harbour

Base plus value share

Integration is where value share fits best, because deal synergies are measured by design. A modest base keeps me in the room; the real fee is an agreed percentage of synergies realised against the baseline set in Pilot. If the value does not land, the share does not either.

Exact numbers are set per deal, after the fit check, and you will know them before you commit to anything. Same rule as everything else on this site.

Common questions

Quick answers about Passage.

What is Passage?: Passage is the DPEX Consulting method for the digital, change and people side of mergers and acquisitions. It runs across four stages: Sound (pre-deal read), Pilot (plan), Transit (execute), and Harbour (measure and realise), with Bearings as the on-ramp when DPEX is engaged after the deal has closed.
How is Passage priced?: The reads are fixed price and the crossing is value share. Sound or Bearings is a defined output at a fixed fee, quoted inside 48 hours. Transit and Harbour are base plus value share: a modest monthly base plus an agreed percentage of synergies realised against the baseline set in Pilot. Daniel never charges a day rate.
Can DPEX be brought in after the deal has closed?: Yes. The Bearings on-ramp is a rapid orientation sprint of one to three weeks that reconstructs the position a full Sound assessment would have established, then the integration picks up at Pilot. This is the standalone post-merger integration engagement.
What does Passage cover?: Five dimensions scored at every stage: Digital and Technology, Change, People, Readiness, and Value and Outcomes. Inside Digital and Technology, twelve domains are assessed: Applications and ERP, Data and Analytics, AI and Automation, Infrastructure and Cloud, Cybersecurity, Integration and Middleware, Networks and End-user Compute, Digital Products and Customer, Licensing and Vendor Contracts, IT Operating Model, Technical Debt, and Compliance and Sovereignty.
How does Daniel use AI inside Passage?: AI sits in the method twice. As subject, when assessing whether a target's AI is real capability or a thin wrapper, who owns the models and training data, and the AI risk posture. As accelerant, when Daniel uses AI to draft red-flag summaries, map workstreams, generate first-cut charters, and pressure-test the value case. The judgement stays with Daniel.

Two ways to bring me in

The full passage, or just the crossing.

Full Passage

Sound → Pilot → Transit → Harbour

Engaged before the deal closes. One unbroken thread from the first read to realised value; the context never gets handed off.

PMI-only, standalone

Bearings → Pilot → Transit → Harbour

Brought in after close, with the deal already done. A rapid Bearings sprint recovers the position the pre-work would have given, then I pick up the integration. Designed for the harder, messier reality of arriving mid-passage.

Buying, merging or mid-integration

Tell me where the deal sits.

Two minutes on the fit check, or one paragraph by email about the deal and where it is up to. I reply inside two business days with how I would run it, the fixed fee for the read, and the value-share shape for the crossing.

Run the fit check Send me the brief