It is hard to believe but the deal is finally done. Today Hitachi Consulting acquired my company, Navigator Systems, Inc.. I believe the press release will go out tomorrow.

We’ve got a lot of details to work through, as you can imagine–Hitachi is nearly 10 times the size of our 100-person firm. But I’m excited about the new possibilities it opens up for my small (but growing!) ECM practice on both the supply-side (access to new resources I can train up on ECM technologies) as well as the demand-side (new markets, geographies, accounts, etc.).

Obviously, I’m focused on adding capability to Hitachi’s existing ECM competency. But the main driver behind the acquisition was that Hitachi was looking to add serious muscle to their existing Business Intelligence(BI)/Corporate Performance Management (CPM) business. Navigator is a leader in that space and we’ve been growing, but now we’ll be able to move forward much more aggressively.

Since I joined Navigator in 1997 we came close to doing a deal a few times and it was always a little nerve-racking. The anticipation builds, major change looms on the horizon, and then nothing. Now we’re here and it is a little surreal. The coming months should be exciting!