This template is part of the integration cutover reconciliation guide. Fill it after a conversation with the implementation director, and use only facts the company can confirm.
The blank brief: nine fields
Copy the middle column, replace each prompt with a short answer, and write "unknown, ask the implementation director" wherever you are guessing.
| Field | Prompt to replace | Where the answer usually comes from | Leave out |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Company | Sector, full-time headcount at peak, country | Company website, HR estimate | Customer names |
| 2. Business task | The migration in one sentence, from which system to which | Project charter | Project code names |
| 3. Systems | Legacy application, ETL tool, project tracker, reconciliation store, target system | Implementation director | Environment names, logins |
| 4. Record classes | Mapping versions, load run history, reconciliation results, tickets with sign-offs | Project manager | The records themselves |
| 5. History | Years of business records in the legacy system; dates of trial and production loads | Legacy system owner | Retention advice |
| 6. Volumes | Lines or records in scope, number of mapping versions, number of exceptions logged | Reconciliation workbook summary | Line-level detail |
| 7. Owner | Who holds the trail day to day | Implementation director | Personal opinions |
| 8. Authorized contact | Who can authorize a licensing discussion | Implementation director, confirmed by the CEO | Assumptions |
| 9. Access event | The documented decommission date for the legacy system and project tools | Cutover plan or vendor contract | Undocumented deadlines |
| Open question | The one gap that most limits the trail | Your conversation | Speculation about specific orders |
Notes on the fields integrators get wrong
Field 3, systems. List every place evidence sits, not only the source and target. The reconciliation store is often a shared workbook nobody thinks of as a system, and the system map shows why each one matters to the chain.
Field 4, record classes. Say whether each class survives for all loads. Run history is the usual gap: Microsoft documents that Azure Data Factory only stores pipeline run data for 45 days unless diagnostic logs are routed through Azure Monitor. "Run history for the production load only" is an honest and useful entry.
AzureField 6, volumes. Use counts from summaries the company already has. Exceptions logged versus exceptions accepted is the most informative pair, because accepted exceptions carry decisions. If the tracker is Jira, the project manager can count tickets from a search; Jira Cloud can export search results to CSV with all fields and comments in chronological order, but the brief needs only the count.
JiraField 8, authorized contact. Name a role, and a person only with their agreement. The implementation director is usually the owner in field 7 and the sponsor, not the signer; the CEO signs. The who-can-say-yes tree explains the other roles.
Field 9, access event. Only a documented date counts: a decommission in the cutover plan, a license end or a server retirement. No date is better than an invented one.
A completed brief (Illustrative)
The entries describe a fictional company. They are Illustrative: not a real client, case or deal, and not a forecast.
| Field | Completed entry |
|---|---|
| 1. Company | Industrial parts distributor, about 380 full-time staff at peak, United States |
| 2. Business task | Moving order management from a legacy order-entry application to a new ERP, with line-level reconciliation after each load |
| 3. Systems | Legacy order-entry application, Azure Data Factory, Jira, shared reconciliation workbook, new ERP |
| 4. Record classes | Three mapping versions kept as separate files; run history for the production load and exported logs for two trial loads; reconciliation workbook; cutover tickets with exception sign-offs |
| 5. History | Legacy order history back to 2014; six trial loads and one production load in 2026 |
| 6. Volumes | 248,300 order lines in scope; 3 mapping versions; 41 exceptions logged, 6 accepted rather than fixed |
| 7. Owner | Implementation director |
| 8. Authorized contact | CEO, with the COO, the controller and general counsel expected on the first call |
| 9. Access event | Legacy application and its database decommissioned at the end of next quarter, per the cutover plan |
| Open question | Status code H changed meaning in 2019; 1,250 lines could not be classified and were accepted as review holds. Were branch staff's later resolutions recorded in the ERP? |
What the example leaves out is deliberate: no order numbers, no customer names, no ticket text, no screenshots.
Before you forward it
Run through this list once the fields are filled:
- Metadata only. Nothing in the brief should need to be redacted.
- Ownership flagged. If your firm wrote the mapping documents, say so; the statement of work may decide who owns them.
- Basics confirmed. The introduced company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English.
- Agreement signed. Partners sign the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting; the first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited when the company submits a verified application.
- Expectations set. Buyer interest, the rights result and any offer stay unknown until SourceX reviews the opportunity.
The warm introduction brief has wording for the covering note, the acquisition integration handoff checklist suits cutovers that follow a deal, and the client opportunity brief generator formats the fields. If your own consultancy is preparing for a sale, selling an IT consulting company covers your side.
Next step
Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
When all nine fields and the open question are filled and the implementation director is ready to forward the brief, register as a partner, confirm the company on who qualifies and read the program terms before you submit.