The cost of failed mergers is enormous. Many mergers fail because the human and cultural sides of integration are not managed as carefully as the financial and structural sides. This paper describes a process that has been used in two mergers to address the human and cultural sides of integration and has reduced the pain and time needed for integration and cut the inevitable customer and employee losses. The process (called the People and Cultural Transition [PACT]), which allows the organizations to become acquainted thoroughly and quickly and to focus on the positive aspects of a win-win merger, is a valuable adjunct to the traditional financial and structural planning for mergers.