Minimizing Disruption and Improving Capabilities

Mergers & Acquisitions

The client is a data analytics platform provider whose products enable enterprises to put the power of data analytics into the hands of people across their organizations. They acquired three companies in quick succession – including a complex, $400m deal, the largest in their history – and faced the challenge of integrating them into their existing environment quickly while avoiding disruption to the business.
While the client had a well-established team accustomed to running internal technology and other projects, as well as some M&A history, managing three parallel integrations required a level of experience with complex integration efforts beyond their internal capabilities.
With an eye toward additional future acquisitions, the client also wanted to leverage this triple integration to further build their internal corporate M&A experience and capabilities.

Establish a well-governed yet nimble program structure to ensure coordinated efforts while allowing for the expected variances and dynamics within each legacy entity.
Organize blended teams of our experienced M&A program leads with client operational and technical subject matter experts to maximize efficiency while also promoting ownership and engagement.
Partner with the client team to prioritize early deal wins and to leverage our M&A program best practices to build out their internal M&A capabilities for future integrations.

ViTL structured the integration program effort to align clearly with the deal objectives and the client’s overall strategy, prioritizing early wins and speed to value.
To maximize team effectiveness and avoid operational disruption, we brought our M&A experience and skilled program managers to lead the integration of major workstream efforts while leveraging internal subject matter experts in a targeted way to minimize daily operational impact.
Rather than simply delivering the work, we focused on increasing the client’s own capabilities by partnering with the leadership team to mature their internal corporate development functions. The modeling and incorporation of best practices helped establish repeatable processes to apply to future acquisitions.

The program team successfully completed the core integration of the three new entities into the client’s technology and operational environment, enabling them to begin realizing value from the combined entities. Operations such as the customer support teams were merged into a single function, achieving significant operational efficiencies and cost per the deal objectives.
The team completed the integration with minimal impact on daily operations. As one highly visible example, the team managed the transition of legacy customer SSO access to the client’s platform with no disruption to the customer experience and no gap in authentication security.
Through our collaborative approach the client developed a working model on which to base additional acquisitions. We helped them establish a standard integration program framework, processes, and tools that they can leverage to quickly organize and deliver future integration value.