Following through on an overdue merger integration and cost reduction.Business Services
A business service organization had acquired a like-sized competitor, effectively doubling in size overnight. The integration efforts had stalled, people were physically next to each other, but they used different processes and technologies and had never achieved the “synergies” imagined during deal negotiations. Our work was to finish what was started, to define and standardize processes, to consolidate to a single technology platform and to simplify the organization.
challenge
Independently the two companies achieved similar results very differently. One was the near epitome of a startup, the other had been divested out of a larger organization and was hugely bureaucratic. Though the acquiring company was the leaner startup, they had switched to the more complicated pieces of the other company, believing history trumped. A few years later they found themselves in trouble, costs had continued to escalate, and revenues were declining. Our team was brought in to run a project to lay out a path forward focused on cost-effectiveness and simplicity.
solution
Over the course of a six-month project, we redirected the team to implement new technology and processes to reduce friction, confusion, and overlap. We simplified the organization structure, mixed legacy and newco teams, consolidated vendor relationships and reduced costs.
results
The successful turnaround and integration led to a more deeply connected team, a single set of processes along a common infrastructure, simplified and standardized work and increased automation.
By the numbers, the effort:
- Reduced risk of defects by 40%
- Decreased variability by 30%
- Automated an additional 10% of work load
- Increased employee satisfaction