Acquisition Integration Case Study

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Two large logistics and security firms were merged, and outside help was brought in to oversee the integration.

The Client, a global logistics and security company had acquired the remaining 50% share of a competitor's Logistics and Container Transport businesses. As part of the acquisition / rationalisation activities the decision was taken to merge the Finance Departments of the Logistics and Container Transport businesses.

Interim executives were brought in by the Finance Director to carryout a 10-month BPR (Business Process Re-engineering) Project. The remit was to provide Management Consultancy services to both plan and organise the merging of the two Finance Departments whilst at the same time evaluating opportunities to standardise, simplify and automate as many business processes as possible.

A detailed Project Brief was prepared that outlined the timescales, prioritisation by process area as well as the key deliverables relating to each stage of the project. The governance of the project was managed through a cross-functional Project Steering Group that comprised of two Directors from the Executive Board (Finance and IT) as well as the Divisional Finance Directors from the Logistics and Container Transport businesses.

The key deliverables from the project were as follows:

The activities undertaken by the Finance Departments across both businesses (Logistics and Container Transport) were process mapped and the key findings from each process area were published at the end of each process review. The key finings identified fundamental problems within both the Finance Departments and the wider business environment.
A detailed Summary Report was produced which proposed radical changes to the Financial processes and the underlying systems that support the business. The summary report also proposed radical changes to operational business processes and it recommended that these problems were corrected at source through the implementation of a Company Wide Change Management Programme.
The summary report provided a framework for the Finance Director to develop a 12 to 18-month Finance Sub-strategy. This had one simple aim - to put in place all of the building blocks that were necessary to restore financial integrity, whilst at the same time providing the opportunities for the business to evaluate the implementation of CPM (Corporate Performance Management) techniques.
Workshop sessions were used to review / finalise the process changes that were specific to the Finance area. A Programme Manager was appointed and a series of planning meetings were used to assign individual work stream responsibilities and timescales to specific Managers in the Finance Department.
A Business Case was prepared to justify an 18-month Change Management Programme that would seek to address process related problems through cultural change, i.e. to change the hearts and minds of employees across all levels of the business.
Medium to long-term opportunities for process rationalisation / automation were identified and documented within the summary report. Where appropriate sub project teams were mobilised to implement specific initiatives, e.g. Purchase Order Processing, Self Billing arrangements for Subcontracted Haulage as well as the selection / implementation of new IT applications to support Transport Management and Sales Invoicing on a ‘best practice' basis. It is anticipated that the Finance Department will be able to make a 20% reduction in headcount through these initiatives.

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