Choosing the right tech platform on the path to painless M&A
This article is written by Andy Campbell, Director, Solutions Marketing at Certinia. Andy is laser-focused on helping services businesses leverage cloud-based technology to react faster, run smarter, and grow in any market scenario. Get his insights here on how to address some of the challenges companies face when going through a merger or acquisition and how the right technology can help.
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be an effective route for growth, but they often bring complex integration challenges. The cultural and organisational issues should not be underestimated and technical concerns such as merging data, aligning workflows, and reconciling financial processes can quickly become roadblocks, compromising the anticipated benefits of the deal.
However, having the right technology platform can help to streamline these complexities, ensuring that integration becomes a more manageable process.
In this blog post, I’ll look at five core ways in which a unified platform like Certinia’s can reduce the pain of M&A and increase the chances of success. Let’s go!
Unified Data and Processes
One of the largest hurdles in M&A is fragmented data and multiple systems, which can result in
duplicated workflows and disrupted operations. Rationalising processes across multiple businesses can be challenging, but the result is usually worth the effort. A unified platform offers a single source of truth across the enterprise, consolidating data and streamlining processes to support continuous operational alignment across the newly merged entity. This eliminates the need for multiple integrations and reduces the potential for errors, making day-one integration far smoother.
Real-Time Analytics for Informed Decision-Making
Data-driven insights are critical to realising the benefits of M&A activity. A central plank of achieving this is a shared source of data, based on common data definitions. This will enable real-time analytics to provide leaders with visibility into revenue, resource allocation, and overall financial health. These insights will empower leaders to address integration risks early, make adjustments in response to emerging challenges, and maintain alignment with strategic objectives.
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Optimized Resource Management
One of the common reasons why services businesses undertake M&A activity is to develop a broader, deeper pool of talent to service customers. Bringing all of these resources together into a common data repository of skills across the merged entity, is extremely impactful. Having visibility into all available people, across diverse teams and geographies, with complete information about their skills and availability, can dramatically improve utilisation rates. In addition, ensuring that employees are assigned to roles that match their skills and experience, will improve their engagement. Having early and clear communication around role assignments and career aspirations can help employees feel secure and valued during uncertain times.
Centralized Revenue Management
Mergers often involve bringing together businesses with different business models, revenue streams and contractual arrangements. Individual entities may have previously been able to support models such as subscriptions, time and materials, or project-based billing utilising basic systems and spreadsheets. However, for the merged organisation it is likely to be incredibly complex to ensure that billing and revenue recognition is handled in a correct and compliant manner. Centralizing revenue management within a unified platform can reduce inconsistencies and help standardize compliance reporting, such as ASC606 / IFRS15. This ensures that all revenue processes are reliable, auditable, and efficient.
Improved Collaboration Across Teams
Effective business integration depends upon seamless collaboration across departments. This requires a platform that enables real-time communication across teams, one that supports unified efforts, reduces silos, and provides a single view into ongoing integration processes. This helps both pre-existing and new teams stay in sync, share information, and work towards shared goals without duplication or miscommunication.
A well-executed merger or acquisition can deliver many benefits to an organization, improving market share, market offering, and operational efficiencies. But be warned: For every M&A benefit to be enjoyed, there are many obstacles to be overcome. One of the savviest ways to avoid them is with a sophisticated, unified technology platform to consolidate the multiple, often redundant, operational processes that must be addressed, and provide a single source of the truth for the merged enterprise. For a deeper look into how a connected platform can make M&A less complex and more effective, download our full whitepaper and explore how Certinia can turn M&A challenges into opportunities for growth!
