Creative solutions and strategic insights to guarantee a successful post-merger integration.
Spearheading Post-Merger Integration
Client challenge
Our client, a Fortune 500 financial services and banking organization, was preparing for a major merger that would position them as a top 30 national banking institution based on assets under management. After the legal documents were finalized, the client engaged Valtree Solutions to help ensure a smooth and successful integration process.
The Valtree Solutions team’s objective was to support a comprehensive organizational readiness for the transition by concentrating on four key areas: operational readiness, employee readiness, customer readiness, and technological readiness (see Figure 1).
Collaborating with the client’s executive leadership, Valtree Solutions quickly identified several opportunities to enhance the integration’s success. Key challenges included the absence of a centralized project roadmap, project teams working in isolation, and a lack of objective metrics to evaluate integration progress. Additionally, and most crucially, there was a significant gap in clear and consistent communication regarding the merger, both from leadership to employees and from the company to customers.
Our solution
Valtree’s support and guidance had its limits, considering the scale and complexity of the initiative. We expanded upon these recommendations by collaborating with several key internal client stakeholders to establish the Organizational Readiness Team (ORT). Some of our notable contributions made through the ORT included:
- Facilitating workshops to identify and map the complete change impacts related to the integration
- Evaluating the readiness of each functional area with the help of a comprehensive questionnaire and checklist
- Merging separate project plans into a unified, centralized, and integrated plan
- Crafting and implementing a comprehensive change management plan
- Designing a Team Member Support Model to keep employees engaged, informed, and supported (see Figure 2)
- Offering leadership with objective project and progress visibility via multi-source reports and dashboards
- Assisting in go-live events through Command Center coverage and managing issue logs.
“In the midst of a large and complex integration that was essentially doubling the size of our business, we knew we needed to supplement our team with the right resources who could balance both strategic and tactical execution needs. We were fortunate enough to secure extremely high-caliber talent from Valtree. One of the best parts was that the resources assigned to us served as “utility” players and were able to flex from creating strategic plans and executive presentations to data analysis and program management. Valtree truly functioned as a natural extension of our team.” – Liza, SVP of Process Improvement, Client
Results
- Successful On-Time Go-Live: Despite the challenging socioeconomic environment, milestone slippage was minimal, and the go-live was executed on schedule without delays.
- High Employee Retention: The effective change management and communication strategy minimized resistance to change and prevented employee turnover. Post-live surveys showed over 75% of employees had a positive experience.
- Minimal Customer Attrition: Both legacy banks involved in the merger saw very little customer loss, with most customer feedback being highly positive.
- Limited Post-Go-Live Issues: Proactive change impact assessments and thorough requirement gathering sessions helped avoid unforeseen issues during and after go-live.
- Valuable Lessons Learned & Integration Playbook: Valtree Solutions conducted a comprehensive lessons-learned review and delivered a tailored, actionable Integration Playbook to guide future mergers and complex projects.
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