Merger & Acquisition Challenges

Overview

A large, family-run retailer had recently acquired a smaller competitor and wanted to ensure its new family of employees was comfortably transitioned to the new lineage.  This client’s executive team engaged eta one solutions as a partner in the overall strategic rollout as well as the execution of this change management endeavor.  Outside of introducing and converting to some specific, high-level computer systems (e-commerce sites, Point Of Sale (POS) systems, CRM) there was a larger, more abstract, “softer”, “hi-touch” change management challenge to address - helping a large group of new employees (formerly competitors) understand that they were now a valuable part of a new stronger team.

Target

Provide for a smooth transition (post merger) for an acquired company through careful administration of a change management initiative, which involved IT systems migration, but more importantly a workforce harmonization effort.

Solution Delivery

eta one approached this change management effort by addressing the systems migration effort as one initiative and the workforce harmonization effort as a separate workstream.  Each workstream incorporated detailed and summary-level roadmaps, outlining key milestones, responsible parties as well as critical dates.

An Awareness Campaign was initiated for both workstreams. Each Awareness Campaign consisted of many sub-initiatives such as: informational material (distributed via email and posted to intranet sites), “web-talks” (involving interviews with C-level leadership), “Lunch N’ Learns”, weekly Q&A sessions, “Townhall” meetings and management level training sessions.

Results

Over the course of a 15-month Transitional Services Agreement (TSA) period, the acquired firm was fully integrated from a system’s perspective as well as a personnel perspective into the larger acquiring organization.  All major timelines were met and post-transition employee satisfaction surveys noted a 90% satisfaction rating.  In addition, 100% of all company activities were being performed on the “strategic platforms” while all legacy systems were properly retired.