Prominent logistics company - IT post merger integration
Client company & industry sector
Prominent logistics company / Logistics Sector.
Scope of the assignment
Subsequent to an acquisition a need was uncovered for managing the transition of Air Freight customer information from the the acquisition's operational systems (transport management systems) to those of our client. Many of these major global customers are in constant electronic contact with the acquired company, sending and receiving EDI messages and receiving reporting, invoicing and associated IT services from it.
As part of the overall IT post-merger integration, a project was set up to manage the retirement of the acquired company's systems into our client's systems and specifically to centrally manage the continuity of EDI and IT services to the acquired company's major global customers during this transition. The project had already been started under internal management but, with deadlines looming and success uncertain, it was handed to Catalise to manage.
The plan had been to integrate the transport management systems by moving the acquired company's customers onto the client's systems on a country-by-country basis. This set of monthly deadlines was in part linked to the various legal requirements of the merger and in part to the need to achieve synergies and savings. The implications of this approach for some of the major global customers, whose operations span multiple countries, was the need for a very steep ramp-up in associated development of the client's systems to cope with the sometimes very different data formats, and a need to continue feeding the acquired company's systems with data (albeit not directly as before, but through the the client's systems) so that the relevant customer connections to the acquired company were maintained throughout.
Catalise was retained to manage the project –managing centrally the movement of selected acquired company's global customers onto the the client's systems while maintaining the connectivity to, and continuity of service from, the acquired company. As a secondary goal the project was required to track the development and integration of those customers being integrated and where the integration was happening at a regional (as opposed to central) level.
Description of deliverables
- Redraw project plan and set up tracking and management
- Set up project team including 4 Catalise consultants and 4 client counterparts, and take over full management of the project
- Validate lists of customers affected by integration and needing to have the development of their new interfaces managed centrally
- Coordinate the required specification and development work needed to implement all inbound, outbound and other IT services to customers
- Conduct project recovery and ensure initial deadline of April 1 was met for first tranche of customers.
- Thereafter ensure each monthly country integration deadline was met, or reassigned early enough in the process for company strategic purposes to be met.
- Design and implement targeted communications and change management process to involve all internal stakeholders
- Engage with the Sales organisation, especially the Key Account Management Organisation (KAMO) to ensure that customer needs were met and that all existing customer services for the centrally developed global customers were continued as-is despite the change in operational systems.
Approach used
Catalise adopted the role as a new Single Point of Contact (SPOC), acting as the interface between KAMO and Operations throughout the development cycle, for all global customer accounts that were to be developed centrally (initially for 1 April system migration timeline and then onward through 2007)
- For central development customers , Catalise managed the process of collecting customer specifications, developing and testing new interfaces and data flows and ensuring the acquired company's systems received sufficient data in the correct format from the client's systems so as to generate the required EDI and related IT services.
- Where accounts were not to be handled centrally, Catalise obtained Regional/Country Commitment to track customer interface development using a 4 key milestone approach (specification, development, testing, release to production). This planning was integrated and managed by the project through proactive communication, stakeholder management, milestone tracking and issue/risk resolution
- When the available regional solution put implementation dates at risk, Catalise ensured a Contingency Plan was in place.
- Catalise formulated an integrated baseline plan to obtain resource estimation & viability of system integration dates
- Catalise was also responsible for establishing and managing a comprehensive stakeholder communications plan, including a bi-weekly project newsletter, a Lotus QuickPlace virtual Team Room and various cycles of meetings and conference calls.
- Engagement of the Key Account Management Organisations (KAMOs) of each of the merging companies was a critically important part of the Catalise role. Included in this was the redesign of the process of writing, controlling, storing and using Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) data entry manuals for each customer.
Outcomes of the assignment
Initial deadline of 1 April was met successfully, and subsequent deadlines have also been met thus far. As a direct result of the success of the project, a new and positive perception of the IT organisation has been fostered, making this and other projects function more easily.
The management teams of the client and the client company who are involved in the integration have commended the Catalise team for their professionalism, hard work and ability to build relationships with key staff in both companies.
