Involving IT teams early and often during mergers and acquisitions can help enterprises realize more value from the operational and market synergies that bring businesses together.
1. Anjan Bera is a technical consultant with over 1.8 years of experience in SAP ABAP development.
2. He has expertise in modules like SD, MM, and experience with implementations, support, upgrades and testing using quality methodologies.
3. He is currently working as an Associate SAP Consultant for Logixtech on projects for clients like Procter & Gamble and Va Tech Escher Wyss Flovel Ltd, where he has developed and modified various SAP objects to meet client requirements.
This document provides a functional specification for a Kodak website. It outlines the purpose, scope, assumptions, constraints, and dependencies of the project. It describes the organization developing the website and the intended users. The document also defines sections for functional and non-functional requirements, system requirements, data requirements, external interfaces, and design constraints. It aims to capture all necessary requirements to develop the Kodak website to meet stakeholder needs.
The document discusses integrating SAP Ariba, a cloud-based procurement application, with other systems using Informatica Cloud. It describes SAP Ariba and its need for integration. It then discusses integration approaches for SAP Ariba and introduces the SAP Ariba Cloud Connector for Informatica Cloud, which enables master and transactional data integration between SAP Ariba and other systems like ERPs. Finally, it provides details on using the connector and its current and future capabilities.
The published document gives overall view of OTC, is the end-to-end business process for receiving and processing customer orders. It also gives accounting and technical insight for Oracle application R12 OTC cycle.
Shivansh Bhatnagar is an SAP ABAP professional with over 3.7 years of experience developing and supporting SAP R/3 systems. He has experience in various industries including manufacturing, chemicals, and coatings. Some of his responsibilities have included requirements analysis, technical specification design, coding, testing, and performance tuning. He has knowledge of various SAP modules including SD, FI, MM, and PP.
The Indian retail industry is the fifth largest in the world, worth around $500 billion currently and expected to increase to $750-850 billion by 2015. The industry can be classified into organized retail, consisting of licensed large retailers making up 3-5% of the market, and unorganized retail, consisting of small shops making up over 95% of the market. Emerging areas driving growth in the retail industry include apparel and fashion, lifestyle products, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce. Factors fueling growth are increasing disposable income, nuclear families, and liberalization of FDI policies, while bottlenecks include lack of infrastructure, supply chain management, and trained workforce. Skills needed for the industry include analytical abilities
Oracle EBS: P2P with EBS Payables and Non-EBS ProcurementEric Guether
Oracle EBS ERP user group presentation. Originally presented in April 2013 at the COLLABORATE 13 conference in Denver. Addresses issues with P2P when only the second 'P' is in Oracle EBS. Specifically, integrating Oracle R12 Payables with an Ariba Spend Mgmt. procurement system.
1. Anjan Bera is a technical consultant with over 1.8 years of experience in SAP ABAP development.
2. He has expertise in modules like SD, MM, and experience with implementations, support, upgrades and testing using quality methodologies.
3. He is currently working as an Associate SAP Consultant for Logixtech on projects for clients like Procter & Gamble and Va Tech Escher Wyss Flovel Ltd, where he has developed and modified various SAP objects to meet client requirements.
This document provides a functional specification for a Kodak website. It outlines the purpose, scope, assumptions, constraints, and dependencies of the project. It describes the organization developing the website and the intended users. The document also defines sections for functional and non-functional requirements, system requirements, data requirements, external interfaces, and design constraints. It aims to capture all necessary requirements to develop the Kodak website to meet stakeholder needs.
The document discusses integrating SAP Ariba, a cloud-based procurement application, with other systems using Informatica Cloud. It describes SAP Ariba and its need for integration. It then discusses integration approaches for SAP Ariba and introduces the SAP Ariba Cloud Connector for Informatica Cloud, which enables master and transactional data integration between SAP Ariba and other systems like ERPs. Finally, it provides details on using the connector and its current and future capabilities.
The published document gives overall view of OTC, is the end-to-end business process for receiving and processing customer orders. It also gives accounting and technical insight for Oracle application R12 OTC cycle.
Shivansh Bhatnagar is an SAP ABAP professional with over 3.7 years of experience developing and supporting SAP R/3 systems. He has experience in various industries including manufacturing, chemicals, and coatings. Some of his responsibilities have included requirements analysis, technical specification design, coding, testing, and performance tuning. He has knowledge of various SAP modules including SD, FI, MM, and PP.
The Indian retail industry is the fifth largest in the world, worth around $500 billion currently and expected to increase to $750-850 billion by 2015. The industry can be classified into organized retail, consisting of licensed large retailers making up 3-5% of the market, and unorganized retail, consisting of small shops making up over 95% of the market. Emerging areas driving growth in the retail industry include apparel and fashion, lifestyle products, pharmaceuticals, and e-commerce. Factors fueling growth are increasing disposable income, nuclear families, and liberalization of FDI policies, while bottlenecks include lack of infrastructure, supply chain management, and trained workforce. Skills needed for the industry include analytical abilities
Oracle EBS: P2P with EBS Payables and Non-EBS ProcurementEric Guether
Oracle EBS ERP user group presentation. Originally presented in April 2013 at the COLLABORATE 13 conference in Denver. Addresses issues with P2P when only the second 'P' is in Oracle EBS. Specifically, integrating Oracle R12 Payables with an Ariba Spend Mgmt. procurement system.
Biswajit Karmakar has over 2.7 years of experience in sales and distribution and 3.5 years as an SAP SD consultant. He has expertise in corporate management and implementing SAP solutions for clients. Some of his responsibilities include defining requirements, configuring the SAP system, handling support tickets, and providing training. He has worked on implementation projects in India for manufacturing and footwear companies.
OOW15 - Oracle E-Business Suite Technology: Latest Features and Roadmapvasuballa
This Oracle development session provides an overview of Oracle’s product strategy for Oracle E-Business Suite technology, the capabilities and associated business benefits of recent releases, and a review of capabilities on the product roadmap. This is the cornerstone session for Oracle E-Business Suite technology. Come hear about the latest new usability enhancements of the user interface; systems administration and configuration management tools; security-related updates; and tools and options for extending and customizing Oracle E-Business Suite and integrating it with other applications.
Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket and Department storeNabin Karki
This report is actually based on strategic management that Bhat-Bhateni Biratnagar has been using it to maintain its market share in the city of Biratnagar. Moreover, it has precisely focused on the strategic choices that it should use to be a market leader at Biratnagar.
To understand following features:
OPM Inventory conversion.
Material traceability: Enhanced material control
Dual UOM functionality.
Material Status control.
Advanced Lot control.
Lot indivisibility functionality.
Material aging workflow.
Oracle GoldenGate 18c - REST API ExamplesBobby Curtis
This document provides examples of using RESTful APIs with Oracle GoldenGate 18c. It includes examples of creating, deleting, and listing extracts, replicats, credentials, and distribution paths using cURL commands. It also provides examples of using RESTful APIs within shell scripts to automate administration tasks like adding extracts and replicats.
Arunkumar J is an Oracle Fusion and Ramco On Demand ERP consultant seeking a challenging role leveraging 6+ years of experience. He has extensive experience implementing Oracle Fusion Projects, Procurement, and Supply Chain modules, as well as Ramco On Demand ERP sales, purchasing, and inventory modules. Arunkumar also has experience in quality assurance, testing, and support of ERP implementations.
“Retailing includes all activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal , non business use.” - Philip Kotler
70% population lives in villages
About 6 lakh villages are in India
Rural retail are growing @7%
A real source of energy
Hub of raw materials
The document discusses IT best practices for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the communications services provider (CSP) industry. It recommends involving IT early in the M&A decision process to better estimate integration costs and timelines. It also suggests assessing cultural fit between merging IT departments. During planning, companies should make an inventory of merging technologies, processes, and people, and document existing IT systems. For execution, the document advises following an M&A roadmap in phases and avoiding incomplete decommissioning of redundant assets.
Leveraging IT to create business agility: Why leading IT organisations are re...3gamma
CIOs are under pressure. Some analysts are even predicting the end of the CIO role. In the light of digitalisation and an ever-increasing need for business agility, IT is becoming an embedded part of the business. Information technology is no longer just a utility but a deeply integrated driver of products and services within most companies. An ever-changing environment means that old assumptions on how to deliver IT services need to be revisited if the IT organisation is to remain relevant.
M&A’s are among the biggest challenges for companies and their IT organizations to navigate. They often create issues that cannot be dealt with conventional leadership and management techniques. The role of information systems in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) becomes increasingly important as the need for speed of reaction and information is growing.
An IT strategy is a comprehensive plan that guides an organization on how technology can help achieve its goals, boost competitiveness, and increase success. It should consider all aspects of technology management and how investments support the overall business strategy. Key factors in developing an integrated IT strategy include understanding stakeholder needs, as the business is the primary customer of the IT function. In the past, IT strategies were often developed in isolation without input from business stakeholders, resulting in strategies not aligned to business needs. Developing a meaningful IT strategy requires understanding the business's strategic drivers, the current state of IT, gaps and opportunities for improvement, and defining a future vision for IT that supports business goals.
The document discusses the challenges facing banks in modernizing their technology systems. It notes that banks have historically focused on rapid growth and innovation over efficiency, resulting in thousands of fragmented systems. It proposes that banks undergo an "industrialization" process to simplify their technology and business processes. This involves defining core capabilities, processes, and data assets and organizing people and technology to better support standardized processes. The document provides several recommendations for how banks can initiate this change, such as prioritizing data management, adopting service-oriented architectures, and leveraging cloud computing technologies to reduce costs. The goal is for banks to develop a "solid technical core" that is lean, integrated and operates with predictability and efficiency.
Roland berger managing-the-it-cost-challenge_20090522Karthik Arumugham
This document discusses eleven levers that companies can use to significantly reduce IT costs within 12-18 months. These levers include eliminating redundant management functions, simplifying procedures, optimizing project management, capping budgets, standardizing products, industrializing operations, adjusting service levels, simplifying architecture, improving sourcing mixes, and leveraging sourcing power. Implementing cost reduction measures can be challenging due to impacts on headcount and business operations. Measures must focus on both reducing change costs and ensuring costs remain low to achieve sustainable savings. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants can help identify high-impact actions and implement a comprehensive cost reduction program.
This whitepaper discusses how organizations can leverage IT sourcing to support business objectives like cost reduction and innovation. It argues that IT sourcing strategies need to be aligned with and enable the overall corporate strategy, not focus solely on isolated IT metrics. To truly realize value, IT must become an agile service integrator that can manage a flexible portfolio of internal and external capabilities to support changing business needs. Maintaining multiple sourcing partnerships rather than relying on a single vendor allows organizations to more easily acquire new capabilities and support innovation.
IT Integration Done Right
It may or may not surprise you, but about 70% – 90% of M&As fail, for one reason or another. The integration of two companies into one functional unit inevitably involves great change. Culture, business strategies, and many other variables need to be adapted to fit new environments, people, and goals.
Are you prepared to take on the pressure and complexity of an IT M&A? Our new M&A Playbook for IT is your roadmap to navigating the biggest IT integration challenges and driving business goals.
In this strategy brief, find out:
-The three common M&A pitfalls that CIOs must avoid
-How to improve synergy, lower costs, and shorten time to market
-How to determine the right level of IT integration for your company
CHAPTER EIGHT
Strategic Alignment
Tim Campos
IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, CIOs have tremendous opportunity to have a major strategic influence on their businesses. This opportunity arises from the rapid adoption of information technology over the past three decades across nearly every aspect of business. When a company wants to merge with another organization, the IT organization is one of the first corporate departments to be involved. When a new plant or facility is opened, the IT organization must be involved to help connect it to the rest of the company’s systems. Even when a company reaches into a new line of business, the IT organization is involved to help set up the information systems to support the new business.
This opportunity, however, can also be the CIO’s greatest liability if the organization’s focus is diluted. IT has been adopted in nearly every business process, even those that are not very strategic. Nearly all employees at companies have e-mail accounts, and every corporation has a web site, regardless of whether it delivers products or services through that web site. Because all of these technology operations must function in order for the business to operate, CIOs must divide their focus and resources across the entire company.
This breadth of demand creates tremendous challenges for IT organizations. It is not good enough simply to focus on those portions of the business that are strategic, to the detriment of everything else. Although this might work in the short run, over time the neglected business functions become a drain on the success of the business. (This is one of the reasons so many firms reimplement enterprise systems.) Moreover, what is “strategic” depends on whom one asks. A customer portal may not be that important to manufacturing, but it is critical to the strategy of the service organization. The resources allocated to the IT department are finite, yet the demands on the IT organization can at times appear infinite. It is this challenge that separates the mediocre from the exceptional IT organization. The secret to addressing this challenge is to strategically align your organization to the business.
FRAMEWORK
Strategic alignment results from structuring the IT organization around the needs of the business. To explain how this is done, let me break the operations of the IT organization down into four basic functions. Two are delivery functions: support delivery and project delivery. The other two are management activities: value attainment and strategic alignment. All activities of the IT organization can be categorized into one of these four functions, although, as we will see later, these functions are typically spread out across multiple teams, which is the source of much of the misalignment IT organizations face (see Figure 8.1).
FIGURE 8.1 IT Strategic Alignment Framework
These functions layer on top of each other such that failure at one level affects everything above it. Strategic alignment is achieved.
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Alignment Tim Campos IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, .docxtiffanyd4
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Alignment Tim Campos IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, CIOs have tremendous opportunity to have a major strategic influence on their businesses. This opportunity arises from the rapid adoption of information technology over the past three decades across nearly every aspect of business. When a company wants to merge with another organization, the IT organization is one of the first corporate departments to be involved. When a new plant or facility is opened, the IT organization must be involved to help connect it to the rest of the company’s systems. Even when a company reaches into a new line of business, the IT organization is involved to help set up the information systems to support the new business. This opportunity, however, can also be the CIO’s greatest liability if the organization’s focus is diluted. IT has been adopted in nearly every business process, even those that are not very strategic. Nearly all employees at companies have e-mail accounts, and every corporation has a web site, regardless of whether it delivers products or services through that web site. Because all of these technology operations must function in order for the business to operate, CIOs must divide their focus and resources across the entire company. This breadth of demand creates tremendous challenges for IT organizations. It is not good enough simply to focus on those portions of the business that are strategic, to the detriment of everything else. Although this might work in the short run, over time the neglected business functions become a drain on the success of the business. (This is one of the reasons so many firms reimplement enterprise systems.) Moreover, what is “strategic” depends on whom one asks. A customer portal may not be that important to manufacturing, but it is critical to the strategy of the service organization. The resources allocated to the IT department are finite, yet the demands on the IT organization can at times appear infinite. It is this challenge that separates the mediocre from the exceptional IT organization. The secret to addressing this challenge is to strategically align your organization to the business. FRAMEWORK Strategic alignment results from structuring the IT organization around the needs of the business. To explain how this is done, let me break the operations of the IT organization down into four basic functions. Two are delivery functions: support delivery and project delivery. The other two are management activities: value attainment and strategic alignment. All activities of the IT organization can be categorized into one of these four functions, although, as we will see later, these functions are typically spread out across multiple teams, which is the source of much of the misalignment IT organizations face (see Figure 8.1). FIGURE 8.1 IT Strategic Alignment Framework These functions layer on top of each other such that failure at one level affects everything above it. Strategic alignment is achieved .
The document discusses how IT financial management (ITFM) can be expanded beyond traditional activities like budgeting and forecasting to improve business outcomes. It identifies 9 key focus areas for ITFM, including investment analysis, chargebacks, benchmarking, and vendor management. ITFM tools can provide visibility into IT costs and consumption to support decision making. The document recommends organizations assess their ITFM capabilities and prioritize expanding into areas that provide the most benefit.
Biswajit Karmakar has over 2.7 years of experience in sales and distribution and 3.5 years as an SAP SD consultant. He has expertise in corporate management and implementing SAP solutions for clients. Some of his responsibilities include defining requirements, configuring the SAP system, handling support tickets, and providing training. He has worked on implementation projects in India for manufacturing and footwear companies.
OOW15 - Oracle E-Business Suite Technology: Latest Features and Roadmapvasuballa
This Oracle development session provides an overview of Oracle’s product strategy for Oracle E-Business Suite technology, the capabilities and associated business benefits of recent releases, and a review of capabilities on the product roadmap. This is the cornerstone session for Oracle E-Business Suite technology. Come hear about the latest new usability enhancements of the user interface; systems administration and configuration management tools; security-related updates; and tools and options for extending and customizing Oracle E-Business Suite and integrating it with other applications.
Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket and Department storeNabin Karki
This report is actually based on strategic management that Bhat-Bhateni Biratnagar has been using it to maintain its market share in the city of Biratnagar. Moreover, it has precisely focused on the strategic choices that it should use to be a market leader at Biratnagar.
To understand following features:
OPM Inventory conversion.
Material traceability: Enhanced material control
Dual UOM functionality.
Material Status control.
Advanced Lot control.
Lot indivisibility functionality.
Material aging workflow.
Oracle GoldenGate 18c - REST API ExamplesBobby Curtis
This document provides examples of using RESTful APIs with Oracle GoldenGate 18c. It includes examples of creating, deleting, and listing extracts, replicats, credentials, and distribution paths using cURL commands. It also provides examples of using RESTful APIs within shell scripts to automate administration tasks like adding extracts and replicats.
Arunkumar J is an Oracle Fusion and Ramco On Demand ERP consultant seeking a challenging role leveraging 6+ years of experience. He has extensive experience implementing Oracle Fusion Projects, Procurement, and Supply Chain modules, as well as Ramco On Demand ERP sales, purchasing, and inventory modules. Arunkumar also has experience in quality assurance, testing, and support of ERP implementations.
“Retailing includes all activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal , non business use.” - Philip Kotler
70% population lives in villages
About 6 lakh villages are in India
Rural retail are growing @7%
A real source of energy
Hub of raw materials
The document discusses IT best practices for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the communications services provider (CSP) industry. It recommends involving IT early in the M&A decision process to better estimate integration costs and timelines. It also suggests assessing cultural fit between merging IT departments. During planning, companies should make an inventory of merging technologies, processes, and people, and document existing IT systems. For execution, the document advises following an M&A roadmap in phases and avoiding incomplete decommissioning of redundant assets.
Leveraging IT to create business agility: Why leading IT organisations are re...3gamma
CIOs are under pressure. Some analysts are even predicting the end of the CIO role. In the light of digitalisation and an ever-increasing need for business agility, IT is becoming an embedded part of the business. Information technology is no longer just a utility but a deeply integrated driver of products and services within most companies. An ever-changing environment means that old assumptions on how to deliver IT services need to be revisited if the IT organisation is to remain relevant.
M&A’s are among the biggest challenges for companies and their IT organizations to navigate. They often create issues that cannot be dealt with conventional leadership and management techniques. The role of information systems in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) becomes increasingly important as the need for speed of reaction and information is growing.
An IT strategy is a comprehensive plan that guides an organization on how technology can help achieve its goals, boost competitiveness, and increase success. It should consider all aspects of technology management and how investments support the overall business strategy. Key factors in developing an integrated IT strategy include understanding stakeholder needs, as the business is the primary customer of the IT function. In the past, IT strategies were often developed in isolation without input from business stakeholders, resulting in strategies not aligned to business needs. Developing a meaningful IT strategy requires understanding the business's strategic drivers, the current state of IT, gaps and opportunities for improvement, and defining a future vision for IT that supports business goals.
The document discusses the challenges facing banks in modernizing their technology systems. It notes that banks have historically focused on rapid growth and innovation over efficiency, resulting in thousands of fragmented systems. It proposes that banks undergo an "industrialization" process to simplify their technology and business processes. This involves defining core capabilities, processes, and data assets and organizing people and technology to better support standardized processes. The document provides several recommendations for how banks can initiate this change, such as prioritizing data management, adopting service-oriented architectures, and leveraging cloud computing technologies to reduce costs. The goal is for banks to develop a "solid technical core" that is lean, integrated and operates with predictability and efficiency.
Roland berger managing-the-it-cost-challenge_20090522Karthik Arumugham
This document discusses eleven levers that companies can use to significantly reduce IT costs within 12-18 months. These levers include eliminating redundant management functions, simplifying procedures, optimizing project management, capping budgets, standardizing products, industrializing operations, adjusting service levels, simplifying architecture, improving sourcing mixes, and leveraging sourcing power. Implementing cost reduction measures can be challenging due to impacts on headcount and business operations. Measures must focus on both reducing change costs and ensuring costs remain low to achieve sustainable savings. Roland Berger Strategy Consultants can help identify high-impact actions and implement a comprehensive cost reduction program.
This whitepaper discusses how organizations can leverage IT sourcing to support business objectives like cost reduction and innovation. It argues that IT sourcing strategies need to be aligned with and enable the overall corporate strategy, not focus solely on isolated IT metrics. To truly realize value, IT must become an agile service integrator that can manage a flexible portfolio of internal and external capabilities to support changing business needs. Maintaining multiple sourcing partnerships rather than relying on a single vendor allows organizations to more easily acquire new capabilities and support innovation.
IT Integration Done Right
It may or may not surprise you, but about 70% – 90% of M&As fail, for one reason or another. The integration of two companies into one functional unit inevitably involves great change. Culture, business strategies, and many other variables need to be adapted to fit new environments, people, and goals.
Are you prepared to take on the pressure and complexity of an IT M&A? Our new M&A Playbook for IT is your roadmap to navigating the biggest IT integration challenges and driving business goals.
In this strategy brief, find out:
-The three common M&A pitfalls that CIOs must avoid
-How to improve synergy, lower costs, and shorten time to market
-How to determine the right level of IT integration for your company
CHAPTER EIGHT
Strategic Alignment
Tim Campos
IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, CIOs have tremendous opportunity to have a major strategic influence on their businesses. This opportunity arises from the rapid adoption of information technology over the past three decades across nearly every aspect of business. When a company wants to merge with another organization, the IT organization is one of the first corporate departments to be involved. When a new plant or facility is opened, the IT organization must be involved to help connect it to the rest of the company’s systems. Even when a company reaches into a new line of business, the IT organization is involved to help set up the information systems to support the new business.
This opportunity, however, can also be the CIO’s greatest liability if the organization’s focus is diluted. IT has been adopted in nearly every business process, even those that are not very strategic. Nearly all employees at companies have e-mail accounts, and every corporation has a web site, regardless of whether it delivers products or services through that web site. Because all of these technology operations must function in order for the business to operate, CIOs must divide their focus and resources across the entire company.
This breadth of demand creates tremendous challenges for IT organizations. It is not good enough simply to focus on those portions of the business that are strategic, to the detriment of everything else. Although this might work in the short run, over time the neglected business functions become a drain on the success of the business. (This is one of the reasons so many firms reimplement enterprise systems.) Moreover, what is “strategic” depends on whom one asks. A customer portal may not be that important to manufacturing, but it is critical to the strategy of the service organization. The resources allocated to the IT department are finite, yet the demands on the IT organization can at times appear infinite. It is this challenge that separates the mediocre from the exceptional IT organization. The secret to addressing this challenge is to strategically align your organization to the business.
FRAMEWORK
Strategic alignment results from structuring the IT organization around the needs of the business. To explain how this is done, let me break the operations of the IT organization down into four basic functions. Two are delivery functions: support delivery and project delivery. The other two are management activities: value attainment and strategic alignment. All activities of the IT organization can be categorized into one of these four functions, although, as we will see later, these functions are typically spread out across multiple teams, which is the source of much of the misalignment IT organizations face (see Figure 8.1).
FIGURE 8.1 IT Strategic Alignment Framework
These functions layer on top of each other such that failure at one level affects everything above it. Strategic alignment is achieved.
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Alignment Tim Campos IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, .docxtiffanyd4
CHAPTER EIGHT Strategic Alignment Tim Campos IN TODAY’S BUSINESS, CIOs have tremendous opportunity to have a major strategic influence on their businesses. This opportunity arises from the rapid adoption of information technology over the past three decades across nearly every aspect of business. When a company wants to merge with another organization, the IT organization is one of the first corporate departments to be involved. When a new plant or facility is opened, the IT organization must be involved to help connect it to the rest of the company’s systems. Even when a company reaches into a new line of business, the IT organization is involved to help set up the information systems to support the new business. This opportunity, however, can also be the CIO’s greatest liability if the organization’s focus is diluted. IT has been adopted in nearly every business process, even those that are not very strategic. Nearly all employees at companies have e-mail accounts, and every corporation has a web site, regardless of whether it delivers products or services through that web site. Because all of these technology operations must function in order for the business to operate, CIOs must divide their focus and resources across the entire company. This breadth of demand creates tremendous challenges for IT organizations. It is not good enough simply to focus on those portions of the business that are strategic, to the detriment of everything else. Although this might work in the short run, over time the neglected business functions become a drain on the success of the business. (This is one of the reasons so many firms reimplement enterprise systems.) Moreover, what is “strategic” depends on whom one asks. A customer portal may not be that important to manufacturing, but it is critical to the strategy of the service organization. The resources allocated to the IT department are finite, yet the demands on the IT organization can at times appear infinite. It is this challenge that separates the mediocre from the exceptional IT organization. The secret to addressing this challenge is to strategically align your organization to the business. FRAMEWORK Strategic alignment results from structuring the IT organization around the needs of the business. To explain how this is done, let me break the operations of the IT organization down into four basic functions. Two are delivery functions: support delivery and project delivery. The other two are management activities: value attainment and strategic alignment. All activities of the IT organization can be categorized into one of these four functions, although, as we will see later, these functions are typically spread out across multiple teams, which is the source of much of the misalignment IT organizations face (see Figure 8.1). FIGURE 8.1 IT Strategic Alignment Framework These functions layer on top of each other such that failure at one level affects everything above it. Strategic alignment is achieved .
The document discusses how IT financial management (ITFM) can be expanded beyond traditional activities like budgeting and forecasting to improve business outcomes. It identifies 9 key focus areas for ITFM, including investment analysis, chargebacks, benchmarking, and vendor management. ITFM tools can provide visibility into IT costs and consumption to support decision making. The document recommends organizations assess their ITFM capabilities and prioritize expanding into areas that provide the most benefit.
This document summarizes an Economist Intelligence Unit report on IT operating models. It discusses the benefits and drawbacks of centralized and decentralized IT operating models. Many companies are adopting hybrid models that aim to balance centralized control with decentralized innovation and responsiveness. The optimal model depends on a company's structure, priorities, growth strategy, and industry. Flexibility is important, as companies' needs may change over time. The key is aligning IT with business goals and ensuring IT can effectively support the company's objectives.
Executive Overview of IT Strategy and Capability Maturity FrameworkVishal Sharma
This document provides an executive overview of the IT Capability Maturity Framework (IT-CMF). The IT-CMF is being developed by the Innovation Value Institute to help organizations improve their IT capabilities and ability to deliver business value through IT.
The IT-CMF defines four key "macro-capabilities" for managing IT: managing IT like a business, managing the IT budget, managing the IT capability, and managing IT for business value. It describes five levels of increasing maturity for each macro-capability, from initial/unmanaged to optimizing. As organizations progress through the levels, their IT function becomes more strategic and aligned with business goals.
The document outlines the mission of the Innovation Value Institute to build tools that help
The Vice President IT in a $20B global pharmaceutical company sought to transform the organization from a reactive, order-taking organization to a strategic business partner. The company’s use of IT was lagging behind industry standards. Gaining a broad view of all existing and planned efforts was virtually impossible. Decision-making and governance of projects was decentralized and only focused on “bottom up” execution. It was also clear that IT investment levels needed to increase to support business growth. The selection of these investments became a strategic issue for the business division leaders within R&D, manufacturing, and sales. Once initiated, a critical need for consistent management of investments emerged.
Keep on SMACking: Taking Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud to the Bottom LineCognizant
Winning organizations have programs in place to identify, understand, prioritize and overcome emerging SMAC challenges and have established 'Big Rules' for business and IT leaders to work through governance and technological roadblocks.
The document discusses the role of Business Process Management (BPM) and the challenges involved in replacing Telstra's activation systems. It provides an overview of BPM and its benefits. It also outlines the major challenges Telstra may face in the next 5 years, including ensuring consistent application of processes, balancing internal/customer processes, and regulatory competition. The document discusses the role the Process Architecture team could play and the value the author could provide, given their experience leading large process improvement projects.
Don't let the common issues catch you out. M&A IT projects are difficult however the issues tend to be common ones. In this whitepaper we help guide you through them so come Day One you have a smile on your face and not a frown.
7 factors responsible for the failure of it projects converted (1)RutujaJagtap19
The document discusses 7 factors that are responsible for the failure of IT projects. These factors include: lack of alignment across the organization, not truly embracing agile frameworks, implementing systems in silos rather than focusing on outcomes, inability to scale as business needs change, lack of IT skills and leadership, not investing in automation, and taking on projects that are too large in scope. Addressing these factors can help organizations avoid IT project failures and better deliver anticipated business value.
Similar to The Role of IT in Supporting Mergers and Acquisitions (20)
Using Adaptive Scrum to Tame Process Reverse Engineering in Data Analytics Pr...Cognizant
Organizations rely on analytics to make intelligent decisions and improve business performance, which sometimes requires reproducing business processes from a legacy application to a digital-native state to reduce the functional, technical and operational debts. Adaptive Scrum can reduce the complexity of the reproduction process iteratively as well as provide transparency in data analytics porojects.
Data Modernization: Breaking the AI Vicious Cycle for Superior Decision-makingCognizant
The document discusses how most companies are not fully leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and data for decision-making. It finds that only 20% of companies are "leaders" in using AI for decisions, while the remaining 80% are stuck in a "vicious cycle" of not understanding AI's potential, having low trust in AI, and limited adoption. Leaders use more sophisticated verification of AI decisions and a wider range of AI technologies beyond chatbots. The document provides recommendations for breaking the vicious cycle, including appointing AI champions, starting with specific high-impact decisions, and institutionalizing continuous learning about AI advances.
It Takes an Ecosystem: How Technology Companies Deliver Exceptional ExperiencesCognizant
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The Role of IT in Supporting Mergers and Acquisitions
1. The Role of IT in Supporting
Mergers and Acquisitions
Involving IT teams early and often during mergers and acquisitions can
help enterprises realize more value from the operational and market
synergies that bring businesses together.
Executive Summary
By understanding the business drivers behind
mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and being includ-
ed in the initial stages of the process, IT leaders
can contribute significantly to the success of
these endeavors. Yet there is one important
caveat: IT teams can only influence the outcome
of mergers and acquisitions if the merging busi-
nesses’ technology infrastructure is planned,
integrated and run to support M&A efforts during
and following the deal.
In this white paper, we shed light on the barriers
IT teams often encounter following the close of
an M&A Deal. We also detail how IT organizations
can position themselves as strategic partners
that can add significant value throughout the
M&A lifecycle.
We believe that by creating a template, or model,
that can be easily understood by the business
side of the enterprise, IT organizations can
make a clearer case for how the IT infrastruc-
ture can contribute to the value of mergers and
acquisitions at virtually every stage. It is woth
noting that the definition of value from an IT
perspective often differs from that of the
business — an issue that can lead to semantic
and execution challenges throughout the M&A
integration process. Business executives need
to view the IT infrastructure within the same
context as they view other strategic, value-gener-
ating aspects of the enterprise. Otherwise, they
can unintentionally undermine the rationale for
and expected business returns from the merger
or acquisition.
• Cognizant 20-20 Insights
cognizant 20-20 insights | february 2015
2. cognizant 20-20 insights 2
Post-Merger Integration: All Aboard
Many IT leaders face these types of challenges
when navigating the M&A integration process,
especially when their company isn’t a seasoned
acquirer. IT teams are often excluded from the
early stages of a deal, but brought in afterward
to reconcile the myriad aspects of two complex IT
organizations quickly and economically. Most of
today’s enterprises depend heavily on the infor-
mation systems that coordinate transactions,
manage operations, support sales and service,
and provide services around the emerging world
of digital. Yet avoiding disruption while creating
more value is often an afterthought in the M&A
strategy of many enterprises.
Apart from preserving value through more
effective integration, many experienced acquir-
ers create additional value and reduce risk by
involving IT much earlier in the process — often
at the very beginning. One such acquirer is EMC,
the world’s largest data-storage equipment pro-
vider. EMC has established a best practice of
fielding a dedicated IT
M&A integration team
immediately upon sign-
ing a letter of intent.1
As IT integration is
core to EMC’s M&A
integration efforts, the
IT team’s presence helps broaden the conversa-
tion and illuminate potential areas of opportunity,
operational challenges and financial risks.
M&A Value Creation: A Business Perspective
Traditionally, companies use revenue or share-
holder value as an indicator of M&A success.
However, value created from an acquisition is not
limited to the shorter-term view of increasing rev-
enue or immediate cost-cutting. Long-term value
can come in many forms.
A recent survey2
cited a number of additional fac-
tors that companies take into account to drive
M&A strategies and create additional value. (See
top of next page.)
A Short Story
It is 9:AM on a Monday morning — time for the weekly M&A integration status meeting. In keeping with
the tradition at his company, a global manufacturer, the IT leader responsible for all the technological
aspects of the M&A integration attends the meeting — joined by his integration team, as well as a full
ensemble of functional stakeholders, including corporate development, the originators of the acquisi-
tion, and the keepers of the synergy commitments to the board and “the Street.”
The IT team has carefully documented their progress, as well as any issues and risks, in their status
reports. The IT leader is set to announce that the item setup time in the product lifecycle management
tool is slipping, since new SKUs were added the previous week.
The meeting starts with a discussion of the latest functional requirements. The IT head is surprised to
learn that the list of open requirements has grown. How could this happen? Doesn’t everyone under-
stand the impact on the integration schedule — potentially pushing out the timeline? He realizes he will
need to request additional resources, and even if he gets them, the risk level will be that much higher.
After presenting IT’s status and issues, and emphasizing the expected delay in the item setup process,
the IT leader realizes that no one (other than his team) seems concerned that the timeline will be
delayed and that this holdup will impact the planned “Day One” schedule.
As he does every week, the IT head asks the meeting chair to detail the expected synergies of the merger
and how they will be measured going forward. As always, the response is that the synergies issue is
under control and that the IT organization need not worry.
Although the IT head has held his position for many years, this is the first
time he has worked on a post-merger integration initiative. He wonders
how he fits in, and if IT is viewed as a partner in the M&A process, or as
merely a back-office function. If that’s the case, how can his team contrib-
ute real business value to the company, including during and following the
M&A process?
>>
Apart from preserving
value through more
effective integration,
many experienced
acquirers create
additional value and
reduce risk by involving
IT much earlier in the
process — often at the
very beginning.
3. cognizant 20-20 insights 3
The top three issues focus on:
• Expanding the customer base in existing
markets.
• Pursuing cost synergies or scale efficiencies.
• Entering new markets.
Irrespective of the source, value from an acqui-
sition depends on successful integration, which
for most companies requires “end-to-end” IT
engagement.
M&A Value Creation: An IT Perspective
There is no doubt that increasing business value
is the incentive behind most mergers and acquisi-
tions. At the same time, defining the role IT plays
in M&A activities can be critical, given that it is
a complex undertaking with multiple dimensions.
The key element is enabling IT to support differ-
entiating business functions, since augmenting
core processes should be an underlying objective
of any acquisition. Our view is that key elements
of IT value creation3
should include:
• Improving IT capabilities to support the
reasons behind the merger. Production
synergies can be enhanced through tighter
coordination of production capacity; support
for a new integrated R&D function; better
vertical integration, and accessibility to
acquired suppliers/clients.
• Improving the IT operating model. Organiza-
tions need to create an improved version of
the “business of IT” in the newly integrated
enterprise.
• Assuring end-user satisfaction with the
integrated systems (information quality and
usability). Businesses should avoid disrupting
employees or inconveniencing customers,
and work to ensure corporate-wide access to
accurate, useful and timely information.
• Effective and efficient IT integration
management. Making the best use of time,
costs and personnel during the integration
process, and developing effective management
policies around project management, change
management, IT sourcing, etc., is crucial.
• Efficient IT staff integration. IT organizations
must strive to avoid losing key IT personnel and
their expertise, especially in scenarios where
superior technology and best practices reside
within the target (acquired) company.
The Contributions IT Can Make
to Mergers & Acquisitions
While IT is of course not the sole driver of M&A
integration success, its importance in busi-
ness integration has long been recognized. For
example, McKinsey once noted that “IT can be
a powerful factor behind M&A success, assuring
synergies are realized and ultimately increasing
the deal-making capacity of acquirers.”4
Traditionally, value creation in mergers was mea-
sured in business terms by addressing specific
cost savings related to the consolidation of assets
(e.g., manufacturing plants or branch locations),
or to increased purchasing power that significant-
ly reduced costs through vendor consolidation.
However, the latest studies show that even bigger
savings can be realized by correctly tracking IT
synergies.
IT is widely recognized as an enabler of business
process optimization and business transforma-
tion — impacting and supporting a variety of
highly visible functions that drive business value.
In some cases, IT alone is responsible for creating
overall value.
Following are several areas where IT plays a major
role, either as part of IT enablement or as a stand-
alone function:
• Supporting the business case for achieving cost
savings by combining the IT cost structures.
• Reducing overlap of IT in the merged companies
by rationalizing application portfolios and IT
organizations.
• Optimizing infrastructure landscapes and
determining operating models for the new
entity.
• Enabling synergies by integrating major
business functions, improving communications,
enhancing processes and providing uninter-
rupted customer service.
• Providing operational visibility during the
integration process via communications and
knowledge-sharing portals.
Recent research shows that roughly 50% of
merger value is related to IT synergies. Yet a lot
of the time, IT is not considered during acquisi-
tion planning and pre-close, but is expected to
reconcile systems quickly and successfully once
the deal is done. The IT organization should have
a seat at the due diligence table to spot potential
4. cognizant 20-20 insights 4
obstacles to integration, and assess opportuni-
ties for IT transformation beyond integration.
This not only speeds the integration process but
can provide an opportunity to create more value
faster. For example, early involvement of IT teams
can help align key deal areas such as customer
acquisition in existing markets (through the early
integration of customer management systems to
identify existing customers) and enabling market-
ing to potential new customers.
To fulfill these roles, IT leaders need to:
• Pursue a dual IT agenda. IT organizations
should not only plan to integrate and opera-
tionalize processes and systems, but also look
for ways to take on a more strategic role in
the business, such as defining a future state IT
operating model, portfolio and process ratio-
nalization, and organizational design. These
endeavors can bring higher returns than
simply focusing on combining two companies’
systems or eliminating duplicate positions.
• Be a full partner during due diligence. IT
leadership should actively participate in the
pre-close phase. The technology team is in a
unique position to spot potential obstacles to
integration across people, processes and/or
technology. The team can also identify liabili-
ties, such as the lack of a scalable architecture,
security risks, skills gaps, capacity constraints,
license issues and other IT-related financial,
operational and technical risks. And often
most important, IT should be able to identify
if and how leveraging the target technology
platforms can add value to innovation efforts.
• Hit the ground running before day one. Inte-
gration planning should begin well before a
deal closes so the merged organization can
be operational on day one. The IT integra-
tion team should develop a clear strategy for
determining what systems to keep, what data
to migrate; and what processes to follow, as
well as initial organizational structures and
key performance measurements. CIOs also
can use this period as an opportunity to create
value through portfolio rationalization — from
projects to applications, assets, data centers
and specific capabilities.
What Factors Help Create Value?
To help maximize business value, IT teams should
focus on the following:
• Pre-close participation. Involvement by the
CIO as a strategic partner in identifying acqui-
sition opportunities can help to identify areas
where IT can add the most value, as well as
those that carry potential risks. There is no
way to forecast the savings from merged R&D
or fulfillment processes, for example, without
a deep understanding of what is required to
integrate the two potentially disparate infor-
mation technology landscapes supporting
these very different areas of the business.
• Risk management. Traditionally, most inte-
grations have focused on avoiding failure — a
strategy that often stymies transformational
change, and the opportunity to heighten perfor-
mance, enrich value, and compete in new and
more profitable ways. Risk management during
due diligence helps to highlight potential delays
and risks that get in the way of achieving inte-
gration targets. Successful business/IT collabo-
rations view M&A success from an investor’s
perspective — taking into account both industry
and market dynamics and, importantly, having
answers to questions around which asset
categories to invest in, change management,
and prioritizing long-term growth, among
other considerations.
• Velocity. The sooner your organization
completes an M&A integration, the sooner
the benefits can accrue. Increasing the speed
of this task also reduces uncertainty among
employees and customers. Yet speed alone
invites errors — and errors run up costs. Careful
planning and the support of an experienced
It is very difficult to forecast
the savings and measure
the efficiencies resulting
from merged R&D or
fulfillment processes without
a deep understanding of the
requirements needed to
integrate these two potentially
disparate IT landscapes that
support very different areas
of the business.
5. cognizant 20-20 insights 5
Development
& Quality
Assurance
Integration
Management
Office
Project
go-live
CoE Team
Sale Ops
Lead
GSS
Lead
CoE
Leads Business
PM
IT
PM
Business
BAs
IT
BAs
IT
PM
IT
BAs
3.
Identify ares of impact
and scope
Feedback
throughout
Feedback
throughout
2.
Gather requirements
using the playbooks
1.
Initiate project
4. 5.
Document functional
requirements
6.
Code development/
QA Testing
8.
Production cut-over plan
Functional requirements
documents
Business
requirements
documents
Business
PM
Business
BAs
7. UAT
Sign-off
Cut-over plan
(Not part of core
business team)
= Deliverable
Document business
requirements
Quick Take
Following is one example of how a leading vir-
tualization software company’s business and IT
teams work in tandem to achieve faster, smooth-
er M&A integrations. To help assimilate acquired
companies rapidly, consistently and with minimal
disruption, this company forms cross-functional
teams, defines guiding principles and develops
standard processes. Its M&A Center of Excellence
(CoE) is a central group with representation from
multiple business functions, as well as IT, and is
the core of integration execution.
Once the target passes the deal-screening phase,
the due diligence team and the integration
management office (IMO) gather relevant docu-
mentation and information to ensure proper due
diligence. If the target meets all requirements, the
deal is signed and the baton is passed to the IMO
and the M&A CoE to plan and execute integration.
The IMO engages with the M&A CoE business and
IT teams, informing them of the acquisition and
initiating integration planning. Tailoring the play-
books for each acquisition, the business team
documents integration requirements and shares
its findings with CoE leads (including those from
sales, global support and IT).
After analyzing the requirements, the CoE leads
identify areas of impact and the scope of integra-
tion, then relay these insights to the business and
IT teams. All hand-offs between various teams are
streamlined by standardizing and documenting
the process in the playbooks. Based on the scope
of integration, the business and IT teams map the
business requirements and functional require-
ments respectively.
Once the functional requirements are captured,
the CoE handling IT requirements will use the
appropriate resources from the respective devel-
opment teams to complete the coding and testing
of integrated systems. Budgets and resources are
identified by the IMO and CoE well in advance to
avoid timeline slippages. The business teams con-
duct user acceptance testing once the systems
are ready. The cut-over plan is then prepared by
the CoE IT team and the systems go live for use
by both companies. The CoE and IMO monitor the
entire cycle of events for any risks or delays in
decisions.
This approach has proven successful — eliminating
the integration backlog in a very short timeframe.
Making M&A Integration Formulaic
M&A Project Initiation: A Schematic View
6. cognizant 20-20 insights 6
team that understands typical integration
activities, dependencies, risks and challenges
can help accelerate the integration process.
Whether this team is in-house or virtual doesn’t
matter, as long as the roles and responsibilities
of key stakeholders are clarified early on.
• Repeatable processes. Tailored, repeatable
processes and M&A playbooks can help unlock
the value and speed the pace of the M&A
process. M&A playbooks should be shared and
embedded across the organization. Companies
should develop proven methodologies and
templates, and use them to integrate acquired
entities and fast-track integration planning and
execution. While these tools can be applied
directly to most acquisitions, companies can
tailor them, depending on business needs. The
key is to develop an approach that fosters con-
sistency, predictability and reusability.
Looking Forward: Top-of-Mind Issues
The courage to move beyond risk avoidance is the
starting point for accelerating value in a merger
or acquisition. When focused on accelerating
value creation, business and IT leaders should
challenge themselves and their teams to:
• Have a clear understanding of how IT can
support the future state vision post-integration.
• Hand-pick leaders of integration teams/inte-
gration management office.
• Develop the ability to identify, measure and
execute the planning of both combinational
and transformational synergies.
• Resolve issues around culture, people and
power to win the hearts and minds of all con-
stituents impacted by the merger/acquisition.
• Develop a structured, repeatable integra-
tion process that is flexible enough for future
acquisitions.
Final Thoughts
As technology continues to evolve and is increas-
ingly aligned with strategic imperatives, it will
become even more critical for IT to not only have
a seat at the table during the M&A process, but to
be recognized as a full partner with the business
in unlocking maximum value from an M&A deal.
For decades, IT leaders have struggled to identify,
manage and successfully deliver business value
following an acquisition. But this is not IT’s respon-
sibility alone; rather, key business stakeholders
should be equally responsible for ensuring that
business advantage is delivered through IT inte-
gration. IT by itself is never the sole reason to
conduct a merger; however, poor IT integration
can certainly undermine a deal’s expected value.
No business leader involved in a merger or
acquisition can afford to forfeit 50%-plus of its
envisioned value by failing to address the IT syn-
ergies needed to fulfill the promise of such an
undertaking. As such, business operations must
partner with the IT organization early and often to
create a platform for engaging key IT team mem-
bers throughout all stages of the M&A lifecycle.
Historically, IT had to fight an uphill battle to
meet tight deadlines and allocate already thin
resources to support M&A integration. To improve
the odds of M&A success, organizations must
ensure that both IT and operations are account-
able for risks and rewards. The first step is for
senior management to gauge how business and
functional leaders enable IT to support and gen-
erate value from M&A deals.
Afterword
We are preparing to conduct a survey of key IT
leaders across the globe to learn more about
their point of view on success factors from an
IT perspective during the M&A integration pro-
cess. The results of this survey will help to shed
light on the difficulties we see today and define a
framework for helping IT leaders create addition-
al value during future deals.
The findings are expected to identify the chal-
lenges IT leaders face during integrations and will
help define the multidimensional nature and defi-
nition of IT integration success. For more details,
please contact inquiries@cognizant.com.