How Managed Print Services can Help During Mergers and Acquisitions

Put digital transformation at the centre of your business's M&A activity in order to accelerate innovation, efficiency and growth.

While merger and acquisitions (M&A) activity has slowed in 2016 after a record 12 months last year, the pressure on companies to do deals remains high. Fallout from the Brexit vote could even see transactions spike as unexpected opportunities become available. That will mean increased workloads and stress levels for many executives, but also new opportunities for the business - not least, the chance to start the journey towards digital transformation.

Whether or not businesses have begun planning for digitisation, an M&A transaction can provide a useful catalyst for accelerating the process. There will be many other priorities during the deal, but stakeholders from both organisations will invariably come together to review processes on both sides, with a view to combining or improving them. This provides a good opportunity to lay the foundation for the move to digitisation in order to make them more efficient. 

While IT naturally has a central role in the business’s digital transformation, this isn’t an IT-only issue. Given that digital transformation is required in every function of the company, the M&A process needs an enterprise-wide focus and approach. IT will certainly be an enabling function as the business works out what it wants to achieve during the deal, but it may not take the strategic lead on digital transformation - this responsibility lies with senior business leaders, including the C-suite.

That responsibility begins with the imperative to incorporate planning for digital transformation at the earliest stage of the deal process – it should be a central element of due diligence. In practice, this will mean:

• Intensive work to identify where each business currently stands on digital transformation, and where inefficient processes lie throughout the enterprise.
• Mapping out progress made, infrastructure in place and gaps to be addressed - along with quantified benefits of doing so.

Only when there is complete visibility of the digital transformation of every part of both businesses will it be possible to set out a roadmap for further progress.

With that audit undertaken, those driving the transaction can begin to think about how to take the best from what both organisations have to offer. In part, this will depend on the broader strategic imperatives underpinning the transaction, particularly since resources are finite. But it’s important to think in terms of two different types of driver for digital transformation:

• Efficiency savings – There’s no doubt digital transformation opportunities will include the chance to drive cost out of the business. Indeed, potential IT synergies are often a crucial ingredient in the overall rationale for doing the deal. Digitisation and paperless processes may enable headcount reduction, for example, or geographic rationalisation. And it should speed up decision-making across the business as manual processes are eliminated.
• Top-line growth – At the same time, the biggest opportunity for digital transformation lies in the potential for innovation to accelerate business growth. Digitisation can be the key enabler for businesses keen to develop new and improved products and services for their customers, and to execute ideas more speedily and effectively.

With these twin objectives in mind, businesses need a plan for implementing a combined digital transformation strategy. This will require some sensitivity – not least give the cultural differences between two businesses. One major roadblock to success for any M&A transaction is that employees at one of the parties to the deal feel mistreated or ignored by the other side. Bringing people – as well as processes – together successfully will be key to successful digital transformation.

In practice, working with a Managed Print Services (MPS) provider may be a particularly effective way to embrace the opportunities of M&A, as well as confronting the challenges. A reputable MPS provider will be no stranger to introducing organisational change and harmonising different working practices while securing stakeholder buy-in. They are uniquely positioned to take stress of migrating or merging the basic aspects of document and print management off your hands to ensure business continuity, while laying the foundation for more efficient digitised and automated process for the future.

Takeaways:

•  Digital transformation should be a priority during the M&A process.
• Make planning digital transformation a key part of the due diligence stage of an M&A transaction.
• Digital transformation during M&A can drive efficiency and facilitate top-line growth.

Find out more about the benefits of MPS for your digital transformation programme. Download: What Difference Does MPS Make to Digital Transformation?