Our client Hydro International (a medium sized mechanical industrial business supporting the water industry) based in the South West UK had acquired a business which added new products / services and offerings to its customers but hadn’t yet integrated it into the business leaving duplicated departments / roles, confusion for customers because processes were not joined up and impacting overall customer service. My client needed help organising their business integration rather than just rely on weekly meetings and talking about what should be happening with little to no progress.

I was given the responsibility to organise the business integration and build up a programme of work to manage it through from definition to delivery. Starting with an operating model review to ensure that the client knew what the target was and effectively build work streams to help produce that target in line with the TOM. Building a programme of work and managing / influencing the senior management and directors to ensure the business acquired is integrated from all aspects (products, finances, systems).

• What did you do to help… Improved internal satisfaction, loyalty and customer value

The following actions were undertaken to support my client:

• AS IS Strategic analysis to build their Current Operating Model (COM) to include:
  • Products & Services
  • Processes
  • People / Roles
  • Finances
  • Systems & Data
  • Assets & Infrastructure
  • Customers
  • Suppliers
• Create work streams with leads from the business to be responsible for their aspect of the business integration
• Facilitated 7 key workshops with the leads to build the Target Operating Model (TOM) which defined how we are going to improve access to skills, capabilities and expertise
• Created the activities with the leads on what needed to be achieved to achieve the Target Operating Model throughout regular communication touch points which validated and endorsed all decisions made.
• Programme managed the team and their individual projects to ensure a co-ordinated effort and that the impacted employees of the acquired business understood what is happening and when.
• Improve internal satisfaction, loyalty and customer value by consolidating the customer offer into existing businesses & structures.

The results of the actions above meant that a target operating model was achieved in 6 weeks from start and the programme was achieved in 5 months which included the following outputs:

• New Products & Services were created and Sales & Marketing aligned their efforts to incorporate them within their overall offering
• New Processes around product support were integrated within the European business along with some role changes to support them
• Approximately 10 roles at the acquired company were made redundant due to duplication of efforts (HR, Marketing, IT)
• Old offices based in Herefordshire were closed down due to them not being required anymore
• Data from their old CRM / Sales Order Processing systems were transferred into the European businesses ERP solution (Dynamics CRM / NAV)
• New customer service modules within Dynamics CRM was configured and customised to include SLAs to enhance response times of tickets to under 24 hours

Value was delivered by;

• Improved business agility and ability to rapidly respond to change and opportunity
• Successful, timely delivery of evidence based transformative change
• Direct positive impact on internal and external customer satisfaction

Pains relieved included;

• Inefficient or misaligned operating model and lack of business agility
• Misaligned goals across business and silos
• Unclear business strategy and requirements

• TOM (Target Operating Model)
• programme management
• Systems Integration
• ERP

• Organisational Agility & Effectiveness