Integration Management Office (IMO) Planning Deliverables
- Executive Dashboard
- Synergy Rollup with Budget Owners
- Day 1 Organization Charts
- Master Integration Plan
System/approach for governance of implementation is also a deliverable of the Integration Management Office from Detailed Planning.
Team Planning Deliverables
Detailed Planning Template
- Recap of Recommendations with descriptions of status by phase (Pre-Close; Day 1, Integration Complete)
- Project list/summary and major steps
- Includes resource requirements
- Includes dependencies and linkages
- Key ingredients for success
- Risk Assessment (close date, customer, deal Value, business)
- Includes probability/impact and mitigating actions
- Communications Plan
- Remaining Outstanding Issues/Decisions Required
Project Plan (or plans)
- Excel or MS Project (Team Choice)
Updated Synergy Template
Roles
Steering Committee
- Provide executive guidance to the IMO and teams
- Drive decisions and support the integration planning and implementation processes
IMO
- Define planning approach and supporting tools
- Oversee and drive planning ensuring coordination within and among teams
- Define the approach for prioritization of projects/resources and facilitate prioritization decisions
- Define project controls to support implementation
- Coordinate the execution of any pre-close staging work
- Create repositories for the knowledge collected during planning
Guidance
- Align teams with cross-functional projects that must be executed
- Establish synergy buckets
- Provide clear visibility on major value drivers and progress to “integration complete”
Staging Work
Guidelines:
- Commissioning work in advance of close to prepare for integration (staging work) will be coordinated between firms
- Decisions to invest in staging work are made independently by the existing organizations, recognizing that they are still separate companies
- The IMO should be made aware of all staging work being undertaken for purposes of coordination with integration planning efforts
Project/Resource Prioritization
Portfolio Scope
Do we want to prioritize across the entire portfolio of integration projects and existing business projects, or just with integration projects?
Recommendation: Across the entire portfolio
Timing
Should we conduct a prioritization step during detailed planning (based on what we have identified) or wait until detailed planning is complete?
Recommendation: After detailed planning
Strategic Alignment
Should we use business strategy as a filter for prioritization?
Recommendation: Treat NewCo strategy among new management team as appropriate depending on timing of close, then use strategy to inform prioritization of projects in the portfolio
Planning – Lessons Learned
Organize cross-functionally
- Some teams will need to be reorganized around cross-functional, process-based initiatives and extended to include all functions that impact a particular area
- Align sponsorship of teams with the emerging organization whenever possible
Manage to milestones supported by detail
- Focus on milestones rather than trying to manage a globally integrated, comprehensive plan
- Use project management tools (e.g., Microsoft Project™) at the major initiative level or integration project level
- Centrally manage across teams to milestones and key measures
Understand/Validate dependencies
- Facilitate joint team meetings to identify and address dependencies
- Ensure tight coordination between integrations and customer support organizations
- Clearly identify ultimate owners as the organization evolves
Allow for Flexibility
- Teams will require varying levels of project management discipline depending on the nature of the integration projects in their areas