[Francisco Aires]

What are the best practices for a remote integration and what technology and tools can facilitate a smooth remote integration?

[Teresa Drew]

Hi Francisco, I have a similar question as we have had mixed success with remote integrations. Our industry in consulting so relationships and communications is a big part of the business. We have tried having a plan for communications across multiple levels of staff, and investing in having a person physically present OFTEN in the first 3 – 6 months has helped. Our best success came when including the cost of ‘planting’ a member of the integration team in the remote location for the first full year in our acquisition budget.

[Francisco Aires]

Thanks Teresa! We are doing the best to make the integration 100% remote as most of the staff from the acquired company works remotely and in different time zones, what we found is the effort for the PMI manager to travel isn’t providing the expected success, for now seems to be a waste of time and money. In this digital era what are the best practices to doing this, based on other similar experiences.

[SI LING TAN]

Hi Francisco,

Believe having an experienced leadership team coupled with seasoned executive team members in merger would be good foundation for a hopefully successful integration. Experienced, well articulated and detailed executive team leading the merger project ensures alignment and accountability.

Effective communication could be achieved by establishing communication frequency and regular check-ins. This effort is in additional to clear delivery of task and document management to organise tasks, track progress and ensure alignment.

[Teresa Drew]

Hi Francisco, Regarding the lack of ROI on physically connecting with remote workers, I agree it is not about physical presence in that case. As a team based service culture, we work in a hybrid manner with project teams from multiple office locations around the world. We identify the key relationships needed to keep a service line or location highly functional, and focus on those relationships with scheduled direct discussions (on line or in person). We also present ways for the rest of the team to engage withe the integration planning. Creating a common information site (e.g. we use a dedicated MS Teams site for key projects or team communications) that carries the communications to all NewCo staff and allows for various time zones to access the information can be used to conduct surveys (such as their work environment needs, or asking them to define what change would they want to see/not want to see) so that any potential issue can be addressed. When dealing with smaller firms, having a collaborative approach that acknowledges their current expectations for how they work will build trust and keep stability. In larger or publicly traded firms, this approach should have a strong support from senior/executive management to demonstrate consistency across the organization.

[Kathleen Robbins]

Hi Fransisco, We have been very successful over the pandemic with our integrations as we have a hierarchal model for our integration teams. We spend a lot of time up front stakeholder mapping and ensuring that we have the right people in the right roles. Once we feel we have the right names down, we work with those members to build out their own teams, preferably people they are close with or who are on their own teams. We put the responsibility of workstreams on these leads and have these leads get together in weekly stand ups to discuss any interdependencies or overlaps. We found that by breaking out the project into smaller chunks, with clear responsible parties, and clear timelines we were quite successful.

However, nothing beats an in person kick off with team building events. I hope this helps.

[Vijay Tailor]

I believe if all stakeholders including C level have buy ‘in to do remote integration works then it’s possible with occasional visits of key leaders to meet key stakeholders. It became mandate when during pandemic.

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