• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Housing Technology logo

Housing Technology

Housing | IT | Telecoms | Business | Ecology

  • Free Subscription
  • Search Archive
  • Home
  • Research
  • Magazine
  • Events
  • Recruitment
  • Blog
  • On Demand
  • Contact
Home / Free Subscriber Access / Standardised IT integration enables M&A success

Standardised IT integration enables M&A success

Political and economic uncertainty has contributed to the UK social housing sector undergoing significant consolidation during recent years. A large number of mergers and acquisitions have taken place in an attempt to save costs and create efficiencies.

A great deal has already been written about the role that IT plays in housing M&As. The main driver for sector consolidation is cost, and digital transformation is a key enabler of the organisational change needed to realise the benefits. So much cost is locked into archaic and complex technology that doesn’t serve the needs of organisations. Housing providers that manage to capitalise on the opportunity that a great technology infrastructure can provide are likely to be able to demonstrate real added value and excellent user experiences in the enlarged organisation, as well as much greater operational efficiency.

However, the real opportunity is going about transformation in a way that unlocks the power of your people. Technology can be the catalyst for that, but not in its current guise. So if an organisation embarks on a roll-up strategy, unlocking this in their own organisation first is vital and then of course it’s an opportunity to set this as the objective for each subsequent integration.

Get your own house in order

Furthermore, while social housing has its own challenges, I believe the general principles for M&A IT optimisation apply. Managing disparate technologies is hard and a failure to integrate and optimise IT presents a risk to the success of current and future M&A deals. In short, one needs one’s own house in order before adding further complexity and risk to it!

It is vital to develop a highly effective and repeatable technology approach which integrates acquisitions efficiently and innovatively. Plans must also help accelerate and deliver insight-led business growth and be focused and collaborative throughout. An inspirational vision that galvanises the organisation into action is essential. The critical steps and deliverables are:

  • Clarity of purpose – what is the joined organisation trying to achieve;
  • Discovery of current technologies and processes;
  • Lifecycle/mapping of pain points;
  • Combined process and solution design;
  • Programme resource planning;
  • IT integration toolkit.

Stakeholders from the IT department should be involved from the pre-deal stage onwards and become a permanent part of a multi-disciplinary M&A team, providing insight and advice as well as the capability to implement the IT integration toolkit.

Involve IT early…

In cases where IT isn’t included in the initial M&A conversations and a standardised approach isn’t available or adhered to, integration plans are often rushed, badly implemented and/or mean functioning as two organisations under the same logo, never achieving the intended economies of scale. Furthermore, the complexity, time and cost involved in the IT integration activities are likely to be underestimated, resulting in delays, budget overruns and SLAs not being met.

A merger or acquisition presents an ideal opportunity to look at the housing provider’s overall IT strategy and health; one of our clients, Housing Plus Group, decided to disaggregate to an agile multi-vendor delivery model in order to improve tenant services and be better prepared for future growth. Other improvements that help enhance user experiences and drive economies of scale in an enlarged organisation include automation, self-service and strong data management solutions.

M&A teams must continually improve IT integration capabilities by establishing consistent, repeatable processes that can reduce setup time, assist with capacity planning and reduce ongoing operational costs, while capturing best practice and incorporating the lessons learned from each acquisition.

A standardised approach

Using a standardised approach or blueprint brings a multitude of benefits:

  • Ability to realise full acquisition value;
  • Faster, less disruptive integration of the acquired housing providers;
  • Higher levels of staff retention;
  • Coordinated and efficient central and local integration activity;
  • Confidence to pursue more diverse acquisition opportunities;
  • Continuous development of integration expertise;
  • A consistently high level of service for end-users.

Crucially, in order to fully realise the synergies of the M&A activity, IT integration plans have to be aligned with the enlarged association’s unique goals and shared vision.

Jan Joubert is the CEO of Rainmaker Solutions.

See More On:

  • Vendor: Rainmaker Solutions
  • Topic: Finance Management
  • Publication Date: 074 - March 2020
  • Type: Contributed Articles

Primary Sidebar

Most Recent Articles

  • Free cyber-defence tools from NCSC
  • Learning from history
  • Grand Union Housing gets connected with Aico HomeLink
  • The silences in the system: Predicting and preventing damp and mould
  • Looking back and to the future: Cyberthreats in social housing
  • Hyde signs repairs contract with Totalmobile
  • Fuelling high performance automation
  • Morgan Sindall’s Carbon Zero decarbonisation tool
  • An ethical approach to arrears
  • Housing and the ever-evolving workplace
  • Supporting residents with home safety risks
  • Less innovation & more service design at RHP
  • Ateb Group outsources IT help desks to Central Networks
  • Capital Letters partners with Evo Digital to tackle homelessness
  • Calico appoints M247 for digital transformation
  • 24/7 care requires 24/7 technology
  • Govtech trends for 2023
  • Are you ready for business process automation?
  • Lincoln council moves to the cloud with Civica
  • Why do IT business improvement projects fail?
  • Flagship and Ebrik launch augmented reality app
  • Following the golden thread
  • Setting the standard for carbon-monoxide protection
  • The business case for data
  • Digital twins – When, not if…
  • Using data to build communities
  • The cyber-security jigsaw’s missing piece – Managed detection & response
  • Cyber-security challenges in housing
  • Digitalising retrofits with SHDF & HomeLink
  • Tips for improving care and support

Footer

Housing Technology
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Contact
  • Free Subscription
  • Book an event
  • Blog
  • Search All Articles
  • Research
  • Update Your Subscription
  • Privacy Policy

Welcome to the housing Technology – Trusted Information For Business Professionals in HOusing

Housing Technology is the leading technology information service for the UK housing sector and local governments. We have always believed in the fundamental importance of how the UK’s social housing providers use technology to improve their tenants’ lives.

Subscribe to Housing Technology to gain market-leading research, unsurpassed peer networking opportunities and a greater understanding of your role to transform your business.

Copyright © The Intelligent Business Company 2022 | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
Housing Technology is published by the The Intelligent Business Company. A company with limited liability. Registered in England No. 4958057 | Vat Registion No. 833 0069 55.

Registered Business Address: Hoppingwood Farm, Robin Hood Way, London, SW20 0AB | Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8336 2293

htc23 pop banner