Laying the groundwork for two telecoms titans to make the most of a merger

Shaping and mobilising the synergy projects which underpin a major telco merger

Two industry leading telecoms companies exploring a merger faced the challenge to mobilise a set of networks and mobile synergy projects in order to accelerate speed to benefits and underpin the synergy case. They were looking for a Programme Director, with deep and broad expertise in telecoms, and experience of delivering hugely complex transformation programmes. To top it off, they wanted to run five programmes concurrently across multiple teams and stakeholders. We needed to not only justify the synergies and benefits of the merger, but be ready to kick-off programmes to start delivering benefits quickly, if and when the merger completed.

We brought a unique mix of deep telco expertise and proven large scale transformation programme experience

This was an immense challenge, made doubly difficult by the legal constraints of pre-merger communications between the two businesses. It required delicate relationship management, working with, and on behalf of, two clients to consolidate different programme management styles and cultures. We helped to mobilise and structure the five different projects, ran a rapid design phase and pinned down the synergy benefits. Then we set about planning delivery – business cases, network solutions, technical architecture, team structures, governance and roll-out plans.

Unique in its ambition and scope, this project threw up regular hurdles for our team to overcome. We knew that collaboration, while restricted during the project, would be the key to success for the programmes post- merger. So we focused on relationships - building deep understanding of all stakeholder concerns and goals and getting teams on the same page. Our transformation Programme Director, with decades of industry experience, was the experienced guiding hand leading the project.

Post-merger programmes delivering benefits and a new collaborative culture

The merger, one of the UK’s biggest over the last decade, is now complete. The synergy programmes are now in full scale delivery and some of them already delivering material benefits for the new business. The time we spent fostering collaboration and defining a new joint working culture has paid off, and the new organisation is primed to capitalise on its greater scale to unlock the benefits for customers we helped mobilise.

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