“In this age of digital supremacy, companies that want to stay afloat and grow via M&A deals must adapt to digitalization, automated reporting techniques and technology to manage their transactions”
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are increasingly becoming a necessary part of an organization’s growth strategy to increase market share and shareholder value. Companies across all industries have grown at a rapid pace, and a major portion of it is because of an aggressive merger and acquisition strategy. Digitalization and technical improvements have considerably boosted the speed and size of M&A transactions and technology businesses have been the most ruthless in their pursuit of fresh ideas, new products, strategic alliances, and increased market share.
The reasons for a deal are evolving, according to an Accenture Strategy survey of 1,100 C-suite executives around the world. While traditional motives for acquisitions such as new markets will always remain, digital capabilities acquisitions are on the rise. More than half of the organizations that reported M&A activity (52 percent) said they were primarily looking to buy digital companies or assets. These stats aren’t surprising, given that 85 percent of CEOs aren’t sure that their present operational model can keep up with changing strategic priorities. The demand for novel technologies, as well as the ability that drives them, is palpable. To achieve that growth more quickly, M&A teams should think beyond typical deal preparation in all agreements, but especially in those driven by the demand for new capabilities. Because of the rivalry for digital assets, corporations actively acquiring digital enterprises are realizing those alternative types of closing arrangements and agreements are needed. Gains in a deal can quickly evaporate if organizations are unable to capture the benefits of a merger or acquisition on time. Therefore, in such cases, digital is the only instrument they can resort to in the expedited timeframes that today’s fast-paced industry requires.
Routine (or ad hoc) progress reports for many projects during an M&A deal are generally described as an arduous manual operation – where a large PowerPoint of disorderly dashboards with a shelf life of roughly 5 minutes is prepared. Week after week, this outdated practice is repeated, resulting in inconsistencies in information presentation and overworked team members.
This antiquated method of reporting isn’t going to function “good enough” indefinitely. This time-consuming, inefficient method of gathering updates across multiple persons and teams will eventually divert you and your team’s attention away from something more vital at hand. As a result, it’s practically certain that something significant will slip through the gaps.
Below, we have tried to list a few important reasons for companies to embrace automated reporting during an M&A deal execution.
Manual reporting consumes a lot of time
If you’re stuck with an antiquated method of progress reporting, you or another unfortunate member of your team will be in charge of gathering and aggregating several updates. Multiple Excel documents are updated and painstakingly copied and pasted into a PowerPoint report after sifting through day-old emails and tracking down team members for status updates. If the report (which took hours or days to compile) reaches the hands of key stakeholders, and is out of date and likely missing the most up-to-current information, you can’t even imagine how much harm that can cause to the deal.
The people you trust with reporting are likely to be competent and ambitious team members eager to supply additional value to a project. Consider what else they could do with their time if they weren’t bound by the boredom of manual reporting.
Bridging the shift
M&A is a fast-paced, high-energy industry. The demands imposed on the ordinary deal team are extremely high and continuously altering – in particular, given the increased time pressure under which deal teams work and the requirement for instantaneous information, the ability to at once transmit real-time information has become necessary. Despite this, many M&A teams continue to rely on analog reporting. When contrasted to the modern reporting options available today, such processes are quite 1999 and appear outdated. To stay current in today’s market, deal teams should examine their M&A reporting process and determine whether there is an opportunity for improvement, and if so, whether deal management software could address any found flaws.
Static dashboards don’t allow you to drill down into the specifics
You might not have the information ready if someone requests further information on a specific set of delayed tasks when you’re in the middle of a status report. It may be stored in an Excel file on your computer, and you can access it with a little frantic clicking in front of co-workers, but what if that information isn’t available?
The beauty of MergerWare analytics’ live dashboards is that you or anyone with adequate permission access can click into a piece of a graph or table to investigate the detail behind the summary data. You can even quickly locate and refer to the current state of a task or document.
An organization’s knowledge transfer is what binds it together
Managing M&A reporting using a Smart M&A Platform allows for a seamless flow of knowledge across all levels of an organization. Team members may view which targets are being considered and at what stage, across industries/verticals, and based on what M&A driver/rationale, etc. at the individual level. A project manager/M&A Lead can check the pulse of an M&A pipeline in real-time with a few clicks, for example, by seeing the number of targets in initial analysis or due diligence, the number of targets assigned to them or others for evaluation, and so on, or drill into why targets are being lost/abandoned. At the organizational level, key decision makers/C-Suite can use real-time dashboard analytics to track the progress of an M&A pipeline at a higher level (while drilling down into the detail if desired) via customizable KPIs linked to corporate development initiatives such as revenue and EBIT contribution from closed deals, and so on.
Automated working should be the only option
Teams can spend less time reporting and more time working on the things that matter most with automated working capabilities. For example, comprehensive reports with chart and graph features, as well as connected reports/drill-downs, may be generated and updated with a few clicks, reducing the time it takes to report on the status of a deal to minutes rather than hours. Additionally, based on live deal information, PowerPoint/PDF pitch decks and reports summarising progress or details of a particular target, etc. can be generated in seconds or scheduled for automatic emailing to deal team members, obviating the need for time-consuming preparation for the Monday morning progress meeting. Finally, once a deal team has experienced the power of automated M&A reporting, there’s no way they’ll want to go back to the analog era.
In any industry, there is a fear of job loss as a result of automation. However, in M&A, human elements would still be needed to operate in cross-functional teams that involve complicated mental processes. The M&A cycle may be made so efficient by automation that the team could focus on areas that require a human touch, such as cultural integration. It can also assist the firm in focusing on strategic goals and daily operations without diverting managerial attention away from deal implementation for lengthy periods.
Digitization of M&A will help companies change the outcome of their M&A. The CEO of MergerWare, Mr. Dharmendra Singh believes, “Companies that are bogged down by the failure rates can now be assured that with their systems in place with the upsurge of digitalization of M&A deals, it will bring more successes, higher deal volumes, and have a positive effect on growth”.
MergerWare’s all-in-one smart M&A software makes it simple to fine-tune layouts based on industry information and lessons learned, giving teams an end-to-end approach for deal management transactions and similar organizational growth actions. Usage of the digitized and automated digital platform enables teams to dramatically minimize the high administrative workload usually associated with M&A and drive productivity across a deal.
Our revolutionary technologies are breaking down the obstacles to M&A growth and expansion. Companies that want to stay afloat and grow must adopt digitalization and technology to manage their transactions, and we’re here to connect and help them with all their digital needs.
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