Case Study: Strategic IT Review and Post-M&A Systems Integration
Sector: Travel
Client: Portman Travel
Model: Direct Engagement
Headquarters: London
Operations: Headquarters, ten branch offices around UK
Headcount: Employed ~1000
Background
A business to business travel agency was recently acquired by private equity and merged with other similar organisations within the PE houses portfolio.
Engaged to review the current IT support function in three locations around the UK, also engaged to integrate the data centre of an acquisition into the business.
What We Did
Firstly we undertook a review of the effectiveness of the IT support teams, as well as other factors such as cost, capacity and in-house skills.
Secondly, designed an integration plan that brought the acquired data centre into the business, then started to migrate data and functionality to the existing group portfolio of infrastructure, data and applications. We then programmed managed this integration.
What We Delivered
We moved all IT support functions to Scotland from London and Manchester, reducing the staff cost overhead by 40% like for like, enabling gaps in capabilities to be plugged by new staff paid for by the improved budget position.
We separated the physical moving of the acquired data centre from the migration of functionality, ensuring that the data centre was physically moved but still functional in a standalone way, then allowing the business requirements to dictate functionality and data migration over a more risk-friendly period of time.
What Happened
IT support peformance was greatly improved, with the budget used more effectively to employ the right level of IT expert in-house.
The acquired data centre was appropriately moved and the IP contained within the data centre migrated appropriately over time drive by the business.