![]() ![]() The leaders of both Fiserv and First Data were convinced that their companies would be stronger together, by providing their clients with a holistic payment solution. The underlying logic for the deal - a set of complementary capabilities and complementary clients - was compelling on paper. In addition to this, Fiserv made an external commitment to achieve US$900 million in cost synergies and $500 million in revenue synergies within the first five years following the close of the transaction.īut grafting together two complex businesses in US$40 billion enterprise value acquisition with over 45,000 employees is a notoriously difficult undertaking. The achievement of these synergies would be integral to the success of the deal, as the company announced it would invest an additional US$500 million in an ambitious growth and innovation agenda. ![]() The leadership and enablement of the synergy program largely fell upon Fiserv’s finance organization, who was charged with spearheading this effort. Documenting and rolling up dozens upon dozens of cost and revenue synergy initiatives into a structured, repeatable monthly rhythm, where progress could be tracked and measured, was no easy task. So, how could these two companies leverage technology to realize the financial benefits and joint vision of this transformational merger? Chris Dichiara, Vice President and Head of Financial Planning and Analysis for Fiserv, was asked to lead this program for the company. “But piecing together hundreds of Excel files, figuring out what was happening in each of the hundreds of initiatives, getting visibility over the process - workstreams, financial data, roadmaps, milestones - it didn’t work out so well.” “Early on in the merger, I tried to use Excel,” recalls Chris Dichiara. The EY team who led the post-merger integration recommended their end-to-end digital platform, EY Capital Edge, to bring all this complexity into a streamlined solution. Fiserv was able to fully tailor the EY Capital Edge tool to best meet their needs. The tool provided a monthly package which provided all the reporting and insights necessary to keep the new organization on track to meet their synergy targets and execute upon the overall M&A strategy. The platform kept everyone - from the individual initiative owners to the Fiserv executive leadership team - aligned, provided instant visibility across the whole process, and ensured everyone was talking from the same numbers: it brought efficiency to chaos. “EY Capital Edge was fluid, flexible, cloud-based and easy-to-access,” says Dichiara. “Bringing in EY and EY Capital Edge to help organize the process really accelerated the deal. We’ve got over 100 people on the platform today: all our teams use it. ![]()
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