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Since the deal was completed, Lea and Berney’s focus has been on integrating the two operations, plus subsequent acquisitions, including Tele2 and Memorex. Given the extent of the M&A activity, forward-planning is critical.

“We had a complete blueprint in place by April 2007,” says Lea. “We assigned a new management team to the project and set up a Programme Office to oversee progress. One of the critical elements we had to have in place was a disciplined review and reporting mechanism. “You have to get a new management team in place from day one, because it is very difficult to drive integration if people are still concerned about their jobs. The second key factor is speed. You have to execute on this is as soon as possible. Communication must be effective, and come right from the top. You have to prevent the rumour mill taking over and ensure people are all rowing in the same direction. Within a year of closing the transaction, we’d taken action that will deliver 90 per cent of the cost savings.”

Berney says organisations tackling M&A must adopt an up-front approach that drives synergies. That means doing effective due diligence, coming up with an integration plan, and having a Programme Office. “If you get it right, IT can bring real synergy, with one view of the customer, served anywhere. When it comes to dealing with billing systems, what we’ve done is pick best of breed from whatever we have within the existing organisation. That critically means having a reduced number of systems to support. But whatever you do, you must make choices quickly and have 90 per cent of your activities in place. You can’t vacillate between different choices.”

Lea says when it comes to billing systems; telephone systems are more complex, because gas, electricity and water do not require the immediacy of data tracking necessary for phone systems. “It’s not that the billing systems themselves are any different. What’s more complicated is the switching, because the number of a call and its duration has to be tracked and priced. And they have to be pulled together in real time. It’s not like simply reading a meter each quarter,” adds Lea. Lea and Berney are clear as to what key actions need to be taken to make M&A a success: “You have to ensure people understand that their particular integration project has to deliver. They have to be crystal clear what their responsibility is, and be able to communicate that across projects, establishing where there are any interdependencies.” For Lea and Berney, simplification, consolidation and standardisation are critical keywords. Another is financial ‘nous’. “As part of the Programme Office, you have to have a finance person who is able to comfortably deal with issues such as capital expenditure (Cap Ex) and operational expenditure (Op Ex) plus all other costs. Financial familiarity is critical for the senior leadership team, otherwise people don’t understand if they are achieving the results that were committed,” says Lea. “The devil is in the detail.” “You must acquire for the right reasons, find real synergies, take it seriously, and hold people fully accountable for achieving cost savings,” says Berney. “From the CIO’s perspective, he or she must be commercial in their mind-set, because integrating the IT offers the biggest saving. Some people think you can throw it all together and fix it. But it doesn’t work like that. If you as a CIO want to have a seat at the table, and be sufficiently trusted, then you must be business-focused first and a CIO second.”