New BPM Approaches for the Challenges of Mergers and Acquisitions in Life Sciences
Five Major Drivers for BPM exist – Compliance; Outsourcing, ITIL and Security; Process Framework/Performance/Standards; Technology Modernisation and Mergers, Acquisitions and Consolidations. In recent years Life Sciences organisations have had to learn to survive and grow through numerous mergers and acquisitions – sometimes even within quick succession of each other.
The role BPM takes on in a merger or acquisition, is to align processes and ensure seamless growth. This may seem an obvious goal to state, but the reality is that in the midst of such rapid and potentially very diverse changes, other priorities may seem more urgent. Members of the organisation who are not engaged with, educated on or excited about the merger may also be averse to the changes they're being asked to face or be concerned about their position. Engaging the entire organisation in agreeing the key objectives for the company at the time of the merger can help all involved to visualise the aims and empower people to see their role in the new business and how to get there. But using BPM frameworks to look at the current processes and plan for to-be processes will back up this vision in practical, realistic steps that are easy to understand, easy to implement and will help your staff to see the potentially very large benefits to them as well as the company as a whole.
Generally, a transition team will be formed to plan merger activities and BPM can assist in this by identifying the scope of change associated with Process, Change and Risk Management and IT systems. While this information isn't new to those in the BPM sphere, TPSoP® and Rapid System™ are.
Would you be surprised to learn that a large pharma/biotech merged organisation took 2 years to harmonise their Quality Policy? With TPSoP® they would have achieved this in 10 weeks.
Both TPSoP® and Rapid System™ smoothly and quickly aid an organisation in planning for and implementing changes, with increased engagement from staff and results that are proven to be superior to anything else currently available. Simply choosing one BPMS or another is only going to take you so far. TPSoP® adds deeper value to your chosen system by catering to the changes your company faces now, becoming more flexible and adaptable when surprises emerge (because they probably always will!) and by laying a foundation for smoothly integrating a second, third or fourth company if another merger is on the cards not too far down the line.
TPSoP® was developed to improve organisations working with text based or paper based SOPs and Work Instructions but due to the process-centric nature of the approach and the four clear phases of implementation, it resulted in compliance and training being better understood, better implemented and with better results. (Read the TPSoP® case study) While Rapid System™ offers a way to turn what would previously have been a 3-4 year project, into an 18 month project with higher rates of user adoption and costs reduced by 30-40% compared to projects using traditional approaches. (Read the case study) If dealing with two or more IT systems and perhaps two different BPM systems is ahead of you, it's worth looking into.
When combined, the two solutions offer organisations facing change and rapid growth, clear routes to long term successes with short term 'bonus' effects almost as a by-product!