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Why are mergers happening more often?

Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) increasingly view mergers as avenues to develop growth and excellence. Achieving a smooth transition and unification is essential for centralised back-office services, and automated digital-first transformation is the future. Embracing technology enables a trust to navigate the complexities of mergers more effectively, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and advancing the journey to becoming a High-Quality Trust.

Powering mergers with digital automation

Trusts encounter multiple complex challenges during mergers, including disparate, duplicated systems, communication alignment, and slow disconnected data silos. A digital transformation provides tools and frameworks to overcome these hurdles. Adopting cloud technology means processes and systems are automated, streamlining stakeholder involvement and expediting the value of data across the trust. The growth of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) enhances operational efficiency, exception analysis with data-driven decision-making as emerging technologies are embraced.

Mergers aim to:

Improve educational standards

Deliver economies of scale

Develop innovation and evolution

Foster collaboration and unity

Balance flexibility and autonomy

Accelerate growth ambitions

Optimising back-office efficiency and innovation

Well-run centralised back-office support services are vital to any trust’s reputation and performance. Post-merger by consolidating and reducing low-value administrative functions with automation on a unified platform, streamlined processes will result, eliminate duplication, and freeing time to focus on high-value strategic activities. Cloud agility and responsiveness will enable a trust to adapt more quickly and cascade a culture of continuous improvement across operations.

Measuring success and improvement

Trustees that support a MAT bring valuable external perspectives and objectivity. Assisting with prioritising new methods and innovations, balancing contexts, and value are important considerations. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) provide useful benchmarks for discussion, highlighting the importance of due diligence and feedback on realignment decisions to drive value and growth savings.

How does your trust measure up?

Success rate: 70-90%

70-90% of mergers fail to meet their intended objectives, highlighting why due diligence and strategic re-alignment planning is essential

Synergy realisation: 20-30%

20-30% of mergers achieve the anticipated synergies, underscoring that post-merger integration and commitment is essential to drive value and growth savings

Employee retention: 30%

30% of employees voluntarily resign within 365 days following a merger, highlighting importance of change management, communication, and cultural integration to retain talent

In summary

Remaining flexible and open is important in post-merger life. It is the people and culture that help make a trust. People and people management are just as essential as the balance sheet when aspiring to unlock the full post-merger potential. It will take planning, focus, give and take, and understanding to recognise the benefits and value outcomes associated with a merger in order to provide better educational outcomes for all.

As trusts embark on their merger journeys, we at de Novo Solutions stand ready to partner with organisations on their digital transformation journey, driving innovation, efficiency, and success every step of the way.

Better empowering and enabling today's Chief Financial Operating Officer (CFOO)

Navigating today’s complex Multi Academy Trust (MAT) Back-Office operation is a key challenge for a Chief Financial Operating Officer (CFOO). With rocks and reefs waiting to catch out the business service support team that manage the Trust’s Finance, Procurement, Human Resources, Payroll and Reporting activities.

The continuing emergence of Trust CFOO underlines the important connection between finance and operations. A properly equipped and empowered CFOO will better support the C-Level with one eye on the Trust’s balance sheet and the other on Back-Office operational performance.

Trust challenges continually evolve in shape and placement meaning that an effective radar warning system is needed to navigate a safe passage to High Quality Trust.

Our MAT clients are circumnavigating challenges such as:

A Trust often experiences ‘choppier waters’ with Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activities – growth pains to be overcome to prevent unnecessary risk and poor performance. Multiple legacy overlapping business applications left as shipwrecked data silos or islands strewn across the Trust will cause danger if left unsecured, unmarked, and unmanaged.

Our Trust clients typically want to address major M&A headaches – looking for lifeboats to overcome:

Post M&A consolidation is the essential ‘SOS lifejacket’. Centralising processes, rationalising terms, suppliers, and systems, while developing new scalable and consistent ways of working.

Our digital experts are MAT Pilots and alongside the CFOO strengthen the Trust ‘bridge’ to be better equipped for all weather conditions.

A better-informed Trust C-Level Team will anticipate and predict conditions as opposed to just responding to them, determining the best course ahead to achieve the Trust’s future vision.

Harnessing modular and integrated Oracle and ServiceNow Cloud technologies – for the Back-Office will mean Trust automation and efficiency savings. Improving Trust transparency, control, and continuous innovation will deliver better educational outcomes benefiting the Trust, community, and pupils alike impacting:

Finance

Revolutionising Trust finance execution with streamlined solutions for budgeting, reporting, and forecasting reducing administration for improved strategic MAT decisioning

Procurement

Collaborative procurement initiatives to leverage economies of scale within MAT by pooling resources and negotiating bulk contracts achieving significant cost savings across the Trust

Human Resources

Improving people and talent management strategies to ensure all Trust employees are attracted, developed and retained contributing to deliver inspiring education for pupils

Payroll

Supporting sophisticated payroll eligibility rules and payroll processing frequencies with detailed cost control management and Trust compensation reporting and modelling analysis tools

Reporting

Game-changing analytics with deep insights into financial performance, operational effectiveness using predictions to anticipate future trends, areas for improvement, and mitigate risk

So, if you are charged with transforming your Trust’s Back-Office future and this article has stimulated your ambitions for financial and people management activities – please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Let us navigate your success as experts in MAT focused Oracle Cloud and ServiceNow digital Back-Office transformations.