Companies in the middle of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are often presented with a lot of challenges. One of the biggest is how to keep track of all the paperwork, processes and data in an efficient manner. With multiple parties involved, it can quickly become difficult to keep track of progress, documents and other important information.
A quality management system (QMS) can help streamline the M&A process and ensure project success. A QMS has many advantages for businesses going through an M&A. To understand just how beneficial a QMS is during an M&A, let’s consider two different scenarios.
Scenario 1 - M&A without a QMS
In this situation, we have a company that is going through a merger but whose administration is still completely done on paper. Records are scattered throughout their organization, making it hard for stakeholders to track progress and complicating the decision-making process. Furthermore, ensuring data accuracy and compliance with industry regulations is difficult.
In this case, it would be very difficult for everyone involved to get access to what they need at any given moment – even if they know exactly where to look. Furthermore, this kind of setup also makes it difficult post-M&A for personnel involved in the actual integration process. Here, after closing, chances are high that they will lose track of materials due to a lack of visibility into every stage during negotiations.
Scenario 2 - M&A with a QMS
The company has implemented a quality management system (QMS) in this scenario. All documentation and processes are stored centrally in one place and are accessible whenever needed by those with permission rights granted on several user layers. This helps keep data safe while allowing collaborators unfettered access, all without compromising safety or security protocols in any way whatsoever.
The QMS in this case, makes communication between the people involved more effective because both sides can work off the same set of data and documents at any given time. This helps to increase the speed and accuracy of decisions, which is essential for the successful completion of the M&A process. A QMS also helps create a consistent and unified management system across all parts of the organization, allowing for better visibility into progress and compliance with industry regulations.
Furthermore, the QMS can also track and log activities, allowing teams to spot any potential risks or issues quickly. Using a QMS during M&A is beneficial in the long term as well. The system makes it easier for the merged companies to operate with a shared set of processes that all employees can access.
Benefits of a QMS
The benefits of using a QMS for M&A transactions are numerous. We've highlighted nine of the most obvious in our most recent whitepaper.
