Finance Monthly October 2019 Edition

16 www.finance-monthly.com FINANCE & BUSINESS - INTEGRATED M&A TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT 4.0 Pillar 3 – Communication and Reporting. In addition to the transaction having a clear objective, the creation of a project organisation with a transparent reporting and communication structure is important. With a top-down approach, forming an appropriate meeting structure enables overall transaction control and operative control of individual workstreams. However, the related reporting should report project progress bottom-up, aggregating a condensed view of overall project management. It is recommended that the M&A 4.0 reporting and communication structure is implemented by cloud-based standardised tools, enabling cost and time efficiencies. With (online) dashboards, the entire team has visibility over the overall project status and the progress of individual transaction phases. The use of dashboards also offers the advantage that reporting can be edited depending on the target user. The use of Harvey Balls as a dashboard communication tool prepares and exhibits statuses briefly and concisely. Thus, standardised and transparent summaries for C-level management are immediately available. Pillar 4 - Task Management. In addition to the reporting and communication structure, the clear allocation and management of activities is of crucial importance. In transaction phases in which several parties are involved (e.g. due diligence), the task of controlling progress management is of essential importance. Ideally, proven and reproducible M&A playbooks for each transaction can be used in the sense of M&A knowledge management. M&A 4.0 can be leveraged through the utilisation of modern project management tools such as kanban boards for traditional task control. A kanban board is an agile project management tool designed to help visualise work and maximise efficiency flows. Kanban boards use cards, columns, and continuous improvements to help transaction teams commit to and finalise their work. A kanban board helps ensure work visibility throughout the whole transaction team. Additionally, from a project management perspective, it is possible to trace which tasks are not yet assigned and which tasks are overdue.