Unlocking Efficiencies in Corporate M&A: The Benefits of M&A Data Visualisation

Summary

We are frequently asked about the most painful inefficiencies and bottlenecks that active acquirer’s face when executing their M&A strategy. The usual suspects include manual reporting and inefficient processes around it. Whilst different types of reporting are necessary for organisations to function, manual reporting is often seen as a burden that slows execution teams down. 

In this month's article, we argue that by updating the data visualisation practices with today’s smart technologies, corporate M&A teams can unlock hidden potential from the data that they produce in their everyday work, without any additional effort. When done right, M&A data visualisation empowers M&A teams to 1) get real time visibility and management oversight of the M&A operations, 2) quickly adapt to project changes and get in front of any potential issues, and 3) uncover new insights from patterns and trends spotted from the data.

Stay tuned for future deep dives in:

• AI-Powered UI’s and Their Impact on Private Finance
• Starting Points for Digital Transformation in Private Finance
• Other cool topics

The Challenges of Traditional Reporting in M&A

Typically, corporate M&A teams rely on manually produced monthly or quarterly reports to keep their organisation’s management informed on their progress, as well as some KPI tracking during integration projects. These reports typically include details on current deal flow, future forecasts, and updates on ongoing projects such as acquisitions, integrations, and divestments and KPIs related to them.

A key challenge in M&A and private finance in general is the inherent difficulty of obtaining reliable information. Private finance data is often not available from public sources or databases, making the reporting a very manual and time-consuming process. Project information needs to be frequently updated throughout different phases of the transaction. Different projects have separate team leads, requiring them to coordinate to ensure consistency and avoid version controlling issues. Overall keeping the reports up to date in a manual way is a tedious and error prone task causing a headache to the various parties involved. 

By utilising the latest technologies, M&A teams can overcome these limitations and increase their performance and transparency.

Improving Performance with Improved Data Visualisation 

Automating the reporting flow is not possible if incoherent processes are run on scattered spreadsheets. A purpose built cloud based solution with clear data collection based on project stage, combined with appropriate data validation is required to unlock the benefits.

Some of the instant benefits include:

• Real time management visibility: Producing a clear, always up-to-date picture of the pipeline and progress of existing projects vs. targets
• Improved visibility and collaboration: Identifying and addressing bottlenecks quickly, allowing for proactive problem-solving based on real time data preventing costly delays
• Uncovering insights: Spotting patterns and trends from the data

Putting Data Visualisation Into Action

Upgrading an M&A team’s data visualisation practices and enjoying the instant benefits from it is not as difficult as one might think. Below are some of our suggestions to get started with:

1. Pipeline and status: Real time dashboard with status of deal pipeline, ongoing transactions, and development projects to gain an understand of the resources required and progress against targets
2. Visualised workflows: Interactive project progress charts to instantly spot bottlenecks to get more out of your current resources
3. Interactive dashboards with KPIs: Track and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) across your transactions for pattern recognition, performance comparisons, and other actionable insights

These practices provide a strong foundation for unlocking your data’s potential and empowering your team to decrease unnecessary guesstimations and start making data-driven decisions. With appropriate tools, a substantially larger amount of insights can be extracted with substantially less effort, when compared to the traditional ways of working. As you progress, AI and machine learning tools and methods can further enhance your data analysis and help uncover deeper insights from internal and external data sources.

Do you want to be the first one to read the latest monthly kicker.cloud insights? Click here to subscribe to our mailing list. ‍ Authors: Eljas Pajamies, Heini Salonen