Unity Bank: Realizing Value From an M&A Integration

A member of the integration leadership team must help plan and execute the integration of Delta's information technology (IT) operations into those of Unity. He has been given a time limit of three years and has been charged with removing $60 million of expenses during the process. Half of the savings will come from reducing the number of staff whose roles have been duplicated as a result of the merger. The remaining savings will be achieved through the reduction of associated assets such as hardware, software and property. Irving has many hurdles to overcome, including motivating soon-to-be-made-redundant staff, finding and keeping Delta's star performers, designing the new organizational structure for the technology group, choosing the target IT platform and performing the infrastructure consolidation. This case takes a student through the important decisions in integration projects in order to ensure success in a merger or acquisition, bringing awareness to the execution aspects of these transactions.