IT and M

1

• IT and MA
• Seizing the Opportunity
• Ben Booth, CTO Ipsos MORI
• 13th June 2006

2
The received wisdom

• involve senior IT as soon as possible
• involve both parties IT in due diligence
• plan the integration programme carefully it
  will involve systems, technical staff, business
  staff, business change

3
Ipsos Acquisition of MORI

• Ipsos ?700m pa turnover
• 6000 staff
• 44 countries
• MORI ?63m pa turnover
• 450 staff
• 2 countries

4
Rationale

• strengthen (double) Ipsos capabilities in UK
• complementary in UK
• Ipsos Media, Marketing, Advertising
• MORI Public Affairs, Loyalty
• only 3/100 clients shared
• provide more international opportunities for MORI
  

5
The numbers

• ?88m cost of acquisition
• ?1.8m restructuring cost
• ?1.8m savings year on year

6
The Process

• secondary buyout 2004 stability expected for
  3-4 yrs
• approach in summer 2005 (long history of
  interest)
• Purchaser access to previous due diligence from
  2004
• BB asked to go to Investment Bankers 23 September
• 10th October agreement in principle announced

7
IT Environment

• Similarity of technologies
• MS office, SQL etc
• some LINUX
• proprietary market research products

8
Estate

• 900 desk tops
• 1500 Interviewer tablets/laptops
• 600 telephone interview stations
• Offices London SE 6
• Edinburgh 2
• Manchester 1
• Republic of Ireland 2
• Belfast 1
• 22 IT infrastructure staff, mainly London

9
Philosophy

• technically an acquisition but reality in UK is
  merger of 2 similar sized and complementary
  business
• IT critical operationally
• data collection, analysis and dissemination
• people expensive and important asset
• IT seen as means of facilitating integration.
  Key element in integration process
• NB importance of communication

10
IT Opportunities

• strength in depth, bigger team
• more opportunities for staff progression
• UK scale of operation more economical
• economies of scale throughout

11
Group Opportunities

• technology assistance with integration etc
• well developed standards
• opportunities for staff
• investment available for substantial projects
• But
• bureaucracy and speed of decisions
• rigorous cost control

12
Organisation Plan

• Two heads of function meet
• Management teams meet
• Re-assure staff who will remain
• Deal quickly with redundant positions
• Workshops to integrate teams and develop new
  style of working
• Ongoing review

13
Technology Plan

• Network renumbering and integration
• helpdesk Desktop
• active Directory Exchange
• Telephone / Face to Face / DP
• Compliance and Security
• savings

14
Progress to date

• new structure in place, two redundant positions
• network mostly done
• helpdesk well advanced
• AD exchange taking longer
• Telephone / Face to Face / DP ongoing
• savings on target
• Half way through - aim all done by end 2006

15
Lessons learnt

• very long programme, hard to maintain momentum
• most staff receptive to new ideas, some not,
  possibly spent too much time on those not
• importance of communication
• disruptive to existing good operations gets
  worse before it gets better
• everything takes much longer than planned
• Manage staff expectations