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FROM CORPORATE
CARVE-OUT TO
INDEPENDENT SUCCESS

A multinational corporation decided to sell its consumer products business unit to entirely focus on one product category.

DURING
During a Day 1 project, the to-be-sold business unit was carved out of the selling company, still supported by the legacy (IT) infrastructure.

AFTER
After the business unit was sold to Private Equity (PE) a Day 2 project was executed to migrate the business unit to an entirely standalone company using new (IT) infrastructure.

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CUSTOMER CHALLENGES

The PE owner and the leadership team of the sold business unit decided on an extremely ambitious plan to migrate to a new, redesigned organization. This plan included some elements which made the Day 2 project even more high risk than any other M&A project.

The Day 2 project objective was not to ‘lift and shift’ its business operations but to have a greenfield implementation to become a digital-first, insights-led consumer product market leader.

The entire SAP suite was implemented as the company’s new technology platform. Deliberate choice was to become a launching customers for SAP’s latest technology, including Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) functionalities.

Exactly after one year of its acquisition by the PE owner, employees were downsized impacting the Day 2 project significantly.

Although 18 months may seem considerable time for a project, for setting up a new multi-billion organization wall-to-wall, ranging from a new corporate identity, different 3PL partners and new IT technology, these are aggressive timelines concluded by a hard TSA exit date without any delay.

DELIVERABLES

  • One year after acquisition by the PE owner, two pilot regions went live and temporary measures applied to run in parallel. Within 6 months the remaining regions and business operations went live without major business impediments.
  • To understand consumer markets spread across 100 countries, the new company developed a business model and supporting
    technology built for the future. This carve-out was a one-time opportunity to transform from a product-centric to a customer- and consumer-centric business.
  • The project has been characterized as ‘the largest program of its kind – anywhere, in any industry’. The new company has full control over its technology infrastructure and saving costs by reducing the size of its redesigned IT team. Despite staff cuts and a high pressure project, employee engagement has increased by 50 percent.

 

OUR CONTRIBUTION TO SUCCESS

  • Purple Square provided a team in key roles for this program. During the Day 1 project, our team managed a worldwide User Acceptance Test with more than 500 staff members executing 10.000+ test scripts. The team continued to manage the big bang GoLive and hypercare.
  • The Day 2 project was even more widely supported by a Purple Square team. From initial set up of a Project Management Office to design and manage all testing and prepare multiple cutovers. From business operations to IT infrastructure, project activities and business continuity were supported hands-on.