Mergers, by definition, always involve disruption to one or other of the parties concerned, but when the combined new entity entails a complete move to new premises as well, it can become a logistics nightmare that needs strong project management. This is exactly the situation that the recently formed STANLIB Limited was facing.
Stanlib Limited was created in early 2002 by the bringing together of Standard Bank`s Unit Trust and Linked Investment Services units, SCMB`s asset management unit, and Liberty`s asset management, LCI and LSI units. These numerous divisions, located in five different places in and around Johannesburg and Sandton, were to be `re-housed` in a new, and at that time, unfinished building at Melrose Arch, since no other suitable premises were available to provide the 10 000sq m of space required to accommodate and support the 600+ staff members.
The three different aspects of this move were firstly the `building fit-out` under the control of the landlord; secondly, the installation of the technology infrastructure, so fundamental to the business, under the auspices of Standard Bank; and lastly, the co-ordination of the physical people move, which also included the integration of that plan with the other two sets of activities. One of the most important aspects of this project was to develop a business continuity plan and a risk register to ensure that there was zero disruption to business operations.
As was normal for any Standard Bank/Liberty project of this size and complexity, an external project manager was contracted for the third aspect of this overall project, with a staff member of Rethink Management Consulting fulfilling this role. Rethink already had a successful track record with the principals and had the specific resources available that matched the required specifications. Other members of Rethink were also involved in the project.
Specifically, the co-ordination of the physical people move involved ensuring that all critical requirements for the business were in place prior to any move. This included such issues as office automation, where Rethink drove the process to implement a more efficient and cost-effective system; the PABX requirements; and the facilitation of the flow of information to the various consultants on the Fit Out team, who were handling security, space planning, electrical, and other similar issues.
"A seamless move with zero down time was the `order of the day`," commented Andre du Plessis, CIO Technology of STANLIB Ltd. "The target was to move all the staff across during weekends but avoiding quarter-end periods and other similar events, and at the earliest possible time.
"This task involved a plan which involved an extremely high attention to detail; ensured that the dependencies on the technology infrastructure were complete, including a disaster recovery set-up; and necessitated the involvement of an individual that could interface to all the staff without the involvement of any `company politics`," continued Du Plessis.
"The move was undertaken very successfully over three weekends at the end of November and the beginning of December 2002. These dates were well ahead of the original completion plan for the building and it would have meant a delay to mid-February 2003, if the second window of opportunity had had to be utilised," concluded Du Plessis. "As a direct result of this success, Rethink have already been involved in further project work at STANLIB."
Although the bulk of this merger involved the staff in Johannesburg and Sandton, parallel activities involving another 75+ staff members was being undertaken in Pretoria, Durban, George, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town under the auspices of the same project plan.
For further information, please contact Kem Tissiman at telephone 082 413 6044; fax (011) 783 7841; e-mail kem@rethink.co.za
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Rethink Management Consulting is an independent company that provides a set of integrated services that are aimed at helping organisations with their ongoing business improvement and development initiatives. Rethink works closely with its clients to help identify and design business change initiatives, as well as with the management and execution thereof.
Rethink`s end objective is to help its clients achieve improvements in the areas of financial performance and customer service. The core services offered are process engineering, production management/productivity improvement and project management.
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