Either I have missed it or it isn't out there, but I have not seen much discussion about the potential value of BPM in an acquisition process. One of the huge challenges in acquiring a company is integration of data and applications. Coming from the pharmaceutical industry, a biggest acquisition on my mind is that of CVS acquiring Caremark (or possible Express Scripts acquiring Caremark).
If the acquiring company had a clearly documented process with automated rules, they could provide customers with a more seamless experience right away. Rather than worry about which systems to use and managing all the migrations, they could enhance the BPM process and system to use logic about which systems it integrated with. For example, it could have a customer inquiry link on the new website that queried an integrated customer database and then routed it into the different CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems based on whether it was a CVS or Caremark customer. Extrapolating this across all your major processes would simplify the initial year of an acquisition dramatically.
A good friend of mine even suggested that getting Private Equity companies that are doing all these acquisitions to have a BPM system would be a good strategy. They could buy a new company and implement their best practice processes quickly. This would leverage their management experience and give them process visibility immediately. I haven't had time to pitch some of my friends in this space, but I think there is something there.
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