Canada Life Europe

Large-Scale Merger Integration Programme Management Set-Up and Management

Background

On 14 November 2002, Canada Life Assurance Europe Ltd announced its purchase of the German life assurance business of Prudential International Assurance Ltd, a subsidiary of Prudential plc of the UK, for 129m. The completion of the deal was achieved on 1 January 2003 and comprised the German policies sold under the SALI and PruGeneration brands, together with the distribution, technical and administration capacity relevant to that business.

Objectives

The integration programme had the following objectives:

• To integrate the business effectively by end 2003, using the Irish hub to serve the German market (Become One Business)
• To meet 2003 Canada Life Europe targets and achieve the economics of the purchase (Manage Performance)
• To create a unique competitive advantage and achieve strong profitable growth in Germany in the years ahead (Prepare For Growth)

A requirement for external programme and project management support to integrate the business was identified and Prospectus was engaged.

Approach Taken

The approach involved working closely with the Managing Director, Executive Team and Business Unit Managers in:

• Identifying and facilitating the delivery of Day 1 merger integration requirements
• Providing structure and discipline to develop and manage the overall integration at project sponsor, manager and programme levels
• Providing overall facilitation and co-ordination of eighteen projects of different size, complexity, interproject dependencies and multi-location delivery
• Upskilling eighteen Canada Life Project Managers in the project management methodology and toolkit being used to support the successful integration. This involved a combination of workshop training sessions, ongoing training and mentoring on how best to manage issues/risks etc., and shadowing a designated project manager over a two-month period with the objective of this person being skilled to perform a Programme role, post-Prospectus support to the company
• Managing the issues and risks associated with the successful implementation of large-scale integration programmes
• Providing weekly integration programme status updates to project sponsors and managers and a monthly progress report to the steering group and headquarters

Outcomes

Of the eighteen projects initiated and managed by Prospectus over the eight-month period, fourteen were successfully completed during Prospectus's involvement in the integration. The Programme Office worked closely with the business to ensure a smooth transition from the Prospectus team to the fully trained Canada Life Programme resource.

Canada Life valued the visible benefits of implementing strategy through a structured programme and project environment. This fostered a strong project management culture, which the company has continued to build on by initiating and managing critical activity using the project management methodology Prospectus developed with it.