Integrating three pharmaceutical businesses within one year while implementing SAP, harmonising finance and supporting major operational change.
The gap
Three established pharmaceutical businesses had been brought together, but legal combination alone would not create one effective UK organisation. The businesses retained different processes, systems, policies, reporting practices and ways of working. At the same time, the wider group was pursuing significant manufacturing and operational rationalisation.
The challenge was therefore not a conventional finance integration or a stand-alone systems implementation. Finance, operations, technology, people and governance had to be redesigned as one connected programme, without weakening business continuity or management control.
Why it mattered
Fragmented financial information and inconsistent processes would have made it difficult to manage the combined organisation, measure synergies or take timely operational decisions. A poorly sequenced integration could also have embedded the legacy structures inside the new ERP system and delayed the benefits of the merger.
The UK leadership team needed a clear operating model, common financial disciplines and a system capable of supporting the new organisation—not simply automating three different versions of the past.
What we did
Acting as UK CFO, David Roberts led the finance integration and SAP implementation and contributed to the wider manufacturing and operational transformation. The work brought together the decisions required to create one finance function and connected those decisions with the broader programme.
- Established a common finance structure, accountabilities and management disciplines across the three businesses.
- Led the finance contribution to the SAP implementation, aligning processes and information requirements before system configuration.
- Standardised financial policies, procedures and reporting so that management could operate from a consistent view of performance.
- Supported manufacturing rationalisation by connecting operational choices to their financial, control and value implications.
- Contributed to a wider global programme to standardise financial policies and procedures, including a consistent transfer-pricing methodology.
- Maintained senior ownership of dependencies, decisions and benefit delivery throughout the integration.
The outcome
The three UK businesses were integrated into a coherent operation within one year. SAP and common processes provided a stronger platform for control, reporting and management decision-making. The wider transformation and rationalisation programme delivered savings exceeding $100 million.
The work also created methods that could be applied beyond the UK, contributing to greater consistency, efficiency and control across global manufacturing and operations.
What it demonstrates
Merger value is realised when operating-model, process, technology and financial decisions are treated as one transformation. Senior finance leadership can provide the connective tissue: establishing a reliable view of value, exposing dependencies and ensuring that system implementation supports the future business.
- Post-merger integration
- Finance transformation
- SAP and ERP implementation leadership
- Operating-model and process standardisation
- Manufacturing rationalisation
- Synergy and value realisation