When organizations enter a merger or acquisition, management focuses on valuation, cultural match, and long-term synergy. However M&A hit additionally depends upon the bodily setting, akin to how individuals work, the place they work, and whether or not buildings and property stay totally operational all through the transition.
Facility groups in the end decide how easily two organizations can combine and the way reliably the mixed enterprise can assist its individuals from Day 1.
Key takeaways
- Facility insights are important for figuring out M&A dangers early and decreasing uncertainty
- Unified office programs enhance information accuracy, speed up decision-making, and strengthen compliance
- Standardizing drawings, occupancy information, and asset info lays the groundwork for assured integration
- Office continuity depends upon dependable reserving instruments, clear communication, and constant hybrid operations
- BMO’s transformation reveals how unified worktech turns complexity into readability throughout acquisitions
The story of BMO, a number one North American financial institution with 4,500+ workers throughout greater than 50 places, illustrates this clearly. After buying Financial institution of the West (BOTW), BMO inherited a big, advanced portfolio with inconsistent drawing requirements, completely different methodologies, and restricted cross-organizational visibility.
By standardizing information and consolidating their house planning workflows in Serraview by Eptura, they remodeled uncertainty into readability, which is precisely the kind of resilience organizations want throughout M&A transitions.
How FM impacts M&A readiness
Facility groups affect M&A readiness lengthy earlier than Day 1 arrives. Their insights present decision-makers with a practical understanding of how the mixed footprint features and what will likely be required to maintain operations working easily.
Executives depend upon FM groups for foundational questions akin to:
- What number of buildings, flooring, and workpoints are in scope?
- What situation are the amenities in?
- How does hybrid work affect usable capability?
- Which places ought to stay open, consolidate, or shut?
With out this readability, leaders threat making strategic selections, associated to consolidation, growth, or lease commitments, based mostly on incomplete or outdated info.
BMO skilled this problem early of their acquisition. BOTW’s floorplans and drawing requirements differed considerably from BMO’s, limiting their capability to research occupancy or future planning situations.
By partnering with Eptura to unify information and add 60 BOTW floorplans into their system, BMO established a single supply of reality that accelerated governance, planning, and decision-making.
Figuring out hidden price and threat
A few of the most consequential dangers in an acquisition are bodily and operational, not monetary. Facility groups are sometimes the primary to uncover liabilities that have an effect on integration timelines and post-deal price forecasts.
Widespread hidden dangers embrace:
- Deferred upkeep or growing old infrastructure
- Overlapping or underutilized leases
- Compliance gaps in security, allowing, or inspections
- Unclear asset alternative wants or lifecycle prices
- Knowledge inconsistencies that distort planning assumptions
BMO confronted a number of of those challenges throughout their transition, together with inconsistent information methodologies and restricted visibility into occupancy and house allocation. These gaps made it troublesome to standardize reporting or consider the true situation of the inherited portfolio.
Their answer was to consolidate 1.3 million sq. toes in Serraview and align 5,000 workpoints below one unified framework—decreasing threat by making certain everybody labored from correct, constant info.
Operational continuity planning
Even in periods of main organizational change, workers nonetheless count on a functioning, secure, and predictable office. Facility managers uphold this continuity and guarantee important operations stay steady.
Operational continuity depends upon FM groups managing:
- Constructing programs (HVAC, safety, entry management, utilities)
- Inspection and compliance schedules
- Vendor coordination and service-level agreements
- Hybrid office instruments and house reserving programs
- Transfer planning, onboarding areas, and office transitions
Any disruption throughout the integration interval can have an effect on productiveness, worker morale, customer support, or regulatory standing.
That is the place unified office programs, like Eptura Office, play a vital function. They preserve consistency throughout reserving, wayfinding, occupancy insights, and house utilization, making certain workers have a seamless expertise even because the group undergoes vital change.
For BMO, this meant adopting a system that might scale. As Tera Oswald famous, the staff found new methods to make use of the Eptura platform as integration progressed, enhancing continuity and decreasing friction throughout a time of transformation.
Facility information throughout due diligence
Due diligence depends closely on operational information, particularly information tied to actual property, house, and property. Correct FM info shapes deal valuation, transition timelines, and post-close integration planning.
Executives require clear visibility into:
- Asset inventories and lifecycle timelines
- Occupancy patterns and hybrid utilization
- Upkeep histories and potential backlogs
- Lease commitments and renewal publicity
- Environmental, security, and compliance necessities
- Area readiness for incoming groups or consolidations
If this information is inaccurate or incomplete, deal modeling turns into much less dependable and operational dangers develop exponentially.
Through the BOTW integration, BMO found that with out standardized drawings and unified processes, they may not produce dependable occupancy or planning metrics. By consolidating their information into Serraview—and referencing constant house varieties, requirements, and organizational mappings—they created an correct, reliable dataset for portfolio selections.
For a lot of organizations, this type of due-diligence perception can also be supported by Eptura Asset, which centralizes asset situation, lifecycle standing, and compliance reporting to make sure nothing slips by means of the cracks.
Classes from previous M&A transitions
Organizations throughout industries—and BMO’s expertise specifically—spotlight a number of constant classes about FM’s function in M&A.
- First, operational alignment should start early. When organizations standardize office programs and information previous to Day 1, they scale back confusion and speed up integration
- Second, high-quality facility information is an important threat mitigator. It reveals hidden prices, clarifies consolidation alternatives, and prevents compliance gaps
- Third, steady communication between FM, IT, HR, actual property, and authorized groups ensures that the bodily setting helps the broader objectives of the transition
BMO’s success additionally underscores the significance of disciplined venture governance. Their partnership with Eptura included alignment workshops, weekly standing evaluations, and clearly outlined information necessities—all of which preserved momentum and minimized disruption. The consequence was a unified portfolio able to supporting strategic planning throughout thousands and thousands of sq. toes.
Incessantly requested questions
By Amanda Meade
Amanda Meade is a content material creator at Eptura, specializing in office expertise, assembly productiveness, and rising developments in workspace planning and customer administration. With a background in content material advertising and search engine marketing, she crafts clear, actionable content material that helps groups work smarter by means of in-office collaboration. All through her profession, Amanda has labored throughout industries, together with house providers, healthcare, actual property, and SaaS, creating a singular capability to distill advanced subjects into sensible insights.
