[Edel Tungehaug]

I have created an integration playbook in excel which is quite extensive, and then we adapt it for each integration project. However, there are a number of challenges with excel, although I prefer it compared to ppt. Some people find excel scary, and some mess it up and it is sometimes a bit fragile. I know there are some players out there with M&A online tools (Midaxo and Navima), however I’m looking for something that would specifically work for the IMO and that can be tailored. Anyone out there with some good suggestions? Can you tell me how you run the IMO – create and track governance, status, plan, checklists etc?

[Linda Scavone]

I came here to ask the same thing. I’m spending time on mundane formatting in Excel. We’ve just stood up a Corporate Development team. I’ve seen demos of a few tools (DealRoom and Bain’s Signal) and would like insights from practitioners. I’d like to focus on value-add activities and not tracking spreadsheet updates and versions and manual reporting.

[Alexandra]

It’s not the best, but I find using MS Planner slightly more convenient than excel spreadsheets. I created a PAI plan template in the planner and I re-create and then tailor it for every new acquisition. I like it more than spreadsheet because it’s easy to track progress of each task in there. However, there are some downsides for using the Planner, such as not being able to set dependencies and it may get a bit convoluted if you don’t set a particular process of using it.

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