Tata Interactive Systems outlines M&A integration strategy

Speaking at the second Annual Mergers & Acquisitions Forum being held in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Sanjaya Sharma, chief executive of the global e-learning producer, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), has outlined an integration solution that enables companies to maximise value from an acquired or merged business.

The prestigious forum, attended by many of the Middle East’s most influential chief executive officers, managing directors, vice presidents and directors, attracts delegates from the most advanced investment companies and other key enterprises across the major industries in the Middle East.

According to Mohamed Alwi, the event’s organiser: “The Forum highlights the strategies for operating effectively within a restricted, regulated framework. Importantly, the Forum addresses issues relating to overcoming potential obstacles and challenges for the effective integration of businesses.”

In his keynote address, Sharma revealed that, in the first six months of this year, there were more than 15,000 mergers recorded – ten per cent more than last year – and the value of these mergers was $367.8bn. However, he added, analysts have revealed that 60 per cent of acquisitions fail to deliver returns exceeding the cost of capital; 70 per cent of mergers fail to achieve their anticipated value, and only 17 per cent of these deals provided substantial returns to shareholders.

“The reasons for this include lack of a clear strategy; misunderstanding the nature of the assets; inability to maximise potential synergies, and mismanaging organisational and human issues,” said Sharma, whose recipe for merger and acquisition success is ‘integration’, involving ‘visualising the future enterprise’ and ‘preparing the workforce for the future’.

Sharma was speaking from personal experience. In January this year, TIS acquired two companies -Tertia Edusoft AG in Switzerland and Tertia Edusoft GmbH in Germany - from the Tertia Group, a leading provider of human resources management solutions in Germany.

With these acquisitions came the ability to produce enterprise-wide management simulations through Tertia’s proprietary product line, TOPSIM, the leading simulation product in Germany. TOPSIM has been successfully implemented in business education and professional training for more than 20 years in German-speaking countries and is currently being used by more than 1,000 customers.

TOPSIM - a complex, decision-making multiplayer simulation that offers learners a systemic perspective of the business environment - complements TIS’s proprietary model for building simulations: Simulation-based Learning Objects (SimBLs™). SimBLs™ are compact, web-enabled applications that provide an immersive and focused learning experience, related to particular concepts.

“Both of these products can be used successfully in the integration process to bring about a successful merger,” said Sharma. “TOPSIM addresses the ‘visualising the future enterprise’ issue, while SimBLs™, along with other products like Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs™), help to prepare the workforce for the future.”

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Notes for editors

About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global leader in e-learning, is a part of the $22bn Tata Group. Truly international, TIS has a presence across the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Japan, South Africa, India, and mainland Europe. TIS offers corporations, universities, schools, publishers, and government institutions a diversified and innovative bouquet of learning and training solutions including Simulation-based Learning Objects (SimBLs™), Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs™), courseware and curriculum design, special-needs education, assessments, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), mobile learning, along with other corporate training and consultancy services. Our multi-disciplinary expertise and 16 years’ experience across domains helps us design e-learning programmes that are unique to clients’ requirements and specifically crafted to boost knowledge retention and application.

Apart from holding ISO 9001 certification, TIS is the only e-learning organisation in the world to be assessed at Level 5 in both the SEI-CMM and P-CMM frameworks. TIS’s quest for excellence is reflected in numerous prestigious industry awards, including a Silver Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award 2005 and 2004, APEX Award of Excellence in 2005 and 2006, BETT Awards in 2004 and 2006, and two Business World–NID Design Excellence awards.

For more information log on to www.tatainteractive.com


About the Tata Group

The Tata Group, established in 1904 by the great visionary Jamsetji Tata, is one of India’s largest and most trusted business houses. The group pioneered the industrial revolution in India by founding the first steel plant, power plant and chain of luxury hotels, to name but a few.

The Group employs more than 220,000 people in 93 companies across diversified industry sectors including steel, automobiles, cement, telecom and IT. Generating revenues to the tune of $22 billion per year – some three per cent of India’s total GDP – it is recognised as a leader in several industry segments such as such as steel, power, software exports and chemicals. It is also the parent company to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia’s largest software producer.

For more information, log on to www.tata.com

Further information from:
Alan Samuel, Tata Interactive Systems, 020 7905 0156, www.tatainteractive.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 01727 860405, www.boblittlepr.com