Page 66 - Initial Public Offering - An Introduction to IPO on Wall Street

HR Systems—With the battle for talent continuing globally, it can be one of the toughest
obstacles for an organization to recruit and retain talent. In this field, a scalable, interconnected,
readily customizable HR system can help. Most businesses would want to search for one that
spans not only core HR management tasks, but also aspects such as strategic hiring, employee
growth, internal employee relations, social and mobile networking, and integrated measures to
enable robust analytics of talent.

Customer Relationship Management Systems—During the period leading up to an IPO,
investors will pay special attention to the growth prospects of a business and determine whether
the firm has the resources and processes to produce profitability. Organizations should take
action to collect all knowledge flows about current and potential business opportunities and
incorporate them within a centralized database in order to better boost sales and revenues in
the 18 months before an IPO. This will provide a full image to top management so that it can
concentrate efforts on high-potential possibilities, anticipate future growth sectors, and recruit
and empower sales management to keep the momentum going.
While it may seem overwhelming to crank up systems and procedures, particularly when a
business is entrenched in the other complications of IPO planning, there are significant
advantages to having the required platforms in order to facilitate the business and the
anticipated IPO.

4.3.17 Project Management, Change Management, and Communication

As part of the IPO readiness assessment, organizations must develop a strong project
management office (PMO) function. To successfully launch an IPO, it is important to make
several decisions and organize the different sections of your organization to accomplish
common objectives.

An efficient PMO would help in managing internal and external resources from a broad range
of consultants and units of the organization. In order to accomplish a degree of success that
may be crucial to the success of your IPO process and the consumer perception of your
business, appropriate and effective project management is necessary.

The creation of a PMO to handle IPO planning activities involves several factors and many
variables dependent on the contact preferences of an entity, the previous level of engagement
with a PMO and knowledge of the criteria of the public company for those charged with
conducting the public tasks in progress.

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