Accelerating Value Realization Through People-Centered Integration
Project Overview
TotalEnergies’ acquisition of Maersk Oil required 5,500 people to move into an organization with different systems, cultures and ways of working. The integration called for the adoption of new business processes, tools and values across multiple global locations, including Aberdeen, Copenhagen, Esbjerg, Kazakhstan and Houston.
Afiniti was appointed as the change partner to support integration activities, following an earlier engagement with Maersk Oil. The initial request focused on resolving urgent pain points within the ERP domain. Afiniti was then asked to support the full IT integration workstream, delivering business change services across 4 ERP projects, local change support in Aberdeen, Copenhagen, Esbjerg, Kazakhstan and Houston, as well as support for the wider program activities.
Our Solution
- Co-created a consolidated change management plan with the internal change team through collaborative workshops, creating a forward view of key change activities.
- Coordinated day one activities so employees could access systems at launch, supported by user guides, password guides and floor-walker assistance.
- Managed a comprehensive technical migration, including email address changes, IT equipment rollout alongside technical teams, help desk and drop-in center implementation, and security pass distribution required for computer access. Coordinated the intranet migration from Maersk Oil to TotalEnergies.
- Established dedicated change teams for key locations, applying a consistent methodology and aligning activity to support added value.
- Created a sophisticated planning template to monitor critical deliverables and activities.
- Supported five SAP projects:
– Developing a bold visual identity and collateral templates that brought consistency to messaging across all affiliates
-Completing comprehensive change impact assessments across all business functions and developing stakeholder analysis, personas and key message frameworks to guide communications
-Managing and equipping the change adoption networks for UK and Danish affiliates
-Building business readiness dashboards that tracked activities owned and driven by the business
-Supporting business continuity planning, coordinating and aligning business teams
-Creating intranet resources for the new ERP solution and developing a training hub with location-specific materials.
-Coordinating hypercare support during the critical post-go-live period.
-Supporting the carve-out activities for the Kazakhstan affiliate
The Differences We Made
- By placing people at the center of the integration, rather than treating the work as a purely technical migration, we de-risked the entire project. Employees received consistent, proactive communication and support, reducing uncertainty throughout the transition.
- The planning template was adopted across the wider organization as the gold standard for tracking progress through later integration phases.
- Our end-to-end change management approach supported the smooth integration of all systems, from core business applications to everyday tools such as email, meeting rooms and video conferencing. This enabled a faster return to BAU and earlier realization of the synergies behind the acquisition.
- TotalEnergies UK became the first affiliate to successfully implement the UNISOL (SAP) solution, setting the standard for a global rollout.
- The combination of help desks, training hubs and floor-walker support significantly reduced productivity losses commonly associated with large-scale system migrations.
- By building robust change management capability, we created a repeatable model that TotalEnergies could use for future rollouts, turning a complex merger integration into a foundation for sustainable global business transformation and ongoing knowledge sharing.
Our M&A experience
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