We are moving downstream: The fusion of Comvation & Cubetech

In the summer of 2023, Comvation acquired the digital agency Cubetech in Bern. Strictly speaking, “acquire” isn’t quite the right word. In fact, Comvation bought out the Cubetech brand and took over its client base and the remaining two employees. But summarizing this in one word is a bit tricky, so we prefer to call it a “merger.” This union marks a milestone in our growth strategy, and we are thrilled to now be able to implement even more exciting projects in the beautiful capital city.

Two steps forward, one step back

The merger not only expanded our service portfolio but also strengthened our presence in the city of Bern. We are incredibly excited to now be able to carry out projects in Bern as well. However, the road to success was not easy. One of the biggest challenges was reputation. Cubetech had some legacy issues that needed to be addressed before the actual collaboration could begin. Over the past few months, we have worked hard to regain the trust of customers. Now, we are ready and set to rock new digital projects!

The fine art of system integration

One aspect of a merger that is often underestimated is tooling. The integration of systems, processes, and tools requires not only technical know-how but also time and resources. Choosing the right tools and deciding which systems should be merged took more time than expected. The question arose as to which tool was better suited and made more sense. Additionally, certain tools had to be run in parallel for a while until customer projects could be successfully merged. This transition phase required a high level of planning and coordination to ensure that customer projects were continuously supported and the efficiency of the merger was not compromised. The team had to mobilize many internal resources to ensure that the merger went smoothly and efficiency was not affected. A big thank you to everyone for the extra effort!

Another hurdle, albeit a relatively small one, was the different working methods of the two companies. While Comvation primarily managed stable support and many small projects, Cubetech focused on fewer but larger projects, with a project-based support approach. Combining these different working methods required flexibility, communication, and compromise from both sides.

A new team forms

What worked smoothly, however, was the integration of the employees. The newly merged team quickly became one heart and soul, and we are particularly proud of that. Becoming “one team” quickly was especially important because only in this way could we learn from each other and ensure a smooth transfer of know-how.

In hindsight, you always know better. But it’s all about learning from such processes. Therefore, we can only say: There might be a few things we would do differently today, but we can’t go back, and we don’t want to. We are proud of how we managed the merger and look forward to a shared future along the banks of the Aare.