Lomi’s Agency Case Study on Innovation & Growth

Vipps 
September 2019 - February 2020
Oslo

When Vipps, BankAxept, and BankID merged, they weren’t just combining operations. They had to integrate different digital banking systems, company cultures, and decision-making processes. It was like trying to merge three different playbooks into one, without losing momentum or morale.

A transition of this scale required more than just technical alignment. It needed to be something teams actually owned and executed. So, we led Vipps through a structured, employee-driven transformation that ensured strategy wasn’t just a document.

A technology strategy to foster speed and alignment after one of Norway’s biggest fintech mergers.

Challenge

The Risk of a Merger Stalling Out.
Bringing three companies together meant merging different:

Systems and tools—risking inefficiencies and tech misalignment.
Ways of working—leading to potential friction between teams.
Company cultures—creating uncertainty and slowing down decision-making.

Without a clear post-merger strategy, Vipps could have ended up with siloed teams, slow innovation, and disengaged employees. Studies show that roughly 50% of mergers fail due to post-merger integration challenges and poor strategic planning¹. Vipps knew they needed more than just a generic, top-down solution. They needed a strategy that teams could rally around—and that’s what we built.

Process

Merging companies isn’t just about combining operations—it’s about aligning people, processes, and technology in a way that drives sustainable success. Vipps needed a strategy that wasn’t just a top-down mandate but something teams could take ownership of and use in their daily work.

Identifying Business Goals, Challenges, and Opportunities

Before building a strategy, we needed to get the full picture. This meant:

Mapping out existing digital banking strategies to see what worked and what didn’t.
Interviewing leadership and key stakeholders to surface roadblocks and priorities.
Defining key focus areas, including mobile payments optimization and financial accessibility.
Hosting an all-hands kick-off workshop to align teams and get buy-in from the start.

Instead of imposing a pre-made solution, we worked with Vipps to create a strategy tailored to their reality.

Validating Strategy with Leadership
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With a foundation in place, we focused on getting leadership alignment. We:

Ran strategy validation workshops with the technology leadership team.
Engaged executive leadership to refine priorities and ensure strategic clarity.
Created a roadmap, balancing quick wins with long-term execution.

Putting Strategy in the Hands of Teams

Rather than a top-down rollout, we empowered teams to shape execution themselves. This involved:

Creating work-streams with the technology leadership team.
Weekly check-ins with work-stream leaders to refine focus and identify gaps
Delivering actionable recommendations with clear KPIs and execution plans.

From Insights to an Actionable Technology Roadmap

With everything aligned, we translated insights into a practical, scalable roadmap:

Prioritizing deliverables based on business impact and execution feasibility.
Unification of results in a cohesive strategy validated by leadership.
Developing communication tools to help teams easily adopt and use the strategy.

Bringing Strategy to Life

A strategy only works if people use it. We ensured execution by:

Launching an interactive rollout event, where work-stream leaders and the CTO presented the strategy.
Ensuring teams understood how the strategy impacted their daily work.
Delivering a technology management system to support ongoing execution and KPI tracking. management system with proposal for task prioritisation and associated resource allocation, KPIs and management follow-up

Outcomes

Vipps' strategy succeeded because it tackled the biggest challenges of post-merger integration head-on:

Employees took ownership of execution—they helped shape the strategy, making adoption natural.
Business & tech alignment—combining business strategy with fintech execution ensured scalability.
Sustained impact—Vipps still uses the framework we developed, proving its long-term value.

Want to dive deeper into the process? Read Vipps’ CTO Jan Solhøy’s reflections on the strategy here.

Key learnings

Vipps' strategy succeeded because it tackled the biggest challenges of post-merger integration head-on:

Engage employees early. Strategy isn’t something to “deliver” to teams—it needs to be shaped with them.
Balance structure with flexibility. A rigid playbook won’t work in a fast-changing environment.
Execution is everything. A strategy that sits in a slide deck doesn’t help anyone—make it practical.

¹ Brent B. Allred, Kimberly B. Boal, and William K. Holstein, "Corporations as Stepfamilies: A New Metaphor for Explaining the Fate of Merged and Acquired Companies," Academy of Management Executive 19, no. 3 (2005)

Build a scalable technology strategy with us

Navigating a post-merger integration or optimizing your digital transformation strategy? At Lomi Agency, we specialize in business strategy consulting, helping fintech companies like Vipps align their technology strategy with business goals.

Hallgrim Sagen

Business Design & Strategy, Managing Partner

hallgrim.sagen@lomi.agency

Vipps technology strategy