Unilever Selects SAP as Standard for Global IT Strategy

by Iris Eidling

Agreement Solidifies SAP(R) ERP and SAP NetWeaver(R) as Cornerstone of Unilever's Global Business Transformation

SAP AG today announced that Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, has strengthened its long-time relationship with SAP by naming the leading business software company as the global premium IT solution provider to enable and support Unilever's global business transformation strategy. Unilever signed a Global Enterprise Agreement with SAP in December 2006 to aid its global business transformation project, thus enabling broad access to licensed SAP(R) solutions. Global Enterprise Agreements strengthen SAP's position as the long-term strategic partner to its customers, enabling business agility and growth as they evolve their global IT landscapes to enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA). Unilever is the first consumer packaged goods company to sign such an agreement with SAP. The announcement was made at SAPPHIRE(R) '07, SAP's international customer conference, being held in Vienna, Austria, May 14 - 16.

Unilever is engaged in the "One Unilever" program, a significant business transformation that continues to streamline and standardize business processes across the companies' three operating regions -- Asia/AMET (Africa, Middle East and Turkey), Europe and the Americas -- helping drive revenue growth and increase operational excellence.

"This agreement enables us not only to accelerate business transformation, but also drive significant IT simplification as we move toward our destination IT architecture," said Neil Cameron, chief information officer, Unilever. "Critically, as we move to fewer, more strategic IT partners it also gives us the influence over the SAP portfolio planning process and enhances our ability to work side-by-side with SAP on state-of-the-art industry solutions that we need from them to enable and further strengthen our global market presence."

In addition to collaboration on enhancements and recommendations for SAP's product portfolio, teams at SAP and Unilever will collaborate regionally and globally to identify best practices within the current SAP implementation with a goal to leverage these for Unilever's wider global organization. Unilever's IT team will have in-depth contact with SAP's consumer products experts, drawing upon SAP's more than 20 years of industry experience serving consumer goods companies, for guidance and support throughout the IT transformation process.

"Unilever's commitment to SAP as its strategic business partner for the next five years is a testament to the success of our long-standing relationship and the value that Unilever has been able to derive not only from SAP solutions, but also our business process expertise," said Leo Apotheker, deputy CEO and executive board member, SAP AG.