Unilever has signed a contract to outsource significant parts of its financial transactional services to IBM. The agreement covers more than 20 European countries and is part of the One Unilever program to improve efficiencies at the world’s second largest personal products company.
IBM will provide financial services including purchase-to-pay, general accounting, and bill-to-cash transactions. Services will be delivered from IBM centers in Portugal, Poland, and India. The deal is expected to deliver significant cost savings to Unilever during its seven years.
“IBM brings strong business process knowledge, deep technical expertise, and a flexible, responsive business model to finance shared services. As a specialist in this area, IBM will be able to help us optimize our business process performance and deliver additional savings in support of our core business: offering consumers excellent brands and products,” said Kees van der Graaf, president of Unilever Europe.
The announcement by Unilever is the first of several expected from the multinational. The company is also expected to announce a major HRO by March.
