Unilever and Unisys Ink IT Outsourcing Pact

Unisys announced that its UK subsidiary has won an information technology (IT) outsourcing contract from Unilever, a provider of foods and home and personal care products.

Under the terms of the contract, Unisys will provide a range of IT management and support services for more than 60,000 Unilever employees across North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Russia and Central Eastern Europe.

The initial term of the agreement is four years, with an option for a one-year extension. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The services include service centre, desktop management and desk-side support, as well as the management of future desktop technology. A key focus for Unisys will be providing a services framework that enables Unilever employees, who use mobile and consumer technologies for business, to have access to productivity tools wherever they work or travel. Those initiatives include programs to provide Unilever employees more flexibility and choice in using and supporting the latest computing devices; self-help solutions which enable end users to fix routine problems; and access to server-based virtualized applications and other green IT initiatives to support Unilever's carbon emissions reduction plans.

"We selected Unisys as our key partner for end-user support services because of the company's proven service delivery capabilities and innovative roadmap for evolving desktop services to provide our workforce with anywhere, anytime access to tools critical to their business productivity," said Peter Opalka, vice president of Global Client Services at Unilever. "Unisys shares our vision for leveraging innovative, cost-effective IT management practices to empower our employees with greater flexibility and choice in how they perform their roles."

Unisys will support the engagement from service centres across the world, including Budapest and Bangalore among others. The Unisys centres are certified to the ISO/IEC 20000 and 27001:2005 standards for IT service management and security, respectively.

"Unilever has a clear, long-range view of how it wants to leverage IT to enable maximum employee productivity and business growth - and that makes working with Unilever a very exciting prospect for Unisys," said Ron Frankenfield, vice president, Global Sales, Unisys Global Outsourcing and Infrastructure Services. "Unisys looks forward to a long and mutually-beneficial relationship with Unilever."

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