OREANDA-NEWS. BT today announced that it has been awarded a three year extension to its IT outsourcing contract with Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. This is the third time it has been extended since

 BT first won its first contract with the Anglo-Dutch company in November 2002.

 Unilever operates on a global level with its world-leading brands, including Wall’s Ice Cream, Dove beauty products, Lipton and Knorr, consumed by two billion people daily. BT has worked with the company for more than a decade, providing innovative and sustainable network services and solutions which are helping the company grow its business more efficiently and sustainably.

 The new deal reaffirms Unilever’s commitment to using BT’s portfolio and managed services around the world to help it achieve its ambitious plans to grow its business, while reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its social impact. .

 As well as delivering a fully integrated network providing voice, data, video and mobility services to the company’s 173,000 employees across nearly 100 countries, BT is also delivering collaborative services such as audio-conferencing and video-conferencing. These services are helping Unilever become an increasingly more agile business and introduce more sustainable ways of working.

 Enabling its employees to work more flexibly and increasing the use of audio and video conferencing is helping Unilever reduce travel spend, increase productivity and efficiency and drive down costs. It also reduces its CO2 emissions and its overall impact on the environment, a key objective of the company’s sustainability ambitions.

 Luis Alvarez, chief executive officer, BT Global Services, said: “Unilever is a fast moving and dynamic company whose world-famous brands are bought by millions of customers across the globe, every day. The consumer goods market is extremely competitive and we understand the important role technology can play in helping them stay ahead of the game.

 “Unilever’s commitment to being a responsible, sustainable business is commendable and it is something that is very close to BT’s heart. We are delighted to continue our partnership with them to help them growth their business sustainably. This will also help us deliver BT’s Net Good goal to help our customers save three times as much carbon as the end-to-end impact of our business by 2020, a key part of our Better Future programme.”

 Paulo De Sa, VP Infrastructure Services, Unilever, said: “Few companies can offer such world-class, global, innovative and sustainable solutions to help us achieve our ambitious vision and, in this context, we are delighted to be able to continue our partnership with BT.

 “The continued innovative use of technology is helping us increase productivity by making our workforce more connected. We are becoming a more agile business and introducing more sustainable ways of working for our employees, customers and suppliers, as well as the two billion consumers who rely on our products every day.”

 The original contract, announced in November 2002, was the first comprehensive global telecommunications outsource contract ever undertaken by BT and remains one of its largest global deals. By working in partnership, BT has helped transform Unilever’s infrastructure into one of the most modern corporate networks in the world.