London and Redmond, Wash., April 3, 2023 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Unilever (LSE: ULVR) have accomplished one of many largest and most complicated cloud migrations within the shopper items business. The migration has helped Unilever – whose 400+ manufacturers are utilized by 3.4 billion individuals every day – turn into a cloud-only enterprise.
Accenture and Microsoft, along with their three way partnership, Avanade, labored carefully with Unilever to ship the transformation in simply 18 months with minimal disruption to enterprise operations. It has not solely helped guarantee resilient, safe and optimized operations for Unilever but in addition gives a platform to drive innovation and progress.
With Azure as its main cloud platform, Unilever will be capable of speed up product launches, improve customer support and enhance operational effectivity. Moreover, the transfer to Azure aligns with Unilever’s sustainability dedication by serving to the corporate to construct on the progress it’s making in the direction of curbing carbon emissions.
The creation of an agile, high-performing digital core that delivers larger effectivity will present Unilever with elevated computing energy to discover new methods of working. Unilever’s adoption of a cloud-only method will considerably enhance enterprise resilience, strengthening safety and enhancing management of the IT panorama.
Accenture, Microsoft and Unilever have set a brand new benchmark for cloud transformation within the shopper items business, together with:
- Unlocking new innovation alternatives, resembling using industrial metaverse applied sciences that use real-time information from manufacturing facility digital twins to speed up (gentle home) factories of the longer term and construct upon current cloud information platform to energy insights and predictions.
- Accelerating the flexibility to establish tendencies and make choices quicker. By leveraging the ability of the cloud, synthetic intelligence and its robust information basis, Unilever can forecast and adapt to altering market wants quicker than ever earlier than. For instance, this can allow Unilever to attain perpetual breakthroughs in analysis and improvement, permitting for brand spanking new and modern merchandise to be developed quicker and with larger effectivity.
- Embracing the newest in AI to drive higher experiences by making use of Azure OpenAI Service throughout Unilever’s enterprise to drive elevated automation, enabling higher buyer and worker experiences.
- Lowering its carbon footprint by exiting its datacenters and introducing Inexperienced Cloud Advisor, which facilitates Unilever’s transition to a extra sustainable and environment friendly cloud atmosphere.
Steve McCrystal, Chief Enterprise & Know-how Officer, Unilever mentioned, “Unilever is a very data-powered group. We’re utilizing superior analytics to make better-informed choices faster than ever earlier than. Working with Accenture and Microsoft on this international transformation undertaking, we are able to reply to ever-changing shopper wants quicker, allocate our assets extra successfully to give attention to what drives progress, and convey companies and merchandise to the market quicker.”
Nicole van Det, Senior Managing Director and World Account Government, Accenture mentioned, “the trail to enterprise resilience now and sooner or later is thru complete enterprise reinvention – which entails the transformation of each a part of the enterprise – with cloud on the core. With entry to the total continuum of cloud capabilities, together with generative AI, Unilever has the elasticity to drive innovation quicker, speed up progress and proceed to set the tempo as a digital powerhouse and chief in its business.”
“Along with Accenture, we’re proud to develop our longstanding partnership with Unilever,” mentioned Judson Althoff, government vice chairman and chief business officer, Microsoft. “With Microsoft Azure as its cloud basis, Unilever’s end-to-end digitization will allow speedy innovation throughout its total enterprise. From embracing the economic metaverse throughout its factories to reimagining how its traces of enterprise can do extra with instruments like Azure OpenAI Service, Unilever’s digital-first method will empower it to develop resiliently and exceed the business’s tempo of innovation.”
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About Accenture
Accenture is a number one international skilled companies firm that helps the world’s main companies, governments and different organizations construct their digital core, optimize their operations, speed up income progress and improve citizen companies—creating tangible worth at pace and scale. We’re a expertise and innovation led firm with 738,000 individuals serving shoppers in additional than 120 international locations. Know-how is on the core of change in the present day, and we’re one of many world’s leaders in serving to drive that change, with robust ecosystem relationships. We mix our power in expertise with unmatched business expertise, purposeful experience and international supply functionality. We’re uniquely in a position to ship tangible outcomes due to our broad vary of companies, options and belongings throughout Technique & Consulting, Know-how, Operations, Business X and Accenture Music. These capabilities, along with our tradition of shared success and dedication to creating 360° worth, allow us to assist our shoppers succeed and construct trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° worth we create for our shoppers, one another, our shareholders, companions and communities. Go to us at www.accenture.com.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) allows digital transformation for the period of an clever cloud and an clever edge. Its mission is to empower each particular person and each group on the planet to attain extra.
About Unilever
Unilever is without doubt one of the world’s main suppliers of Magnificence & Wellbeing, Private Care, Residence Care, Vitamin and Ice Cream merchandise, with gross sales in over 190 international locations and merchandise utilized by 3.4 billion individuals day by day. We’ve got 148,000 staff and generated gross sales of €60.1 billion in 2022. Our imaginative and prescient is to be the worldwide chief in sustainable enterprise and to exhibit how our function led, future-fit enterprise mannequin drives superior efficiency. We’ve got a protracted custom of being a progressive, accountable enterprise. The Unilever Compass, our sustainable enterprise technique, is got down to assist us ship superior efficiency and drive sustainable and accountable progress, whereas: – bettering the well being of the planet; – bettering individuals’s well being, confidence and wellbeing; – and contributing to a fairer and extra socially inclusive world. For extra details about Unilever and our manufacturers, please go to www.unilever.com
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Media Contacts:
Unilever: [email protected]
Accenture: Tara Burns, London, UK, [email protected]
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]