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 advanced cloud migrations within the shopper items trade. The migration has helped Unilever – whose 400+ manufacturers are utilized by 3.4 billion folks every day – grow to be 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 offers a platform to drive innovation and development.

With Azure as its major cloud platform, Unilever will have the ability to 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 trade, together with:

• Unlocking new innovation alternatives, comparable to using industrial metaverse applied sciences that use real-time information from manufacturing facility digital twins to speed up (gentle home) factories of the long run and construct upon present cloud information platform to energy insights and predictions.
• Accelerating the flexibility to determine developments and make selections quicker. By leveraging the facility 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 may allow Unilever to attain perpetual breakthroughs in analysis and growth, permitting for brand 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 setting.

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 selections faster than ever earlier than. Working with Accenture and Microsoft on this world transformation challenge, we are able to reply to ever-changing shopper wants quicker, allocate our sources extra successfully to concentrate on what drives development, and produce providers 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 whole 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 development and proceed to set the tempo as a digital powerhouse and chief in its trade.”

“Along with Accenture, we’re proud to broaden our longstanding partnership with Unilever,” mentioned Judson Althoff, govt vp and chief industrial officer, Microsoft. “With Microsoft Azure as its cloud basis, Unilever’s end-to-end digitization will allow speedy innovation throughout its whole enterprise. From embracing the commercial 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 trade’s tempo of innovation.”

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About Accenture

Accenture is a number one world skilled providers firm that helps the world’s main companies, governments and different organizations construct their digital core, optimize their operations, speed up income development and improve citizen providers—creating tangible worth at velocity and scale. We’re a expertise and innovation led firm with 738,000 folks serving purchasers in additional than 120 nations. Know-how is on the core of change as we speak, 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 trade expertise, useful experience and world supply functionality. We’re uniquely capable of ship tangible outcomes due to our broad vary of providers, options and property throughout Technique & Consulting, Know-how, Operations, Business X and Accenture Track. These capabilities, along with our tradition of shared success and dedication to creating 360° worth, allow us to assist our purchasers succeed and construct trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° worth we create for our purchasers, one another, our shareholders, companions and communities. Go to us at www.accenture.com.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) permits 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 among the world’s main suppliers of Magnificence & Wellbeing, Private Care, Residence Care, Diet and Ice Cream merchandise, with gross sales in over 190 nations and merchandise utilized by 3.4 billion folks daily. We now have 148,000 workers 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 reveal how our function led, future-fit enterprise mannequin drives superior efficiency. We now have an extended 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 development, whereas: – enhancing the well being of the planet; – enhancing folks’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]