Olswang advises Unilever on a 'first of its kind' global cloud project

This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.

International technology, media and telecoms law firm Olswang has advised consumer goods giant Unilever on a 'first of its kind', global cloud project which will transform the way Unilever's Customer Development function operates.

The new solution is essentially a collaboration between Tier 1 vendors Accenture and salesforce, where Accenture will make its trade promotion and retail execution software engines available to Unilever over salesforce's force.com platform. The deal is driven by Unilever's desire for global standardisation, thereby reducing the need for local customisation, and therefore reducing cost. So valued by Accenture is Unilever's participation that they have appointed Unilever as a charter client in the consumer products field, which will provide Unilever with the opportunity to influence Accenture's technology roadmap and reduce the need for customisation even further.

Unilever's General Counsel for ETS Glenn Quadros commented: "This is a unique deal within my portfolio as it combines so many facets into one integrated contract. It involves new ways of working for Unilever, such as agile and DevOps, and Olswang's experience of contracting for these was key to ensuring we were properly safeguarded. My thanks to the Olswang team for their fantastic support in getting this transformative deal delivered."

The Olswang team was led by Technology Partner Dominic Dryden and Legal Director Suparna Bhattacharjee.