Consumer goods firms Unilever is moving to a service orientated architecture (SOA) to support a global business transformation strategy.

The five-year deal means Unilever will use vendor SAP to provide its global IT platforms to support its 'One Unilever' programme of change, designed to streamline and standardise all business processes.

'This agreement enables us not only to accelerate business transformation, but also drive significant IT simplification as we move towards our destination IT architecture,' said Neil Cameron, chief information officer, Unilever.

'Critically as we move to fewer, more strategic IT partners it also gives us the influence over the SAP portfolio planning process and enhances our ability to work with SAP to enable and strengthen our global market presence.'

IT teams at Unilever and SAP will collaborate closely to identify best practices to install the technology across its global opportunities.