Brewer Carlsberg has outsourced a range of IT services to Accenture under a three-year deal that will cover the group’s operations across Europe.

The contract will include the provision of IT management consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance as well as programme management.

Long-term cost reductions and a need for process standardisation were the key drivers for the deal, said Kenneth Egelund Schmidt, vice president at Carlsberg IT.

"Entering this collaboration will provide Carlsberg with access to additional IT resources and know-how when and wherever needed, giving us the needed scalability," said Schmidt.

Other expected benefits include a productivity increase for the firm’s IT application development and maintenance processes.

As part of the agreement, Accenture will be carrying out specific projects such as SAP and Microsoft software rollouts to replace legacy systems, which is expected to take three-to-five years to complete.

Another major project under the supplier’s remit is the implementation of a common enterprise resource planning platform, which will underpin the standardisation drive and is hoped to enable future business growth.