British American Tobacco (BAT) has signed a five-year deal with Accenture to improve the design, development and implementation of IT systems supporting its business operations.

The contract will see the two firms working together through a joint application development centre using BAT’s Spain-based resource and Accenture delivery centres in the Philippines and India.

The transformation scheme will cover business areas including finance, supply chain, sales and marketing. Applications are intended to meet global, regional and local needs, while simplifying and standardising the firm’s system delivery function.

“We believe that this co-sourced programme will make us considerably more effective across our global enterprise,” said Craig Wallace, head of solution delivery at British American Tobacco.

Wallace said the deal will “greatly enhance” BAT’s knowledge, skills and capabilities and highlighted the importance of the supplier’s close relationships with SAP and Siebel/Oracle.