Unilever has signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Acta Technology, represented locally by Global Technology Business Intelligence (GBI), to deploy its data integration platform throughout the worldwide organisation over the next two years.
Unilever chose Acta, a provider of real-time data integration platforms for analytic, e-commerce, supply chain and customer relationship management services, as its global data integration standard from a broad range of business applications and systems.
"It is Acta`s belief that data integration on an enterprise-wide scale will be commonplace in the future and a necessary survival tactic for the global economy," said Johan Cloete, CEO at GBI. "The Unilever contract is verification that Acta is uniquely positioned to solve global data integration challenges for leading companies worldwide. This is proving itself in SA, with a number of corporates adopting Acta as their data integration platform."
Acta has also been selected to form part of Unilever`s global IT strategy and its products will be deployed at both global and regional levels to support data integration requirements. It is a critical component of Unilever`s "Path to Growth" strategy, designed to deliver improved growth and operating margins by 2004. Acta aims to achieve this by being the core component of the Unilever Information Programme (UIP) initiative, a key enabler of "Path to Growth".
Acta will focus on Unilever`s leading brands and support them with strong innovation, increased marketing support, a more streamlined supply chain and simpler business processes.
Unilever was looking for a tool to support UIP by simplifying and automating the collection of data from a wide range of legacy, ERP applications, and numerous external sources.
"The data integration platform solution proved to be the best fit for Unilever both technically and functionally," says Steve Applegate, integration manager for UIP in London. "Coupled with Acta`s vision for the future, these were the deciding factors when the results were evaluated."
Unilever`s requirements included the ability to handle hundreds of disparate data sources, and a solution with a robust, high-performance ability to manage batch and near real-time data movement. The requirement also included a solution that provides bi-directional data flows between business systems and applications requirements with a high degree of reliability.
Because the solution is to be used as a global standard, it needed to be quick to deploy and easy-to-use, ensuring cost-effective ongoing usage on a worldwide scale.
Acta`s solution was put through a rigorous and competitive proof-of-concept exercise, conducted alongside three other vendors. Its products have already been implemented in two pilot projects.
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