Unilever integrates and shares its global information using Kalido’s data warehouse

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Unilever, manufacturing giants of the consumer packaged goods world, has selected data warehousing software from Kalido to support its global “Path to Growth” initiative, announced back in February this year. Dean Palmer

Unilever, manufacturing giants of the consumer packaged goods world, has selected data warehousing software from Kalido to support its global “Path to Growth” initiative, announced back in February this year. The strategy aims to deliver improved top-line growth and operating margins by 2004, through better branding, strong innovation, increased marketing support and simplified business processes. The plan is for Unilever to be able to share and manage financial information, brand performance data, global procurement and customer information on a worldwide basis. Kalido’s data management software will allow Unilever to integrate and manage information across a wide range of disparate systems. This means the firm will be able to view brand, sales, supply chain and financial KPIs (key performance indicators) in order to make faster, more consistent decisions about the business. “In order to run a global business more effectively, you need a global approach to the information systems supporting the organisation,” said Chris Broe, head of information applications and architecture group at Unilever. “Kalido’s technology has the unique ability to integrate our wide range of local and regional information systems, delivering an executive-level summary of our global business operations.” And Unilever will be rolling out a further 20 Kalido projects over the next couple of years. Some projects will be regional in focus, but six are planned to support the Unilever Information Project (UIP), a global IT program underpinning the “Path to Growth” strategy, and a further six roll-outs will focus on managing the company’s master reference data. This will allow it to standardise data across all transaction and information systems by applying consistent definitions and coding. Kalido is a software venture spin-off from the Royal Dutch Shell Group of companies. It works closely with large systems integrators on global IT integration and data warehousing projects.