Oracle Customer Case Study

Unilever Establishes Common Processes to

Maximize Efficiency

"We have the information we need to analyze customers’

financial plans and evaluate risks. This allows salespeople to do
less order taking and more negotiating. Without Oracle [Siebel],
we couldn’t have achieved these changes so fast--it was the
perfect tool." – Rafael Correa, Administrative and Planning
Sales Manager, Unilever
Unilever
London, United Kingdom Unilever is a global consumer products company, with nearly 400
www.unilever.com
brands in food, home care, and personal care, including Axe,
Industry:
Bertolli, Cif, Dove, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lipton, and Surf. Faced
Consumer Goods
with intensifying competition worldwide and difficulties in
Annual Revenue:
generating sustained growth, Unilever Latin America
$54 Billion
implemented a groundbreaking business transformation program
Employees:
called Orchestra in 2001. Orchestra has simplified processes and
223,000
unified systems across a broad range of business functions and all
geographies within Latin America. A key part of Orchestra is
Oracle Partner: Oracle’s Siebel Consumer Goods, which has helped Unilever
Latin America better allocate its trade marketing resources,
improve customer service, and maintain the proper stock levels.
In the late 1990’s, Unilever was faced with slow growth. The
company had built its sprawling portfolio to more than 1,600
Accenture, Ltd. brands and was finding it difficult to give all brands the attention
Chicago, IL and support they required. In addition, the competitive climate in
www.accenture.com
retail continued to intensify. To address these concerns, Unilever
embarked on a five-year “path to growth” initiative. The program
Oracle Products & Services: focused on paring the company’s number of brands to around 400
Siebel Consumer Goods
and reshaping the organization to make it more competitive.
Meanwhile, in Latin America, Unilever’s operating companies
were also instituting Orchestra, an ambitious business
transformation effort designed to simplify company processes and
provide a platform for improved growth and efficiency.
“Orchestra has transformed our capabilities in a number of areas,”
said Jon Watts, senior vice president, finance, Unilever Latin
America. “The scale of business opportunities created by
Orchestra is only beginning to become apparent as we build on
top of the information platform it created.”

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006
 Oracle Customer Case Study

Key Benefits:
A Challenging Business Landscape
Enabled better management of In Latin America, Unilever was facing a particularly challenging
trade marketing and business landscape. The company’s Latin American region
promotional campaigns consists of 20 countries from Mexico to Argentina, served by no
Ensured maximum return on less than 28 Unilever operating companies. Relying on a
marketing investments and
patchwork of 34 custom-built data warehouses and 150 separate
improved stocking
information systems--using different classifications and coding
Provided common language
and processes to improve for customers, products, suppliers, and raw materials--Unilever
service levels for multinational had difficulty extracting accurate, timely, and useful information.
retailers
“We needed to establish common processes and a region-wide
knowledge base, so we could evaluate where we were getting the
best return on our trade marketing investments,” said Rogério
Fava, chief information officer, Unilever Latin America. “It was
important that every campaign, every promotion be a win/win for
Unilever and our trade customers.”

One Unilever
The Orchestra program supports a broad spectrum of functions--
finance, supply chain, customer relationship management (CRM),
and information management--across all business groups and
eventually all 20 countries served by Unilever Latin America.
Considered one of the most complex business transformation
programs ever implemented in Latin America, Orchestra has had
a far-reaching impact throughout Unilever Latin America.
The system has 9,400 users, and will expand to more than 15,000
by the end of 2006. To date, employees have gone through
215,000 hours of training in Spanish and Portuguese. Orchestra
has simplified and streamlined 250 business processes through the
use of coding and transaction processes. In addition, it has
allowed Unilever to eliminate nearly 60% of all systems and save
more than $51 million annually.
The ultimate vision for Orchestra is “one process, one system, one
meaning--One Unilever,” according to Fava. Supported by a
lasting cultural change, this system will make possible a range of
strategic initiatives in finance, information management, customer
management, and supply chain management.
“We’re already seeing significant cost savings, skills synergies,
and operational efficiencies from the better orchestrated efforts in
Latin America,” explained Chris Turner, corporate chief
technology officer (CTO), Unilever. “In addition, we’re now able

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006
 Oracle Customer Case Study

“We needed to establish to focus much more rapidly and clearly on what our real business
common processes and a needs are.”
region-wide knowledge
base, so we could Focus on the Customer
evaluate where we were One of the ways in which Orchestra has helped sharpen
getting the best return on Unilever’s focus on customer requirements is through the
our trade marketing integrated Oracle [Siebel] CRM system. The solution has
investments. It was standardized the customer management process throughout the
important that every region, integrating trade marketing, sales, and customer service
campaign, every areas. Unilever now has a much better understanding of its clients
promotion be a win/win and is able to share best practices across the region and maximize
for Unilever and our trade its marketing resources.
customers.” “In the past, our sales force didn’t have everything needed to
Rogério Fava negotiate with customers,” noted Rafael Correa, administrative
Chief Information Officer
and planning sales manager for Unilever Bestfoods, Mexico.
Unilever Latin America
“Now customer profiles are much more strategic. We have the
information we need to analyze customers’ financial plans and
evaluate risks. This allows salespeople to do less order taking and
more negotiating. Without Oracle [Siebel], we couldn’t have
achieved these changes so fast--it was the perfect tool.”
From a service perspective, Siebel Consumer Goods is also
supporting major improvements. Because Unilever has a more
precise understanding of its trade customers’ requirements, it can
ensure that the right products are always in inventory. Using
simplified processes and a common language across the region
also helps the company share knowledge and provide a more
consistent level of support from one country to another.
“Every customer now has a single code throughout the region,
which helps us serve trade customers more effectively--especially
those with an international presence,” said Gonzalo Esposto,
Orchestra project director, Unilever Latin America. “That was one
of the benefits we didn’t anticipate when we started the Orchestra
program.”
At the same time, Unilever has used Orchestra and the Siebel
solution to eliminate vast quantities of data that were either
duplicated or simply not clean.
“This includes eliminating thousands of reports that are no longer
necessary, while still providing all the information that people
need,” Fava added.

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006
 Oracle Customer Case Study

Information on the Move

Siebel Consumer Goods is meeting the needs of a range of users
at Unilever Latin America, providing everything from detailed
business intelligence to reports on the success of trade marketing
campaigns.
A number of suppliers and partners have also implemented Siebel
solutions to facilitate collaboration with Unilever. Even smaller
retailers, such as individuals operating ice cream vans in Mexico,
use a version of Oracle’s Siebel Consumer Goods running on
handheld devices. The system forwards order information to
laptops, which can be connected to a network at the end of the day
to transmit data back to Unilever’s account managers.

Unilever collaborated with Oracle [Siebel] and Accenture--the

company’s partner in implementing Orchestra--to configure the
Siebel software for the handhelds so that it would meet specific
needs.
The Orchestra program has been so positive for Unilever in
Central and South America that the company plans to expand the
program with similar efforts in Europe and North America.
“We need to grow our business, and we aren’t going to be able to
do that simply by cutting costs,” Turner explained. “Our future
depends on building better relationships with our customers and
end consumers. That comes from front-office solutions such as
Oracle’s Siebel CRM, not just back-office initiatives.”

Unilever provides food, home care, and personal care products.

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Published June 2006