Mit der Eröffnung eines neuen Shared Services Center in Braga, Portugal, erweitert IBM seine Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) Kapazitäten in Europa. Das Center wird als Teil von IBM’s weltweitem Bereitstellungs-Modell von BTO-Services Finanz- und Verwaltungsprozesse für seine Kunden in ganz Europa erbringen. Damit ist das Center in Braga Teil eines weltweiten Netzwerkes von mehr als drei Dutzend Services Centern und soll die wachsende Nachfrage nach mehrsprachigen Business- und Technologie-Services befriedigen. Einer der ersten Kunden des neuen Centers ist Unilever. Unilever möchte im Rahmen eines im Jahre 2005 abgeschlossenen Vertrages durch BTO die Leistungsfähigkeit seiner Finanzprozesse bei gleichzeitigen Kosteneinsparungen erhöhen. Weitere Einzelheiten entnehmen Sie bitte der englischen Originalmeldung:
IBM Expands Business Transformation Outsourcing Capability in Europe - Opens New Centre In Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal 31 July, 2006 – IBM today announced a new Shared Services Centre in Portugal to provide finance and accounting services to clients as part of its global delivery model of business transformation outsourcing. (BTO) The Braga centre further expands IBM's global network of more than three dozen BTO delivery centers and will focus on transforming and managing financial processes for clients across Europe.

The centre, which opened in Braga in July this year, will help meet the growing demand for multilingual business and technology services. For example, the Braga centre will provide services to Unilever with the aim of optimising process performance and reducing costs for the multinational company, as part of an agreement signed with IBM in 2005. This is IBM’s second centre in Portugal. A Shared Services Centre in Lisbon manages finance and administration processes for BP's Refining and Marketing businesses across Portugal, Spain, France and the United Kingdom.

As part of IBM’s globally integrated company strategy, the new centre will work closely with IBM’s service delivery centers in Krakow in Poland and Bangalore in India. The Braga and Krakow centres will take on client and vendor relations for Unilever, while transactional services will be managed mainly by IBM’s Bangalore centre in India.

'The ability of IBM Portugal to deliver high-value multilingual business process and transformation outsourcing services to clients located throughout Europe has been the key to our continued expansion in the country,' said José Joaquim de Oliveira, Country General Manager, IBM Portugal. 'Globally, IBM is focused on amassing the right skills and expertise where they exist to deliver the right services to our clients.'

IBM is employing innovative products and best practices at the Braga centre to increase process efficiencies and improve productivity. These best of breed service products will be deployed in Accounts Payable (IBM Data Capture and Imaging Workflow), Travel and Entertainment (Global Expense Reimbursement System) and Bill-to-Cash (ARCollectTM toolsuite). The IBM solutions wrap around the existing Unilever ERP systems, delivering improved quality of information and enhanced transparency and controls to help Unilever drive better business performance.

The investment in Portugal follows other recent strategic investments by IBM worldwide focused on expanding skills and capability on a global basis, especially in fast growing markets. In the past few months, IBM has announced the opening of several new facilities internationally. These include a Systems and Technology laboratory in Russia, an Integrated Delivery Centre in South Africa, a centre for Remote Infrastructure Management in the Czech Republic and a Business Incubation Centre in Ireland. With this new facility in Braga, IBM has the opportunity to tap into the growing talent pool and excellent infrastructure in Portugal.

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