Sara Lee and IBM sign seven-year global services agreement

IBM says it has signed a seven-year agreement with Sara Lee Corp to manage and maintain parts of the food company’s global back office operations.

IBM will manage a portion of Sara Lee's North American and European Finance (transaction processing) and Global Information Services (applications development and maintenance) groups, as well as the company's global indirect procurement activities.

According to IBM, Sara Lee is simplifying its organization to achieve efficiencies through process discipline, functional centers of excellence, integrated supply chains and outsourcing work where appropriate.