Deal to cover outsourcing of major financial transactional services Unilever NV has signed a seven-year contract with IBM Corp. to outsource major portions of its financial transactional services, the consumer goods company announced Friday. The deal will cover Unilever’s operations in more than 20 European countries and will affect around 750 staff.Unilever didn’t provide financial details for the contract.Under the terms of the deal, IBM Business Consulting Services will provide financial services for Unilever from its units in Portugal, Poland and India, according to a Unilever release. The services will include purchase-to-pay, general accounting and bill-to-cash. Unilever hopes to realize significant cost savings over the life of the contract. The deal is part of the consumer goods firm’s One Unilever program designed to trim the fat from its operations and enable the company to boost its growth. In all, Unilever hopes to realize €700 million (US$830.4 million) in cost savings through the program.Unilever committed to try its best to find alternative employment for the approximately 750 of its European staff likely to be affected by the outsourcing deal with IBM, according to the release.Starting in the first quarter of 2006, Unilever will start a gradual transition over the next two years to implement the outsourcing deal with IBM, the company said. Technology IndustryDatabases