NTT DATA is set to overhaul its global HR technology environment, selecting SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Business Data Cloud as the foundation for a new people and culture transformation.
The technology will be integrated with Joule, SAP’s AI orchestrator, as NTT DATA looks to replace multiple legacy HR systems with a more unified platform for managing people data and processes.
The move will give NTT DATA a single source of HR data while connecting workforce information with data from other areas of the business. It also marks a significant internal deployment for a company that already helps organizations implement SAP technology, making its own transformation particularly relevant to its wider business.
NTT DATA Begins 12-Month HR Transformation
Under the agreement, SAP SuccessFactors will become the system of record for NTT DATA’s people and talent data. The platform will work alongside the company’s existing employee service platform and specialist workforce planning tools, rather than replacing every system involved in its HR operations.
SAP Business Data Cloud will provide the wider data layer, connecting information from HR with data from other business functions. The aim is to give NTT DATA a more consistent view of its workforce while supporting faster decision-making and more integrated workforce planning.
Joule will be incorporated into the environment as SAP’s AI orchestration layer. Rather than treating AI as a standalone addition to HR, the deployment places it alongside the underlying systems and data NTT DATA uses to manage its global workforce.
The implementation will take place over 12 months, with NTT DATA designing and rolling out the platform using its own SAP expertise. The company will therefore put the technology into practice internally before using that experience to support its wider customer engagements.
Why NTT DATA’s Own Deployment Matters
The decision is notable because NTT DATA is not approaching SAP as an ordinary enterprise customer. The technology company has worked with SAP for more than 36 years and operates as an SAP platinum partner, global service partner, and reseller.
NTT DATA also has significant experience helping customers with SAP-based human capital management. Its HCM practice includes more than 500 certified HXM experts and provides implementation services around SAP SuccessFactors, giving the company substantial experience helping other organizations modernize their HR environments.
That makes the internal rollout an interesting test case. NTT DATA has spent years helping customers address the complexity of HR technology, but its own global operation still contains multiple legacy HR systems that it is now looking to consolidate.
That distinction matters because large-scale HR modernization is rarely as simple as deploying a new application. Established organizations often accumulate different systems across business units and geographies, leaving employee information distributed across multiple platforms. NTT DATA’s own transformation shows that even organizations with deep expertise in the technology face the challenge of bringing those environments together.
A Real-World Test of AI-Driven HR
The internal deployment could therefore give NTT DATA something that implementation experience alone cannot provide: firsthand experience transforming its own workforce systems at global scale.
By using its own expertise to design and deploy SuccessFactors, NTT DATA will encounter the practical challenges involved in consolidating people data, aligning processes, and introducing AI capabilities into an existing enterprise HR environment. That experience could subsequently inform the advice and services it provides to customers.
It also reflects a broader shift in how enterprise technology companies are approaching AI. Adding an AI tool to an existing system can provide limited value if the underlying data remains fragmented or difficult to access. NTT DATA is instead putting the consolidation of HR data at the center of its transformation, creating the infrastructure on which its AI capabilities can operate.
For NTT DATA, that could make the implementation more than an internal systems upgrade. It gives the company an opportunity to demonstrate how the technologies it recommends to customers perform inside its own complex global organization. The results of the rollout could ultimately shape how it approaches similar transformations for the businesses it serves.
