Australia
About NEC:
- Founded: July 17, 1899
- Industry: Network technology
- Headquarters: Japan
- Workforce: 118,500 employees
- Project scope: 11,000 employees
- Footprint: 52 countries
NEC Corporation is a Japanese information technology and electronics organisation. Founded in 1899, they are a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies boasting more than 42,000 patents.
Over the years, the company has grown substantially, both through organic growth and acquisitions, and today they employ 118,500 people across 284 group companies. The large and complex multinational organisation set out with a goal to transform its global HR operations, moving from a fragmented and functional approach to a truly global way of working.
Key Takeaways:
- NEC successfully unified 29 platforms to a single source of truth that empowers their global organisation.
- Employees and managers are now enabled with an intuitive self-service HR model that increases company-wide productivity.
- Employees are supported in their moments of need on their preferred channel and in their local language.
- Through an effective change management program, the team successfully empowered a mindset shift to adopt global ways of working with global centres of excellence.
- Efficiency increased through streamlined and automation embedded processes.
Alight Services: Advisory, Deployment, Application Management Services (AMS), Customer Care (Global Navigation and language support)
SuccessFactors modules: Employee Central, Recruitment, Onboarding, Performance & Goals and Succession & Development, Time off
This project has been a measurable success, delivered on time and in budget. HR process alignment, achieving cost and productivity efficiencies by bringing our HR systems together into a single platform, and improved data, analytics and reporting to drive better decision-making.
Choosing to work with a global SAP SuccessFactors partner, with experience in complex multi-country HR system implementations and transformation has been a critical success criteria.
Global Head of HR
Creating a global team ethos through global HR transformation
In 2022, NEC selected Alight to assist with their global HR transformation, a project they called Global Ways of Working (GWoW). The goal was to harness a single platform, SAP SuccessFactors, for their global workforce. Early in the project, Alight’s advisory team was engaged when limitations in their global service delivery blueprint were highlighted. The team quickly partnered with NEC to conduct a comprehensive gap analysis of the original blueprint where a 50% gap was identified. Within just six weeks, Alight redesigned the blueprint according to best practices and to better align with the company objectives and the scope of the SuccessFactors deployment, ensuring key project milestones remained on track and that the organisation was set up for long-term success.
Alight successfully deployed SuccessFactors to more than 6,000 employees across 15 countries, with a further 29 countries and 4,000 employees due to go-live in early 2024. This represented a key milestone in achieving a unified, global organisation and talent capabilities that could drive business growth. The project established global centres of excellence, created an improved mindset around international talent management, and developed paths to end global fragmentation and underutilised talent across the enterprise.
Continuous support for operational excellence
Since go-live, Alight's AMS and Customer Care teams have been the cornerstone of support for NEC globally. AMS provided vital technical support, including incident resolution and platform enhancements, with expertise in SAP issue management. They also carried out testing of mandatory changes introduced in the bi-annual SAP releases and guided NEC on optional feature implementation. This comprehensive support is instrumental in maintaining the efficiency and effectiveness of NEC's platform, leveraging the team's knowledge and experience to benefit NEC's HR operations.
Alight’s Customer Care team ensured a seamless and responsive support system for NEC employees, focusing on delivering exceptional service and enhancing employee satisfaction. This multi-channel and local language support approach is dedicated to assisting employees in their moments of need, providing quick issue resolution and improving their overall experience.
We are incredibly proud of the partnership and collaborative dynamic between Alight and NEC throughout our global HR transformation journey. Alight's team seamlessly integrated with our own, working together as one team with a shared vision and common purpose. Their commitment to understanding our unique needs, providing invaluable expertise, and ensuring the success of our project has been exceptional. Together, we have achieved remarkable results that will continue to deliver benefits for our organisation for years to come.
Global Head of HR
Driving transformational outcomes
The partnership between NEC and Alight resulted in a successful global HR transformation project that led to significant improvements and advancements in the organisation's HR operations:
- NEC successfully eliminated 29 platforms in favor of a single platform that facilitates strategic business growth and simplifies management.
- Employees and managers are now enabled with an intuitive self-service HR model that increases company-wide productivity.
- NEC’s partnership with Alight led to clearer decision-making governance structures and defined ownership of that governance by Global Process Owners (GPOs) for continued success.
- The organisation maximised user adoption through sentiment surveys and an effective change management program – average of over 90%.
- Delivery by Alight of a HR Cloud Operating Model enabled a smooth transition into early stabilisation of "business as usual" processes and services.
- NEC used their HR global centres of excellence to empower a mindset shift around international talent management and eliminated global fragmentation.
- By placing top talent in the most strategic locations, NEC was able to promote a global team ethos and ensure equally accessible development opportunities for employees worldwide.
- Efficiency increased through streamlined and automation embedded processes.
- The NEC team gained peace of mind, and NEC HQ credibility, knowing they have a knowledgeable and experienced partner to help maintain their SuccessFactors platform and support their employees in their moments of need.
- Introduction of tier one system support for countries with no local technical teams meant, for the first time, that global countries experienced a consistent support model.
These outcomes represent the transformation of NEC's HR operations, fostering efficiency, unified processes, and enhanced employee experiences, while positioning the organisation for continued success.
What’s next:
As we look ahead, our partnership with NEC continues to flourish and we are committed to driving optimisation and innovation, constantly seeking opportunities to enhance their HR operations. Furthermore, we're working towards the successful go-live of further releases, and technology transformation marking a significant milestone with over 10,000 employees globally benefiting from the power of SuccessFactors. This achievement will reinforce our dedication to delivering world-class HR solutions tailored to NEC's unique needs and sets the stage for continued success.
Start your HR transformation journey with Alight
To start your own transformation, get in touch with Alight and discover how our expertise can empower your organisation's success. Visit our website today to learn more www.alight.com
