Meet NTT DATA People
Eric Edwards
Application Management Services Director
Eric Edwards has been in NTT DATA since 2010 and currently works as an Application management service director. He loves the outdoor lifestyle and has been to all four corners of the United States on his motorcycle to camp, hike and rock climb. In addition to travelling and hiking around the U.S. Eric has also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and attempted Mount Aconcagua in South America. If he can’t make it outside to pursue his outdoor activities, he still finds time to do indoor rock climbing and competitive sport climbing.
He lives in Ohio where he was born and grew up apart from a few short excursions to Washington and Colorado states. He has been to 30 countries and all but one state in the U.S., Alaska, so that’s his next target for adventure.
Work hard and play hard
Tell us about an interesting project
One project that sticks in my mind that started during the pandemic and has continued since is one that tries to break down silos of work and barriers to collaboration. This was done because when the work dried up a lot of people had nothing to do, and rather than simply laying people off we tried to find ways to keep people occupied and productive. To do that, AMS and Consulting came together weekly to plan how to share work between the two divisions. We started the initiative locally, but it soon because obvious that this could be rolled out globally as the pandemic spread.
This process of work-sharing eventually morphed into an intelligence or experience sharing where we would ask: What are people in Canada doing? What are they doing in the UK? And so on. The result being a huge amount of best practices sharing that I think helped us as employees and the company as a whole grow and improve to better serve our customers.
Describe a regular working day
My team does a lot of post-implementation support for SAP, which involves daily coordination with people in the U.S., Brazil, and Romania. I am responsible for supporting more than 200 customers to help their systems run smoothly, fix issues as they arise, and improve their system and business. The issues and requests come to us via customer-raised ticket or through project work which is worked by our great team of consultants. I’m ultimately responsible for making sure everything is dealt with, including staffing, recruiting, employee development, escalations and overall customer satisfaction.
In terms of my daily routine, there are a lot of meetings with both NDBS employees and customers. Being able to work at home, is a nice benefit that allows me to make the most of the day and have a healthy work/life balance.
Why do you like life at NTT DATA?
I didn't really have a clear idea of what NTT DATA was like until a friend recommended that I apply for a job here. I applied and thought I’d only stay for a few years, but 14 years later I’m still here and loving life.
I think the reason I stayed so long is because of the people. Everyone is super helpful and super nice. I definitely don’t feel like a number but more like a person in a close-knit community. An example is that when I first joined and was doing SAP work, which is something I hadn’t studied for at school, and found myself in tough client-facing situations where I didn't know what to say, I’d call someone or ping them and in 10 out of 10 situations I’d get immediate and useful help. This always-helpful culture, I think, is the single biggest reason for staying at NTT DATA so long.
