Rapid growth catalyzed the need for UST to better manage and integrate employee data across diverse regions and systems.
UST built a comprehensive, unified Employee Data platform on Microsoft Fabric.
UST eliminated the need for separate data pipelines for each entity, enhancing data accessibility and employee productivity and enabling a self-service model that removes gatekeeping and promotes data-driven decision-making.
With an ethos of transforming lives through technology, UST Global entwines its core values of humanity, humility, and integrity into every interaction with customers and in its employee support. The US-based company specializes in digital engineering, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity, helping healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, and finance customers become more agile, efficient, and securewhile emphasizing solutions that positively impact human experiences.
“We pay attention, listen, and grow while helping our customers grow,” says Ramya Kannan, Chief of Staff & VP Information Services at UST. “It leads to relationship longevity. Many customers have been with us forover a decade, working with the same UST engineers they started with.”
Since 2023, the company’s client-centric and people-first approachand drive for innovation have catalyzed significant growth. UST expanded into 34 countries and hired thousands of technical experts, including 2,000 entry-level engineers. However, rapid growth brought challenges in managing and integrating employee data across diverse regions and systems, which is needed for cross-team productivity, decision-making, and innovation.
“We needed a unified data platform to bring everyone together—and support more efficient employee integration, providing employees with real-time data accessibility,” says Kannan.
UST decided to build a comprehensive Employee Data platform on Microsoft Fabric and take advantage of earlier investments in Microsoft technologies, including Azure Data Lake, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Power BI.
“Our aim was a hyperscaler SaaS (software as a service) data platform that could integrate generative AI and copilots into analytics solutions,” says Sumesh Sukumaran, Data Integration Architect at UST. “Microsoft Fabric offered a one-stop solution for this and all UST data needs, integrating various data sources and systems efficiently, with enhanced security and data governance.”
UST transitioned to a modern data warehouse on Microsoft Fabric, using medallion architecture to amalgamate data from diverse systems. UST strengthened data governance and implemented a metadata-driven data integration framework to facilitate efficient data integration from various systems and acquisitions.
We are looking at Fabric as a journey in our efforts to bring actionable insights to different stakeholders on demand. The end goal is to put the power of data in the hands of the users, enabling them to extract data on demand, trust the reliability of the data, and use analytics and insights for decisions and actions.
Ramya Kannan, Chief of Staff & VP Information Services, UST
“We are looking at Fabric as a journey in our efforts to bring actionable insights to different stakeholders on demand,” adds Kanna. “The end goal is to put the power of data in the hands of the users, enabling them to extract data on demand, trust the reliability of the data, and use analytics and insights for decisions and actions.”
“We migrated 20 years of employee data into Microsoft Fabric with all security measures in under a year,” says Sukumaran. “The Meta Data Driven Integration (MDDI) framework in fabric has also cut data ingestion time by 50%, allowing employees to focus more on analysis and less on preparation.”
Fabric helps us put our values into action. This enhances our mission to put people first and to lead by using technology to make a positive difference.
Ramya Kannan, Chief of Staff & VP Information Services, UST
UST is also using Power Platform for robotic process automation (RPA), Power Apps to support creativity and productivity, Power BI, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Data Factory to augment data accessibility and support self-service, plus Azure Entra ID for access management.
Employees report feeling more connected and better able to manage workloadsandaccess real-time data for critical decisions. They also spend more time working together, advancing customer solutions. “Empowering individuals with the right data at the right time eliminates gatekeeping and lets people focus on doing what they love,” says Kannan. “This translates directly into great customer experiences.”
We migrated 20 years of employee data into Microsoft Fabric with all security measures in under a year. The Meta Data Driven Integration (MDDI) framework in fabric has also cut data ingestion time by 50%, allowing employees to focus more on analysis and less on preparation.
Sumesh Sukumaran, Lead Data Integration Architect, UST
Sukumaran adds that being new to Fabric inspired new ways to collaborate and innovate. Junior engineers mentored by senior architects worked together to build the platform, with both groups learning together. “Everyone gained invaluable, transferable skills that we can now bring to customers.” Employees are participating more in hackathons, and new plans are underway for automated test data generation and ingesting data from specific functions to ensure seamless interaction with existing data.
“Fabric helps us put our values into action,” concludes Kannan. “This enhances our mission to put people first and to lead by using technology to make a positive difference.”
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