zeb: Putting agentic AI into action as an active participant in consulting workflows
Measurable business impact from agentic AI
Financial management consultancy zeb.rolfes.schierenbeck.associates GmbH partnered with NTT DATA Business Solutions AG to increase its team productivity through the use of AI. NTT DATA led the development of agentic AI capabilities, focusing on automating manual project tasks and supporting consultants with enriched data services, including calculated business filters and back-end-derived contextual information.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Professional services | Münster, Germany | 1,200 | NTT DATA Business Solutions AG |
trusted information available for all project objects.
time saved from creating individual time entries.
consistent validation logic used across project data sources.
Head of SAP Solutions, zeb.rolfes.schierenbeck.associates GmbH
Improving project outcomes through AI workflow reinvention
Founded as a startup in 1992 by two professors from the University of Münster, zeb is now a leading strategy, management, and IT consultancy for the European financial services industry, with 15 offices worldwide. Providing strategic and digital transformation services to banks, insurers, and fintech companies across Europe, the company is known for its unique blend of entrepreneurial spirit and strategic thinking.
With its expertise and project experience spanning the entire value chain of European financial services providers and financial intermediaries, zeb helps clients face the urgent questions and challenges arising from industry changes and new regulatory requirements.
As a consulting firm, zeb understands that successful client projects depend on precise and up-to-date information about project status, milestones, efforts, and dependencies. While business-relevant information is generally consolidated within SAP software and accessible through SAP Fiori apps, project managers still need to navigate the correct paths to retrieve the required information, often in a different context. Switching between apps and relying on cross-contextual views does not always meet the need for quick, individualized access to information.
In search of a better solution, the consulting firm decided it was time to explore the use of agent-based AI to transform project information management and increase productivity. The goal was to go beyond purely software-based automation and create an autonomous AI orchestration system that can independently determine the appropriate path to specialized AI agents for processing specific search and input requests.
Scaling agentic AI as a performance enabler for the business
As a critical first step in its exploration of agentic AI, zeb teamed up with SAP platinum partner NTT DATA. With extensive experience designing secure and scalable engineered applications and integrations using services on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), NTT DATA was well equipped to lead the way on agentic AI solution development. This included demonstrating the best approach for using this advanced form of artificial intelligence to orchestrate multistep workflows that interact with SAP software systems and data.
As shown in the diagram, NTT DATA built an orchestrator agent capable of managing and coordinating other agents and used the AI Foundation solution and tapped SAP Cloud SDK for AI to allow access to enterprise data. It then developed custom agents with a user interface based on SAP Fiori for deployment on SAP BTP for the Cloud Foundry environment, and it connected SAP S/4HANA to SAP BTP using SAP Integration Suite.
These individual agents enable intuitive, natural language–based access to project information and employee assignments, as well as enabling initial predictions and anomaly detection. One agent provides project-related information by using Open Data Protocol (OData) services in SAP S/4HANA. Based on “assist-the-AI” capabilities, it can deliver not only raw data but also budget consumption forecasts and can highlight potential project anomalies to the user.
If additional project staffing is required, another agent can propose and prebook suitable employees based on availability data and further criteria such as skill profiles.
Operating more dynamically with autonomously coordinated AI systems
By automating complex, multistep workflows and eliminating manual tasks, zeb’s agentic AI project has freed up its consultants to focus more of their time on strategic activities.
Providing clear and trusted access to project information for project teams, the AI agents support customer project processes by reducing manual effort and improving transparency across delivery and finance data. The agents streamline core project management activities by retrieving up-to-date information on project owners, timelines, and current status directly from project data in its ERP application. They also provide concise and consistent answers to project questions based on real-time project data.
Financial agents deliver quick and consistent answers to cost-related questions and provide clear overviews of invoices and billing related to specific projects, supporting faster decision-making, stronger controls, and a smoother customer experience.
In time-sheet handling, the AI agent goes beyond automating manual data entry by turning data management into an autonomous, proactive process. At the same time, by matching employee skills with project requirements, the AI agents help identify the right people for assignments and flag potential staffing adjustments early, supporting better decisions and keeping projects on track.
Head of SAP Solutions, zeb.rolfes.schierenbeck.associates GmbH
Reshaping more consulting information workflows
zeb is currently working with NTT DATA to develop three more AI agents that work under the orchestrator agent. There’s one for early identification of necessary project adjustments, another for quick and consistent responses to financial inquiries, and another to provide an overview of invoices and billings related to specific projects.
In addition to these three AI agents, zeb is looking to continue its work with NTT DATA to further extend its agent landscape. There are also plans to explore using Joule Agents following the company’s cloud transformation.
Featured partner
NTT DATA is an SAP global strategic services partner and global platinum reseller offering industry expertise, advanced technologies, and responsible innovation to accelerate client success and deliver measurable business outcomes worldwide. With deep expertise in building, deploying, and managing AI agents, NTT DATA helped zeb confidently adopt and scale agentic AI, giving its project team access to clear and trusted project information.