India’s global capability centers (GCCs) were once set up mainly to save money — but today they help companies innovate and run core parts of the business. GCCs are wholly owned subsidiaries that companies set up offshore to deliver critical functions like technology, finance, and customer support.
India hosts a large and rapidly growing number of GCCs and employs a substantial workforce, with continued expansion expected through 2030. The question is no longer whether to build in India, but how to deliver speed, scale, and measurable business impact.
This article draws on a new report that Oliver Wyman developed in collaboration with Nasscom on the next evolution of India’s GCCs, built from primary interviews with senior GCC and service provider leaders, detailed real-world case studies, and targeted secondary research.
GCCs in India — from back office to strategic partner
India’s GCCs have moved through four phases: first to save costs and tap talent; raise quality and efficiency; take on advanced analytics, technology, and core research and development (R&D); and act as transformation hubs that use tools like generative artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver real results in engineering, sales, marketing, and customer experience.
This shift is evident in the growing number of product profit and loss (P&L) roles in India, which shortens feedback loops and helps speed up decisions. At the same time, providers have evolved from transactional substitutes to integrated enablers of setup, productivity, and modernization, with governance migrating from service-level agreement policing to outcome-anchored orchestration.
India's Next-Gen GCCs can help unlock real value
Service providers are technology and operations firms that help GCCs set up, scale, and modernize. In the next-generation model, they act as an extension of headquarters (HQ) and the GCC — planning, building, and running together — to speed alignment, scaling, and tech modernization with clear governance. The results are tangible.
Consumer goods and transformation. A global fast-moving consumer goods company co-innovated with a technology company to transform finance across 77 countries and 70,000 employees, delivering $30 million P&L impact versus a $20 million target, $80 million in recovered invalid claims, 12 global centers of excellence, and more than 10 generative AI and machine learning deployments.
Real estate hub. A Fortune 500 real estate services leader used embedded pods to make its GCC a strategic hub, reducing cost to serve by 35% and speeding release cycles by 40%.
Healthcare copilots. A US healthcare leader’s long-running partnership with an AI firm delivered copilots that cut costs by 30%-40% and lifted productivity by about 70%, contributing to more than $100 million in savings with 99.99% accuracy and 23% faster turnaround time.
How high-performing GCC-service provider partnerships operate
It is important to start with one north star and a shared scoreboard. Early wins boost confidence and an appetite to do more within the C-suite.
Developing a blueprint for resilience and organizing around outcomes is also key. Creating risk playbooks, mock audits, and phased migrations can reduce shocks during scale-up. And embedding engineers directly into product squads so success was tied to business key performance indicators, not effort alone.
Strong partnerships also build a magnetic talent engine and foster a unified culture. Partnering with schools and academies and product units, for instance, can ensure a steady pipeline of pre-trained, culturally aligned talent. Some companies kept attrition low through personalized learning and transparent career paths, while others aligned their rewards, recognition, and hybrid-work practices to sustain morale and continuity.
It’s also critical to turn pilots into production. With so many AI pilots failing to produce measurable impact, the discipline is to track cost, reliability, and cycle time gains ruthlessly, and retire what doesn’t deliver.
What leaders working across the GCC spectrum should do now
Leaders across the HQs, GCCs, and service providers should set bold, enterprise-level mandates and translate them into three to five outcomes the GCC will own, such as becoming the global data and analytics backbone.
Choose the model based on the level of control required, the speed needed, and the scale envisioned. When speed and risk control are paramount, a flexible build-and-operate approach can be adopted, with options to modernize first and later transfer the operation to the enterprise or continue under the partner.
For long-term alignment and shared ownership of ideas and assets, a joint venture can be established. When a major leap in capability is required, create a partnership to develop new capabilities together. Finally, a simple operating plan should be agreed upon that clearly outlines roles, responsibilities, and decision-making rights across HQ, the GCC, and the service provider. The client pays the service provider for outcomes, not hours. Both sides agree on ownership of any new ideas and tools, run a simple cadence — daily, weekly, and quarterly — with one shared dashboard, and co-fund a first release delivered within 60 days. After both sides verify the results, the client pays any outcome-based fees.
Scale and talent are now baseline. What sets organizations apart is treating service providers as true partners. In this model, HQ sets the goals, the GCC runs day-to-day delivery, and the service provider brings specialist talent and reusable tools.
The joint leadership team plans together, builds together, and reports results openly. Working this way, the partnership produces features more quickly, enhances customer experiences, and reduces costs. When HQ, the GCC, and the service provider work together quickly and act as a unified team, the next-gen GCC becomes a driver of change — not just a follower.