By Annapurna Roy
Business process management (BPM) companies such as Genpact, WNS and Sutherland are seeing increasing opportunities in global capability centres (GCC) as a key customer segment, where they can help establish and scale up operations at these centres as well as drive their digital transformation.Genpact is assembling a dedicated team and planning to appoint a GCC leader for India for focused engagements with this segment. Sutherland has seen a 25-30% year-on-year increase in enquiries for digital transformation projects with GCCs. WNS has done more than 25 projects with GCCs so far and expects these collaborations to increase.BPMs have been pivoting from purely back-office cost-outsourcing firms to more technology and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled transformation partners. This aligns closely with the evolving needs of GCCs as they seek greater operational efficiencies and innovation, experts said.ETtech
Despite concerns around insourcing by GCCs eating away business for the IT/BPM industry, executives believe there is ample room for collaboration and are optimistic that the build-operate-transfer (BOT) and shared hybrid operating models that are picking up pace are 鈥渨in-win鈥 and enable 鈥渃oexistence鈥.鈥淢ost enterprises adopt a hybrid model that leverages the strengths of both,鈥 said Keshav Murugesh, group CEO, WNS. 鈥淕CCs allow for a deeper cultural connect with the parent organisation, and companies like WNS bring deep domain expertise, innovative technology, ready talent, cost efficiency and shared investments in transformation tools.鈥漈he company is providing end-to-end services to GCCs ranging across the design of the future state operating models, consolidating operations into a single centre, talent acquisition, transition as a service, managed services and infrastructure set-up, he said.Riju Vashisht, chief growth officer, Genpact, said the firm鈥檚 investments in advanced technologies such as generative AI and agentic AI are the kind of capabilities GCCs are looking for as they evolve into innovation engines for global enterprises.鈥淲hile we鈥檝e worked with GCCs in the past, we鈥檙e now bringing the full power of Genpact behind this opportunity, with a formal, programmatic approach, clear leadership and dedicated teams in the market,鈥 Vashisht said.Over the past year, Genpact has made a strategic pivot toward 鈥渟ervice-as-agentic-solutions鈥. For GCCs, it seeks to support the entire lifecycle, from upfront strategy and consulting to advanced capabilities in agentic AI, data and process transformation.Nikhil Anand, SVP & global head 鈥 digital business services, Sutherland, said that some GCCs are also exploring joint innovation and joint go-to-market collaborations leveraging the firm’s digital & AI teams to serve their end-clients. Mid-market GCCs, which are relatively resource-constrained and less familiar with the Indian landscape, present a significant opportunity, as they seek to partner for turn-key set-ups tapping into the experience and expertise that firms like Sutherland bring, he said.鈥淲e have configured (our capabilities and services) in a way that we can execute not only turn-key programs but also flexibly bring consulting, legal, tax and infrastructure services during the set-up phase; transition, operations and program management services during the scaling phase; and our digital, analytics and AI enablement teams during the transformation phase,” said Anand.Margin pressure from rising labour costs, inflation and foreign exchange volatility is making traditional BPO models unsustainable, said Rajesh Ojha, partner and GIC/GCC market segment leader, PwC India. 鈥淚n response, BPM firms are shifting toward higher-value, GCC-aligned services like FP&A, analytics and digital ops鈥攐ffering better margins and deeper client stickiness,鈥 he said.Enterprises now prefer models with lower operating costs amid high global interest rates, fuelling demand for assisted GCCs on vendor infrastructure, or 鈥淕CC-as-a-service鈥. Further, Ojha said, regulatory developments鈥攚hether data laws or protectionist shifts鈥-are pushing enterprises toward compliant, captive GCCs, positioning BPMs as 鈥渕anaged capability partners鈥 who can enable secure, IP-protected set-ups.