Global businesses are under intense pressure to deliver more, faster, and at a lower cost, while still staying competitive in a rapidly changing world. Across industries, organizations are being asked to bring to market new products and services at shorter timelines. They have to support operations across multiple geographies and adopt digital-first ways of working. And all this without increasing overheads.
The pressure is real. Speed, cost, and competitiveness are now non-negotiables.
Many companies have addressed this challenge by building what are known as Global Capability Centers (GCCs). These are offshore or near-shore units that handle operations, analytics, finance, technology, customer support, and even product development on behalf of the parent enterprise.
By owning and operating these centers, businesses gain more control, deeper integration, and longer-term strategic value. GCCs give companies a dedicated global delivery engine instead of relying purely on third-party outsourcing.
But setting up a GCC from scratch comes with a heavy cost. Real estate, infrastructure, hiring, compliance, payroll, governance, transition, knowledge transfer, IT systems – the list is long. Building all this can take 12–24 months or more and carry significant risk. Many firms find that the time-to-value and capital outlay are too high.
This challenge has led to a new model in the industry – “GCC as a service.” Under this approach, an experienced partner builds and runs the center infrastructure, including hiring, facilities, IT, compliance and operations, but the business retains ownership of the team, processes, IP and strategic direction. In essence, you get a captive-style GCC faster, without the full setup burden.
To give this context, India already hosts over 1,700 GCCs and employs roughly 1.9 million professionals as of 2024. These centres generated around US$64.6 billion in revenue in India in 2024. Projections show that by 2030 the market could scale to about US$99–105 billion, with approximately 2,100–2,200 centers and 2.5–2.8 million employees.
In short, GCC as a service emerges as a practical way for companies to harness the benefits of a global captive model while reducing risk, speeding time-to-value, and avoiding big upfront capital and operational drag.
We have put together everything you need to know in this blog. Keep scrolling to find out more.
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Select an element to maximize. Press ESC to cancel.What is GCC as a Service?
A Global Capability Center (GCC) is a dedicated offshore or nearshore unit managed fully by the parent company. It works as an extension of the organization. Companies build GCCs for IT services, finance, procurement, HR, analytics, automation, marketing, and research.
GCC as a service is a ready-to-run model. A partner sets up the infrastructure, builds the team, handles payroll, compliance, hiring, real estate, security, and transition. The company still controls the work, IP, standards, tools, and processes. In short, the business gets a captive GCC model, but without building it alone.
This approach reduces upfront investment and avoids long setup timelines.
Key Takeaway
A GCC on your name, run on your terms, without the pain of building it yourself. That is what GCC as a service is.
Why Are Companies Choosing GCC as a Service?
Setting up a fully operational GCC is rarely simple. Organizations often need to handle real estate, build technology infrastructure, hire teams, establish security and legal compliance, and build governance. That process frequently takes between 12 and 24 months of effort.
In India, for example, there are roughly 1.9 million professionals employed across GCCs. The size of the talent pool shows that the market is large and growing.
The demand behind this set-up effort is rising fast. Companies want to keep control of their workflows and intellectual property. They also aim to lower long-term operating costs by shifting to captive-style centers rather than relying solely on third-party vendors.
But the traditional path has four main pain points:
a. Heavy upfront investment in setup. CapEx for real estate, IT systems, security and build-out is significant.
b. Long timelines of 12-24 months typically before GGCs can go full operations.
c. Finding the right talent, especially specialized roles, takes time and effort; attrition, onboarding and training adds more lag.
d. Compliance and legal complexity, which includes incorporation of local laws, add risk and delay.
Because of these issues, many firms hesitate to embark on a full GCC build-from-scratch. They worry about sunk cost, the delay before seeing value, and the complexity of staying compliant. These risks act as significant drug factors.
This is where the “GCC as a service” model comes in. By partnering with a provider who already has the infrastructure, entity setup, payroll and compliance mechanisms, the company sidesteps much of the delay and major upfront expense. The business can focus on work, talent, and strategy, rather than the build-out.
Key Takeaway
GCC as a service mitigates the four major challenges and speeds scale. Because GCC as a service provider knows how to mitigate the major challenges, most enterprises are opting for such.
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How GCC as a Service Works (Simple Steps)
Companies get full visibility into data and performance while still saving money on overhead costs.
GCC as a Service vs Traditional Outsourcing
Many people confuse GCC as a service model with traditional outsourcing. But these two models are different.
Aspect | GCC as a Service | Traditional Outsourcing |
|---|---|---|
Ownership of IP & data | Business | Vendor |
Team identity | Works only for that business | Works for multiple clients |
Long-term strategic control | High | Limited |
Flexibility and transparency | High | Moderate |
Cost structure | Lower in long run | Higher per seat in long term |
Many people confuse this model with outsourcing. But they are not the same. In traditional outsourcing, the third-party vendor owns the people, the tools, and sometimes even the process. The vendor decides how the work is done and who does it. In a GCC as a service model, however, the team is built exclusively for one company and works as an extension of it. The business has full visibility into operations, data, and quality. It also retains intellectual property, security protocols, and knowledge within the organization.
For businesses in regulated sectors like banking, insurance, and healthcare, where data privacy and compliance are non-negotiable, this distinction is crucial. According to a report from Deloitte, 68% of businesses prefer captive or hybrid models because they desire data management and long-term cost reduction. Moreover, this model helps tech firms that want to protect their secret software, analytics, or AI models
Key Takeaway
Unlike traditional outsourcing, GCC as a service offers businesses long-term control, visibility, and security. This concept offers the best of both worlds for companies seeking to expand internationally while safeguarding their data and brand integrity.
Who Needs GCC as a Service?
Companies that benefit the most from the GCC as a service model tend to share certain characteristics. Typically, they are organizations that are:
- Scaling fast and need global teams
- Building technology or digital transformation
- Want long-term data control
- Want to reduce dependence on vendors
- Need specialized roles like automation, analytics, or software development
- Want operational savings without quality compromise
The market’s evolution underlines how broad the opportunity is. For example, in India alone more than 1,900 GCCs are already operating and are expected to exceed 2,400 by 2030, spanning industries from banking, insurance and fintech to retail, logistics and manufacturing.
Moreover, in the life sciences sector, about 23 of the world’s top 50 companies have set up GCCs in India.
This shows that it is not just standard operations functions anymore. GCCs are being used for core innovation, R&D, analytics and strategic capabilities.
For example, sectors such as banking/financial services, insurance (BFSI), SaaS/technology companies, manufacturing, telecom and retail all have firms that run GCCs in India and elsewhere.
Key Takeaway
GCC as a service model works for both large enterprises and mid-market companies planning global expansion. If you are a mid-size firm stepping into new geographies or building global digital capabilities, you can adopt the GCC as a service and begin with a leaner footprint. On the other hand, large enterprises can use it to refresh or scale existing GCCs more rapidly, while retaining control. Either way, the model supports both enterprise-scale and growth-stage use-cases.
What Services Can a GCC Run?
A GCC can handle almost any business function:
A report by McKinsey & Company finds that capability centers in Asia, especially India are increasingly performing higher-value work rather than merely acting as back-office hubs.
Another McKinsey study notes that India already hosts over 1,500 global capability centers, about 60 % of which focus on IT, business-process management or engineering/R&D.
This means that GCCs are no longer just doing support-work but are becoming key engines of transformation for their parent organizations.
Key Takeaway
GCCs are not only about back-office work. Many handle core technology and product development. In fact, the evolution has been so strong that many companies now view their GCC as a strategic center, responsible for innovation, analytics, and even next-gen leadership pipelines.
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Benefits of GCC as a Service
While every company has a different need, the common benefits for opting for GCC as a service can be summarized as follows:
1. Lower operational cost
Companies often find that running a global capability center offers a notable cost advantage compared to doing the same work in higher-cost locations. For example, recent data on India-based GCCs shows potential cost savings of 30–60 % for global firms.
These savings apply across salaries, real estate, infrastructure, tools, compliance, and support functions. Because the partner in a GCC as a service model already has many of these fixed costs handled, the company avoids large upfront capital expenditure and obtains more predictable monthly operating cost. Over time, this can help free up the budget for more strategic work.
2. Access to global talent
When companies build capability centers, one of the major advantages is access to a large pool of skilled professionals.
For businesses needing specialists in areas like cloud, AI/ML, cybersecurity or data analytics, this talent pool offers scale and diversity that may not be available in their home market.
In a GCC as a service arrangement, the partner often maintains recruitment pipelines, networks, and talent management experience. As a result, firms can tap into global talent without building the full infrastructure or recruitment engine themselves.
A broad talent pool increases the odds of finding the right skills quickly and allows companies to compete globally for expertise.
3. Faster setup
Building a captive global center from scratch typically takes many months, often a year or more. In contrast, with a GCC as a service model, the partner has existing infrastructure. This includes office space, legal registration, payroll, HR processes, IT systems, onboarding frameworks.
Because of this, many organizations report going live with full operations in as little as 6-12 weeks (versus 12-24 months for a full build). This speed means the firm can shift functions faster, start capturing benefits earlier, and avoid the long “ramp-up” phase of a new location.
Quicker setup enables faster time-to-value, which matters in fast-moving markets and for companies under competitive pressure.
4. Data and IP control
Unlike traditional outsourcing models, which may involve vendors handling multiple clients and sharing platforms or process layers, a GCC is dedicated to a single business. That means the company retains ownership of intellectual property (IP), dataflows, governance, and strategic direction.
This is particularly important in regulated industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare, or any business handling sensitive data or proprietary algorithms. With a GCC as a service provider, the enterprise can implement its own security protocols, ensure data remains inside its ecosystem, and maintain long-term strategic control over critical assets.
Key Takeaway
These five benefits show why many firms are turning to the GCC as a service model rather than staying in traditional outsourcing or building centers entirely in-house. The model offers cost savings, access to global talent, faster setup, stronger data/IP control, and built-in flexibility.
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5. Flexible scale
Unlike traditional outsourcing models, which may involve vendors handling multiple clients and sharing platforms or process layers, a GCC is dedicated to a single business. That means the company retains ownership of intellectual property (IP), dataflows, governance, and strategic direction.
This is particularly important in regulated industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare, or any business handling sensitive data or proprietary algorithms. With a GCC as a service provider, the enterprise can implement its own security protocols, ensure data remains inside its ecosystem, and maintain long-term strategic control over critical assets.
Risks and Challenges in GCC as a Service
No model is perfect. A few challenges exist with GCC as a service as well. These can be summarized as follows:
1. Knowledge transition takes time
When you shift processes, systems, or workflows to a new team (or a new location), transferring documentation, procedural know-how and tacit knowledge takes longer than many expect.
Mistakes happen if the old team leaves too early, or the incoming team lacks access to systems or stakeholder insights. Without a structured handover plan, the new team can face gaps, errors, and slower productivity while they climb the learning curve.
Allow sufficient time for knowledge transition, include shadowing, workshops and mock runs, and track readiness before full handover.
2. Getting culture alignment can be slow
Even if you set up the team and tools correctly, aligning the new center with your parent organization’s culture, leadership style, communication habits and values often proves challenging. It takes deliberate effort. From training to leadership visits, cross-team integration to continuous feedback loops is a long process.
Without this, the GCC can feel isolated, misaligned, or struggle to embed the behaviors and decision rhythms of the main business.
Culture matters! Invest early in aligning teams, mindsets and ways of working to bridge locations.
3. Hiring niche skills may take longer
Finding rare or specialized talent is increasingly competitive globally. While standard roles may fill quickly, niche roles often take months to identify and onboard. In addition, such hires may require tailored training, mentoring and ramp-up time to hit full productivity. Thus, planning hiring timelines conservatively is wise.
4. Governance and communication must be strong
A successful GCC must have clear governance structures. This includes defined roles, escalation paths, performance metrics, audits, and reporting. At the same time, communication rhythm between the center, global HQ, and business units must be clear and frequent to avoid misunderstanding or drifting.
If either governance or communication falters, the center risks misaligning priority, losing visibility, or failing to meet business expectations.
Set up governance frameworks and communication channels early. They are the glue that keeps the center aligned and accountable.
Key Takeaway
These five benefits show why many firms are turning to the GCC as a service model rather than staying in traditional outsourcing or building centers entirely in-house. The model offers cost savings, access to global talent, faster setup, stronger data/IP control, and built-in flexibility.
Risks and Challenges in GCC as a Service
No model is perfect. A few challenges exist with GCC as a service as well. These can be summarized as follows:
1. Knowledge transition takes time
When you shift processes, systems, or workflows to a new team (or a new location), transferring documentation, procedural know-how and tacit knowledge takes longer than many expect.
Mistakes happen if the old team leaves too early, or the incoming team lacks access to systems or stakeholder insights. Without a structured handover plan, the new team can face gaps, errors, and slower productivity while they climb the learning curve.
Allow sufficient time for knowledge transition, include shadowing, workshops and mock runs, and track readiness before full handover.
2. Getting culture alignment can be slow
Even if you set up the team and tools correctly, aligning the new center with your parent organization’s culture, leadership style, communication habits and values often proves challenging. It takes deliberate effort. From training to leadership visits, cross-team integration to continuous feedback loops is a long process.
Without this, the GCC can feel isolated, misaligned, or struggle to embed the behaviors and decision rhythms of the main business.
Culture matters! Invest early in aligning teams, mindsets and ways of working to bridge locations.
3. Hiring niche skills may take longer
Finding rare or specialized talent is increasingly competitive globally. While standard roles may fill quickly, niche roles often take months to identify and onboard. In addition, such hires may require tailored training, mentoring and ramp-up time to hit full productivity. Thus, planning hiring timelines conservatively is wise.
4. Governance and communication must be strong
A successful GCC must have clear governance structures. This includes defined roles, escalation paths, performance metrics, audits, and reporting. At the same time, communication rhythm between the center, global HQ, and business units must be clear and frequent to avoid misunderstanding or drifting.
If either governance or communication falters, the center risks misaligning priority, losing visibility, or failing to meet business expectations.
Set up governance frameworks and communication channels early. They are the glue that keeps the center aligned and accountable.
Key Takeaway
While these challenges are real, they are manageable when there is upfront planning, transparency in roles, and open communication. By anticipating knowledge-transfer issues, cultural alignment, niche-hiring lead-times and governance disciplines, you avoid bottlenecks and set up a solid foundation.
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How Much Does a GCC Cost?
The cost of running a global capability center (GCC) varies significantly depending on region, team size, tools, technology stack, and the level of operational maturity in place.
For instance, using India as a benchmark, labor and infrastructure expenses are much lower than in many Western locations. According to one industry overview, labor costs in India can be 50-70% lower than those in Germany for comparable GCC setups.
Another study shows companies report 30-40% cost savings when setting up GCCs in India versus traditional delivery centers in high-cost geographies.
Because the GCC as a service model uses a partner who already has real estate, infrastructure, hiring pipelines, payroll, and legal entity in place, the initial setup cost and investment risk comes down. The business avoids large upfront capital expenditure (CapEx) and shifts to a model of regular operational spend (OpEx).
With fewer large investments to make, companies can forecast cost more accurately, reduce the burden of managing infrastructure, and allocate budget more precisely to talent, tools and strategic initiatives instead of managing bricks, leases and technology stacks.
Key Takeaway
GCC as a service transforms what would often be heavy, unpredictable upfront investment into smoother, predictable monthly or annual costs. It gives you financial visibility and flexibility, letting you allocate budget to talent and capabilities rather than build costs.
How Datamatics Business Solutions Helps with GCC as a Service ?
When you engage DBSL for a GCC as a service model, you gain more than a ready-built delivery center. You partner with a provider whose full lifecycle model spans Design → Build → Operate → Transform, enabling you to launch and scale a GCC without the heavy build-out risk.
In the design phase, we align your GCC vision with business goals, helping to identify the right location, talent strategy, operating model, and governance setup.
In the build phase, we manage legal entity setup, infrastructure deployment, technology roll-out, and staffing. We thus absorb much of the upfront CapEx burden and help you go live faster.
The next phase, which is to operate, we take charge of day-to-day delivery under your ownership, offering transparent performance metrics, dashboards, SLAs and a governance layer that keeps you in control.
In the final Transform phase, we embed digital levers like automation, AI/ML, analytics, and Centers of Excellence to evolve the GCC from a cost center into a strategic growth engine.
Because of our global reach that spans 500+ clients across 120+ countries and proven delivery history, DBSL offers companies the ability to launch, scale and govern GCC operations with clarity, speed and depth.
In short, if you are seeking a captive-style global center but want to avoid the complexity of building everything yourself, we are your best GCC as a service provider. We blend infrastructure, talent, governance, and digital maturity into one offer.
Interested in learning more about our services? Get in touch with our experts. Fill out the form here.
Final Thoughts
GCC as a service gives companies control, transparency, and global talent without the burden of building a center from scratch. It reduces cost, shortens setup time, and ensures strong data governance. As more companies build global digital teams, this model will continue to grow.
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Frequently Asked Questions about GCC as a Service
1. Is GCC as a service the same as outsourcing?
2. How long does it take to set up a GCC?
3. Can small or mid-size companies use this model?
4. Which locations are popular for GCCs?
5. Can a GCC handle core technology and product work?
Sumantra Mukherjee
