Why Indian GCCs Need to Measure Their Success Beyond the Cost Metric

The 2024 NASSCOM report on India’s GCC landscape has some interesting findings:

• In the last 5 years,, the total number of GCCs in India has increased to over 1,700 in 2024.
• Over 50% of Indian GCCs have matured into a portfolio and innovation hub over the last decade.
• 90% of GCCs operate as multi-functional centers with expertise in technology, operations, and product engineering.

Years ago, early-stage GCCs in India delivered business value by offering access to a low-cost talent pool. At the time, this approach came to be seen as the defining industry benchmark that marked the GCC’s success quotient.

This approach is no longer sufficient. In 2024 and beyond, India-based GCCs recognize that they need to move up the value chain through digital innovation to cement their place in the global strategic fabric of the global HQ. That’s why, in recent years, GCCs have matured and evolved to provide advanced capabilities in emerging technology domains like Generative AI and even specialized ones like digital twins.

As global capability centers in India move up their maturity scale and value chain, they can no longer be happy with providing a cost advantage. The 2024 KPMG report on “GCCs in India” identifies the following factors among the reasons for this shift:

• Impact of rising global costs on developing economies like India
• The major shift in technology jobs towards specialized roles like AI specialists, data scientists, and cloud experts.
• GCCs are focusing on delivering high-value services using automation and digital technologies.

Hence, GCC companies in India need to redefine their success quotient beyond the cost advantage.

Redefining GCC success with relevant KPIs

Here are 4 relevant KPIs and metrics that can redefine the success of any GCC in India beyond the cost metric:

1. Performance

Performance is the GCC’s overall ability to achieve its strategic goals and business objectives. Typically, performance-related KPIs include the company’s financial performance, level of customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.

High-performing GCCs in India measure their performance in terms of their ability to:

• Exceed their customer expectations.
• Outperform their competitors.
• Achieve their financial goals.
• Work as a strategic partner to their parent organization.

Here’s a case study of how a U.S.-based home improvement company established a future-ready financial GCC in India with high performance and control standards. Here are some of the benefits of this transition:

• Developing a performance measurement framework using a BI-powered dashboard to monitor over 40 key metrics.
• Identifying 24 areas of process improvement, which led to a 20% improvement in operational efficiency.

1. Technology-led innovation

Organic innovation in any India-based GCC is done in collaboration with parent companies. Typically, this KPI is a combination of building a healthy pool of skilled technology professionals – and developing internal capabilities in technologies like AI, digital twins, and data engineering.

The 2024 NASSCOM report highlights the growing penetration of digital technologies across GCCs:

• AI and data science: 65% (in 2019) to 86%(in 2024)
• Cloud computing: 80% (in 2019) to 82%(in 2024)
• Cybersecurity: 55% (in 2019) to 88%(in 2024)
• Blockchain: 5% (in 2019) to 56%(in 2024)

This Deloitte article emphasizes the importance of innovation as a “key focus area for GCCs.” To improve their innovative capabilities, Indian government can play a role in:

• Encouraging the top global capability centers in India to develop intellectual property.
• Supporting technology-powered innovation.
• Encouraging GCC parent companies to invest in R&D and innovation.

Here’s a successful case study of how Novartis launched Asia’s first digital innovation hub, Biome India in Hyderabad in 2020. This GCC provided healthcare startups and innovators with direct access to technology innovation.

1. Health

With this crucial metric, GCCs can evaluate their internal organizational factors like employee engagement and leadership skills. A “healthy” GCC is characterized by a:

• Vibrant work environment
• Real-time communications
• Employee empowerment

To meet their current and projected talent requirements, GCCs can implement the following strategies to attract and retain their workforce:

• Adopting a hybrid work model to build an agile workforce.
• Implementing upskilling programs in cutting-edge technologies to provide continuous learning and development opportunities.
• Collaborating with the GCC startup ecosystem and academic institutions.

Similarly, GCCs in India can foster leadership qualities by:

• Providing employees exposure to the senior leadership team and encouraging critical decision-making skills.
• Identifying potential leaders from the pool of employees and training them for the top leadership positions.

1. Customer satisfaction

With this KPI, GCCs can measure the level of satisfaction their customers have towards their delivered products or services. As customer expectations continue to increase, a customer-centric approach can power GCCs to remain competitive and relevant.

India-based GCCs can develop a customer-centric approach by supporting the latest technology trends – and by improving their global reach. Here are 5 specific areas where GCCs can build a customer-focused approach:

• Product development and innovation
• Customer insights and analytics
• Customer experience (CX) transformation
• Omnichannel customer interactions
• Robust backend operations

Here’s a successful case study of how Citibank’s operations center in Singapore improved customer experience with services in transaction processing and risk management.

How Indian GCCs can define a successful innovation strategy in 2025

Beyond providing cost-efficiency, GCC companies in India have proven their business value to their parent company by delivering a competitive advantage and technological know-how. For their next wave of innovation, GCC leaders have a critical role to play in steering them in the right direction forward. In this endeavor, functional team leads need to define new success metrics that consider factors like:

• The level of innovative mindset
• Employee engagement
• The strategic impact of these metrics

For a successful growth strategy, GCCs can leverage the capabilities of the rich ecosystem of technology providers in India. Through strategic partnership and collaboration, GCCs can make significant business gains in the following areas:

1. Next-generation technologies

With this partnership, GCCs now have access to the latest technologies like Generative AI and digital twins, which can be integrated into their service offerings and digital solutions. This access enables them to develop and deliver innovative products or services in the Indian market.

1. Faster innovation

By partnering with technology solution providers, GCCs can leverage external resources to their advantage – without making any significant investment. Thus, GCCs can minimize the financial risks associated with digital innovations and explore new market opportunities.

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