"To measure this transition meaningfully, we look beyond cost metrics and instead, look at a set of value, velocity, and innovation indicators."
- Given Tech Mahindra's focus on "Scale at Speed" and partnering with GCCs on digital innovation, what are the most significant challenges GCCs currently face in achieving rapid digital transformation and how is Tech Mahindra uniquely positioned to help them overcome these?
Today, Global Capability Centres or GCCs are under significant pressure to transition from simply being cost centres to agile, innovation-driven engines. Legacy tech environments, fragmented platforms, shortage of digital skills, and increasing complexities around security and compliance are few of the challenges we see hindering this digital transformation journey.
At Tech Mahindra, we have been helping GCCs scale and transform fast across three critical areas:
- Intelligent: where we enable enterprises to ride the current paradigm shift led by AI.
- Secure: where we fortify enterprise defenses against prominent threats.
- Sustainable: where we help enterprises adopt green business practices and meet their ESG goals.
- As GCCs evolve beyond cost arbitrage to become true innovation hubs, what emerging technologies or digital paradigms (e.g., Generative AI, Quantum Computing) do you see them prioritizing for investment, and how will this impact their talent acquisition and upskilling strategies?
Present-day GCCs are seen as transformation hubs and epicentres of digital transformation that drive breakthrough developments. They help establish innovation labs for research and experimentation, leverage technologies to support enterprise functions, as well as co-create intellectual property (IP) and deliver competitive advantage.
However, as mentioned earlier, there are certain challenges when it comes to scaling teams quickly to meet business demands and requirements. What we see today is limited access to specialized skills and expertise. There needs to be more focused investments around continuous re-skilling/upskilling resources and the existing talent pool—building in-house capabilities through agile learning platforms, internal talent marketplaces, and nanodegree models—particularly around GenAI, cloud, and cybersecurity. There is an emergence of new talent archetypes with emerging demand for roles like AI Product Manager, Prompt Engineer, Quantum Algorithm Developer, Edge Data Scientist, which necessitates closer alignment between tech strategy and HR planning. GCCs have also been partnering extensively with startups, academia-industry bodies, and gig economy platforms to plug these talent gaps faster, especially for emerging tech.
From a talent strategy perspective, Tech Mahindra is well-positioned to help GCCs optimize workforce performance and productivity, wherein our robust forecasting and dedicated talent acquisition teams can manage this fulfillment. We focus on in-house talent development with customized training for our client projects. Our Centres of Excellence (CoEs) across India expands across 5G, IoT, AI, and cybersecurity capabilities as well as new industry-specific applications of augmented and virtual realties (AR/VR), device engineering, Factory of Future, digital twin, and more. We also work extensively with academia e.g., Mahindra University, and diverse industry segments, giving us the opportunity to customize skilling curriculums and collaborate across multiple engagement models.
- Can you elaborate on how service providers like Tech Mahindra help GCCs standardize and optimize their operational processes to enable "rapid scaling," particularly in a multi-geography, multi-function GCC setup?
We have a proprietary maturity assessment framework to evaluate the feasibility of achieving the goals laid out by GCCs. This framework helps us identify and deep dive into the specific areas where GCCs need our support.
In terms of process enhancements, we embed intelligent automation and AI-led operations using proprietary platforms like netOps.ai that allow GCCs to automate workflows, reduce manual interventions, and scale functions like IT Ops, Networks, Finance, HR, faster. We also have an established, unified performance governance with real-time dashboards, common KPIs, and outcome-based metrics, ensuring visibility and accountability across all regions and functions.
We help address the talent scalability challenge by deploying agile POD-based delivery models and setting up CoEs across skill areas like cloud, GenAI, and cybersecurity. This allows GCCs to expand their capabilities without increasing linear talent cost.
Tech Mahindra also has a presence across 90+ countries with a strong foothold in regions like the Americas, Europe, IMEA, driven by extensive operations in India. This gives us the ability to understand organizational challenges better, especially when operating across multiple geographies and deploying seamless, integrated processes across these GCCs. It is this global presence that enables us to set up capability centres in a hub-and-spoke model for our clients.
- Looking at the growth story of GCCs, what are the key indicators or metrics that signify a GCC’s successful transition from a support function to a strategic business driver, and how do you advise your global clientele to measure this evolution?
The evolution of GCCs from a support function to a strategic business driver is no longer aspirational, it is an enterprise expectation. To measure this transition meaningfully, we look beyond cost metrics and instead, look at a set of value, velocity, and innovation indicators.
Our GCC maturity framework maps this evolution across four stages—support, optimize, transform, and lead—with clear diagnostics and benchmarks across process maturity, digital footprint, innovation velocity, and talent strategy. We co-create scorecards with our client’s global and local leadership to make this progress measurable and transparent. When a GCC starts delivering enterprise outcomes, not just enterprise support, it transforms from a back-office to a growth-office. This is the transition we help global enterprises measure and accelerate. We usually advise our global clients to track five key dimensions that signal maturity and strategic relevance:
- Ownership of business-aligned outcomes: A mature GCC is not just delivering SLAs, it is co-owning business KPIs like revenue growth, customer satisfaction, product innovation. At Tech Mahindra, we have helped clients evolve their GCCs into digital product factories, delivering time-to-market acceleration and enabling user experience improvements.
- Innovation throughput: We evaluate metrics like number of patents filed, prototypes built, digital IP co-developed, annually. A high-performing GCC should drive 15–25% of enterprise innovation output—whether through GenAI use cases, platform engineering, or customer analytics.
- Cross-functional integration: GCCs that operate in silos remain tactical. The transition point is when they start orchestrating across functions—integrating IT with engineering, finance with analytics, or customer ops with AI. We measure this via collaborative OKRs, unified governance, and shared digital platforms.
- Talent and capability index: We assess not just headcount, but the depth of digital skills, leadership presence, and internal IP creation. These metrics include the percentage of talent deployed on AI/cloud/automation, internal mobility rates, and participation in enterprise-level strategic initiatives.
- Business impact and Net Promoter Score (NPS) from HQ: The ultimate litmus test for us is feedback from business leaders. A GCC that is viewed as a strategic partner will be included in upstream decision-making. That is why we track internal NPS, the number of enterprise programs anchored from the GCC, and the level of strategic funding allocated.
- How do you see the role of GCCs expanding beyond core business functions to contribute to broader societal impact, and what examples of such initiatives have you observed in your partnerships?
The role of GCCs has changed significantly and rapidly—not just in terms of business value but also societal and environmental impact. Today’s leading GCCs are being reimagined as purpose-driven digital hubs, contributing to ESG goals, inclusive innovation, and community upliftment—well beyond their core functions. We see this expansion play out in three keyways:
- Driving sustainability through digital innovation: A majority of GCCs are now incubating green tech solutions for their parent organizations—developing digital twins for energy optimization, carbon tracking platforms, and ESG data analytics engines. For instance, in a recent engagement, we partnered with a manufacturing GCC to build a sustainability control tower, aggregating Scope 1–3 data and enabling climate risk simulations.
- Building inclusive tech and talent ecosystems: GCCs today play a vital role in democratizing tech access. Most of our clients have set up diversity-focused hiring pipelines that include returnship programs for women, neurodiverse hiring in AI teams, and rural outreach for digital skills. One of our BFSI GCC partners, for example, created an internal Women in AI CoE that not only develops IP but also mentors young female students in STEM across India.
- Enabling societal-scale digital solutions: GCCs are increasingly collaborating on projects and platforms that benefit the public and society as a whole—from financial inclusion to telemedicine to digital education. An example of this would be one of our healthcare client’s GCC, wherein we co-developed a mobile first diagnostics platform for underserved communities. This has since scaled across multiple geographies.
Most importantly, we embed our “Rise for Good” mindset into these GCC roadmaps—helping our clients align digital capabilities to societal outcomes. We also bring in our own CSR programs, like SMART Academies, into GCC locations to build local skill pipelines and enable community impact.
GCCs are no longer just cost or capability centres, but also conscious contributors to global purpose. The more they align their digital strength to social impact, the more they earn a seat at the table—not just in IT strategy, but in shaping the enterprise’s brand and values.
