Bengaluru: Increasing demand from global capability centres (GCCs) is driving commercial real estate developers to go beyond the traditional model of leasing office space to offering "GCC-as-a-service" solutions. Under this, developers such as the Embassy and Bhartiya groups are offering bundled solutions that combine real estate with technology infrastructure, assistance for regulatory compliance and talent acquisition, and operational support.
Setting up a GCC in India involves creation of an ecosystem comprising physical infrastructure, people and business operations, said Arjun Aggarwal, managing director at Bhartiya Urban. "In addition to technical talent, they (GCC-as-a-service) provide non-tech services such as supply and vendor management. This flexible, cost-effective model enables companies to scale efficiently while focusing on core business outcomes," he said.
Real estate is billed either as an operating expense (opex) or capital expenditure (capex), depending on client needs, while allied services are charged monthly on a per-employee basis.
Aravind Maiya, co-founder and chief executive of Embark, said the Embassy Group platform has experienced GCC practitioners to provide end-to-end services to clients. "By owning infrastructure, having deep in-house consultant expertise, and offering a modular, pay-as-you-use service with a transparent cost-plus pricing model, we deliver scale-agnostic, execution-led support...," he said.
These are still early days for this model of business, according to industry executives, who said companies from the US, UK, Canada and Austria, primarily operating in the textile, retail, technology, logistics, aviation and pharmaceutical sectors have shown interest in GCC as a service.
Aggarwal and Maiya did not name any clients, citing confidentiality clauses.
The expansion of GCCs in India was once largely driven by the Big Four professional services firm of EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, along with global consulting giants such as Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group. These firms played a key role not only in advising multinationals on their India entry strategies but also in designing operational frameworks, managing compliance and building sustainable growth models. Before that, the task of setting up offshore centres was primarily handled by large IT service providers.
Industry experts say these platforms can help cut costs by up to 30% compared with the traditional offshore development centre models run by large outsourcing firms, making them an attractive option, especially for GCCs setting up operations with 40-300 employees.
India's GCC ecosystem has expanded beyond Fortune 500 companies to include mid-size and emerging enterprises, say experts. "This surge is opening new avenues for real estate developers to create specialised infrastructure like flexible campuses and innovation hubs tailored to GCC needs," said Ram Chandnani, managing director, advisory and transaction services, at commercial real estate services firm CBRE India.
Over the past year, several mid-size GCCs employing 1,000-2,000 people have entered India, joining larger corporations that already have workforces of 10,000-15,000, across functions such as customer support, analytics and R&D. New entrants include Flutter Entertainment, Hy-Vee, ChampionX and Okta. "While GCCs are typically associated with large campuses, nearly 30% of leasing in the past 3-4 years was through smaller, sub-100,000-sq-ft deals," said Sankey Prasad, CMD, Middle East & India at Colliers, which mentioned a 40% rise in average leasing deal sizes for GCCs, reflecting a shift towards large, scalable operations.
Setting up a GCC in India involves creation of an ecosystem comprising physical infrastructure, people and business operations, said Arjun Aggarwal, managing director at Bhartiya Urban. "In addition to technical talent, they (GCC-as-a-service) provide non-tech services such as supply and vendor management. This flexible, cost-effective model enables companies to scale efficiently while focusing on core business outcomes," he said.
Real estate is billed either as an operating expense (opex) or capital expenditure (capex), depending on client needs, while allied services are charged monthly on a per-employee basis.
Aravind Maiya, co-founder and chief executive of Embark, said the Embassy Group platform has experienced GCC practitioners to provide end-to-end services to clients. "By owning infrastructure, having deep in-house consultant expertise, and offering a modular, pay-as-you-use service with a transparent cost-plus pricing model, we deliver scale-agnostic, execution-led support...," he said.
These are still early days for this model of business, according to industry executives, who said companies from the US, UK, Canada and Austria, primarily operating in the textile, retail, technology, logistics, aviation and pharmaceutical sectors have shown interest in GCC as a service.
Aggarwal and Maiya did not name any clients, citing confidentiality clauses.
The expansion of GCCs in India was once largely driven by the Big Four professional services firm of EY, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, along with global consulting giants such as Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group. These firms played a key role not only in advising multinationals on their India entry strategies but also in designing operational frameworks, managing compliance and building sustainable growth models. Before that, the task of setting up offshore centres was primarily handled by large IT service providers.
Industry experts say these platforms can help cut costs by up to 30% compared with the traditional offshore development centre models run by large outsourcing firms, making them an attractive option, especially for GCCs setting up operations with 40-300 employees.
India's GCC ecosystem has expanded beyond Fortune 500 companies to include mid-size and emerging enterprises, say experts. "This surge is opening new avenues for real estate developers to create specialised infrastructure like flexible campuses and innovation hubs tailored to GCC needs," said Ram Chandnani, managing director, advisory and transaction services, at commercial real estate services firm CBRE India.
Over the past year, several mid-size GCCs employing 1,000-2,000 people have entered India, joining larger corporations that already have workforces of 10,000-15,000, across functions such as customer support, analytics and R&D. New entrants include Flutter Entertainment, Hy-Vee, ChampionX and Okta. "While GCCs are typically associated with large campuses, nearly 30% of leasing in the past 3-4 years was through smaller, sub-100,000-sq-ft deals," said Sankey Prasad, CMD, Middle East & India at Colliers, which mentioned a 40% rise in average leasing deal sizes for GCCs, reflecting a shift towards large, scalable operations.
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