In the Crowded Consultancy Market, GCC Enablers Must Evolve or Die

India’s global capability centre (GCC) ecosystem is expanding rapidly, and with it, a greater number of companies are now positioning themselves as GCC enablers—becoming their advisory, consulting, and execution partners. 

However, as GCCs take on increasingly strategic mandates, industry leaders say the competition between enablers is becoming less about the number of services they offer and more about the depth of ownership and outcomes they can deliver.

Speaking to AIM, Jaikumar Subramanian, Partner and GCC Industry Leader, Diversified Industries, Deloitte South Asia, says that the ecosystem has expanded significantly, with providers supporting different stages of the GCC lifecycle.

“What was once a relatively defined set of technology, talent or advisory providers now includes firms supporting different parts of the GCC lifecycle—from strategy and location selection to setup, technology, operations, infrastructure, compliance, R&D, and ongoing transformation,” Subramanian states.

According to Deloitte’s GCC framework, India’s GCC footprint could expand from around 1,800 centres to 5,000 by 2030. As more companies establish GCCs and existing centres take on larger global mandates, the supporting ecosystem is expected to turn more complex.

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Subramanian also states that the evolution will require providers to go beyond traditional services and develop deeper capabilities across industries, mission-critical applications, emerging platforms, and AI-led transformation.

“This becomes even more important as the market scales,” he comments.

From Cost Arbitrage to Capability Building

The shift in the GCC model itself is contributing to the proliferation of enablers. GCCs are now evolving as capability and transformation engines for their parent organisations.

Anuj Khurana, Co-founder and CEO of the financial services-focused consulting firm Anaptyss, says this transition is changing what enterprises expect from their ecosystem partners.

“The GCC model is evolving from a cost-arbitrage construct into a capability and transformation engine,” he notes.

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As enterprises move functions such as risk analytics, AML, KYC, credit intelligence, and finance operations into GCCs, the challenge is about building specialised capabilities, embedding domain knowledge, and deploying AI into production.

This creates opportunities for consulting firms, IT services companies, and specialised managed-service providers to participate in different stages of the GCC journey.

However, Khurana states the nature of the requirement is also changing. “The differentiator will increasingly be the ability to build and run complex, domain-specific capabilities end-to-end, rather than simply provide infrastructure or talent,” he adds.

Enterprises now want partners that can combine domain expertise, technology, and execution while taking greater ownership of outcomes.

The Enabler Market is Crowded

The Indian ecosystem is already crowded with consulting firms like KPMG India, EY, and PwC positioning themselves as GCC builders alongside more traditional consultants like ANSR, Zinnov, and Inductus Group.

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The growing number of players created another challenge. For instance, providers with very different capabilities are using similar language to describe their offerings.

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Nitika Goel, Managing Partner and CMO at Zinnov, observes that while commoditisation of GCC enablement may not be as big an issue as the varying degree of ownership that different providers are willing and able to take.

“It’s about ownership levels being confused with each other,” she adds.

Goel states that some providers continue to focus on specific requirements such as recruitment, real estate, payroll, or compliance. Others can support a GCC through entity creation, hiring, infrastructure, and initial operations, while larger consulting and IT services firms are increasingly participating in setup and execution.

Some providers also coordinate with multiple partners, as well as focus on transforming specific capabilities such as AI, engineering, talent, or operating models.Also ReadRetail GCCs Want More AI, But Where is the Talent?

The key difference is what happens after the GCC has been established.

“Very few stay with a GCC across its full life—through scale, transformation, global mandates—so the centre keeps earning a bigger and more strategic role inside the enterprise,” she adds

What Should Enterprises Look For?

As the ecosystem becomes more crowded, selecting an enabler gets tougher. 

Subramanian advises that companies should examine whether a prospective enabler understands the strategic intent of the parent organisation, possesses sufficient industry and functional expertise, and can navigate India’s regulatory and operating environment.

Governance, leadership, scalability, and coordination across multiple ecosystem partners are also becoming critical as GCCs grow more complex.

For Khurana, the expectation is increasingly moving from capability provisioning to capability ownership. “GCCs need enablers that bring a combination of domain IP, technology and execution—not another layer of staffing,” he explains.

That could include pre-built accelerators, specialised talent, managed services and domain-specific intellectual property. The objective is to establish a team quickly, and to help a GCC move from fragmented operations to a scalable, AI-enabled operating model.

Becoming Long-Term Strategic Partner

The changing market is ultimately forcing enterprises to ask a more fundamental question: what do they expect an enabler to own?

Goel argues that many providers currently position themselves to help set up GCCs—where capabilities are increasingly easier to replicate. Differentiation emerges further along the GCC lifecycle, when a GCC begins scaling, taking on transformation initiatives, and assuming global responsibility.

“Some coordinate multiple partners into a single point of execution. Others improve an existing GCC’s AI, engineering, talent, or operating model,” she notes.

The next phase could therefore see greater emphasis on measurable business outcomes rather than the breadth of a provider’s service catalogue.

Subramanian says enterprises should assess enablers based on their ability to connect the GCC’s investments to the parent organisation’s broader objectives. “In a market where almost every participant can position itself as a GCC enabler, meaningful differentiation will increasingly come from execution depth and accountability.”

As India’s GCC base expands and centres assume increasingly sophisticated mandates, the enabler ecosystem is likely to continue growing alongside it. But the value proposition may increasingly shift from helping companies launch GCCs to help them build, scale, and transform them.