OceanFrogs

Episode 6: Cricket, IIM Ahmedabad and GCCs

Everyone in India has something or the other about the Indian Cricket team’s performance, field placement, and cricket shot selection.

You can say the same thing about GCCs in India. Every vendor thinks, pitches that they can help set up GCCs in one way or another.

GCCs and Cricket = Everyone thinks that they know better than others.

To some extent, it is true as well.

It is an emerging segment. There are 4 types of GCC opportunities.

1. Red: Existing GCCs. Nasscom’s numbers are confined by the definition. If you include software companies, small companies with remotely hired people, it skyrockets to 2,182.

2. Greenfield: These companies have NOT come to India. The average ticket size to set up and run a GCC for an enterprise starts from $ 3 million for a BOT model. Market size is 9- 12,000 enterprises. Mid-market = 30,000 companies fitting.

3. Blue: New GCCs is a small market. Think of 10-20 a month at max. They would provide you some business, but they are busy proving themselves. They want to move from a cost center to profit center after age 1.

4. No color GCC: These are the enterprise and mid-market that are talking to legal consultants, are early in their journey, researching about the potential, exploring pros and cons, and establishing a case internally. Companies such as TCS, Wipro, and Infosys do not know about them. Deloitte, KMPG, and specific GCC consultancy companies might know about them.

Check your GCC segment carefully. Not all apples are Royal Gala

Why am I sharing ? My request from you is to select 1+3 or 2 or 4, know the market size, check your value proposition accordingly.

GCC Count this month as per our platform is: 2,168 (June 30, 2025). This excludes the one that has been shut down.


 

How Do Leaders Decide on Starting GCCs?

 

I was talking to Sachin Ghaisas the other day and here is what we concluded.

Leaders do create GCCs for various reasons.

GCCs and Outsourcing to IT vendor - These two can co-exist.

1. Complex Domain knowledge is not transferrable to an IT outsourcing company. For example, GE Research would not be outsourced-to-another company but to a GCC branch.

2. A GCC is preferred over outsourcing-to-another company when “IT Tools” is not the only thing to outsource but “Process = domain knowledge + IT Tools” are combined.

3. Creating a GCC is a strategic decision, takes longer to decide, requires blessing, vision at the top management level by an experienced/energetic/stable leader. “Outsourcing-to-another-company” can be a strategic/ tactical decision because it involves less risk, less involvement, and failure can always be put on the third party.

4. Exposure to the ‘How does Outsourcing work” is a must before a leader thinks, envisions concepts such as “GCC”.

5. The decision to form a “GCC” is a complex one, builds over time (think year or longer).

6. Location of the GCC depends on the “Champion Leader” and his needs. If customer service is the pain point, time zone compatibility would be a big pre-requisite. South America or Eastern Europe might be over India and Philippines in that case. If “engineering talent” is the pain point, then easy access to talent would be a big pre-requisite. The two factors – location and ease of building leadership ring to run the GCC are equally important. There are many consultancies focused on helping clients make the right decision.

7. Not every GCC is guaranteed to be a success. No leader wants to put all their eggs in one basket. A leader will always seek to balance outsourcing to the GCCs and the IT vendors.

IIM-A Partnership with OceanFrogs

IIM-A partners with OceanFrogs to research on GCCs.

IIM-A partnered with OceanFrogs to conduct research on GCC segment’s growth in the industry. IIM-A approached us, found our intelligence on the GCC the most comprehensive in the industry. Research team has been setup, areas of interest have been identified, and workshops have been conducted.


 

What is coming up next week?

 

GCC Employee Demographics

We are running a census of all the MNCs and GCCs. Though, we are doing it from third party sources. Putting together employee count, employee skill for every city and every one of them. We are keen to provide employee level details.

Nasscom Audit

We recently completed verification of OceanFrogs GCC with the Nasscom List. More than 1500 matched up. We are updating them on the platform in the coming days.

Risk and Compliance Knowledge Graph

OceanFrogs has built the latest knowledge graph of risk and compliances conducted by the GCCs and enterprises at global level.

MNC Intel

We recently refreshed not only GCC Intel but our MNC intel as well. In my discussion with more than 255 sales leaders in the last 9 months, one thing is common – Vendors find similarities between MNCs and GCCs. You can sell to GCCs if you have been selling to MNCs and vice versa.

Is it a signal ?

Recently, we have sold GCC Signals and Intel to 4 GCCs themselves. Can you believe that ? In other words, GCCs want to add value, be profit driven.

Join My Whatsapp Group

I moderate a Whatsapp group to discuss GCCs in detail. Please join ONLY if you are serious about selling to GCCs or do want to explore GCCs seriously.

Here is the link: WhatsApp Group Link

Please join only if you are targeting GCCs or intend to target or you are evaluating.

Previous Editions of the Newsletter

Episode 1: GCC 101

About OceanFrogs:

Well, I am building GCC Intel for last 7 years. Automation Anywhere (AA) had asked us to identify their technology usage for their Competitive Intelligence (CI) studies. Salesforce challenged us further by asking us to increase their coverage, get contacts in shared services, Center of Excellences (COEs). Infosys asked us to know their footprint (locations) in India. CSS asked us to provide their technology investment, hiring trends.

There are many marquee clients along the way (large and small). SaaS companies such as New Relic, LambdaTest, BrowserStack, Jombay. US Based Strategy departments of companies such as Deloitte, Accenture have also planned their strategies using OceanFrogs’ GCC Intelligence.

Still learning daily.

Author Details

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Vinay M

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