Three Business Models dominate the global business landscape: Global Capability Centres (GCC), Global Business Services (GBS) and Outsourcing. There are an estimated 4,000+ Global Capability Centres (GCCs) operating worldwide in 2026, with India having 53% of the global delivery market. But what is a GCC? It is a Centre or an Office, 100% owned by the Parent Organisation, creating a seamless extension of the headquarters. The extension implies tight integration, full IP protection and total governance over people, processes and platforms. GCCs are built with a long-term vision- many are at the forefront of innovation with leading mandates in AI, Automation and Cloud Engineering. Over 70% of India’s GCCs are involved in Product Ownership, a level much beyond Shared Services. By the way, a data centre is also an extension of the Parent Company, having Computer hardware and software to store and run digital information.
But why this growth in GCCs? We were only aware of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) where external vendors were given the task of handling non-core processes such as IT Help Desks and Payroll Processing. But gradually, the IT-ITES Industry in India grew from BPO to developing, selling and managing Software globally, and the growth was mind-boggling. Today, there is only one logical reason behind GCCs-the MNCs want to develop, own and manage their high-value software themselves and not leave it to external IT companies. There is an 80:20 rule in Procurement where 80% in value, but 20% in volume, is procured in-house, while procurement of 20% in value, but 80% in volume, is outsourced. That 80:20 rule seems to be applied now in Software development through GCCs. Obviously, AI is the trigger, as it triggers value by attracting clients and lowers costs through automation. Jobs are being created too, but the rate of job destruction seems to be higher than that of job creation, though no analyst can say this for sure, as there are research gaps in this field. Outsourcing will continue to stay as part of a hybrid operating model, but today is a growth period for GCCs.
Another Business Model which will continue to operate is GBS—but they combine internal service delivery with external partnerships, creating a shared governance model offering both reach and scalability. It consolidates functions like Finance, HR, Procurement and Legal into a unified framework, often with a global view. This seems to be a midway model between GCC and Outsourcing. To sum up, each model has its own value, and the MNC has to choose according to need, but as far as Software Development is concerned, GCCs would lead, in our analysis.
What do you think?