Saurabh's Scoop │ April 25, 2025
Welcome to Saurabh’s Scoop, where I bring you weekly insights from HFS Research and my personal reflections on the top stories shaping the intersection of technology and business.
This week: It’s time to get over the love-hate relationship between service providers and GCCs.
It’s Not Us vs. Them. It’s Us and Them.
GCCs are booming. They’ve overtaken third-party providers in both growth and mindshare. What started as a cost arbitrage play (“Where can I get the same skills at a lower cost?”) has now evolved into something far more strategic:
Skills arbitrage – “Where can I find 150 PhDs in renewable energy?”
Innovation arbitrage – “How do I scale AI across the enterprise?”
But in a world where services are consumed like software, neither GCCs nor providers can afford to stay in their lanes. The future belongs to those who can co-create AI-powered, productized, agentic services—together.
Right now, most service providers are still talking about BOTs and captive buyouts. But the more progressive GCCs are looking for real collaboration, not just transition plans.
Chart of the Week: Mature GCCs Know the Game is Hybrid
A recent HFS Research study shows that enterprises with over 15 years of global business services (GBS) experience have already realized something critical:
Only 27% rely solely on in-house shared services
Just 9% use only third-party providers
A dominant 64% now embrace a hybrid model, blending in-house centers and external partners
It’s about the power of and—not or.
Chats of the Week: Voices from the GCC Vanguard
Over the last few months, I sat down with some of the brightest minds leading GCC transformations:
Novartis’ Mohua Sengupta on why GCCs must move from the periphery to the center of enterprise strategy.
PepsiCo’s Tanu Mukherjee on scaling AI and automation to transform operations.
Worley’s Sandeep Kulkarni on using GCCs as innovation hubs while partnering smartly for scale.
RealPage’s Isaac Rajkumar on how AI is disrupting the traditional GCC model.
Hyundai Mobis’ Pradeep Kondabattini on building high-impact automotive capabilities in India.
Eastman’s Swaroopa Akula on creating purpose-driven, next-gen talent models.
Each of these conversations reinforced that GCCs are not back-office anymore—they are front and center in shaping enterprise transformation. It’s also not about one model winning. It’s about orchestrating ecosystems where talent, tech, and transformation come together.
Catch these full conversations on HFS Research's Unfiltered Stories videocasts.
The Big Picture: Why Collaboration Is Inevitable
There are three reasons GCCs and service providers need to move beyond turf wars:
The AI boom (or bust). With 6 in 10 enterprises expecting to replace human-based services with AI by 2030, this is either a massive leap—or a missed opportunity. Collaboration is the only way to move at the speed AI demands.
The Talent Conundrum. Top Indian talent isn’t flocking to IT services anymore—they’re joining startups and tech companies. Both camps need to rebrand the work and elevate the purpose.
The New Competencies. Success in the future will demand managing a human+bot workforce, productizing services with Agentic AI, and orchestrating ecosystems for the enterprise. We need to realize that “no one can be everything to anyone” if we want to move ahead.
GCCs bring depth, proximity, and enterprise alignment. Providers bring scale, tooling, and delivery maturity. Together, they can deliver the enterprise services model of the future.
Let’s stop debating who wins—and start co-building what wins.
This newsletter is inspired by the bold HFS 2030 Vision for Services-as-Software—a transformative outlook on how technology will redefine the way enterprises operate. In each edition of Saurabh’s Scoop, I’ll connect the stories, trends, and innovations of today to this exciting vision of tomorrow.
Contact me with feedback and suggestions:
Saurabh Gupta, President, HFS Research
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hfssaurabh