Enterprises facing persistent volatility are turning to Global Capability Centers (GCCs) to secure cost visibility, delivery resilience, and scalable capabilities. As demand accelerates, the priority is speed and accountability: ready-to-run models with standardized platforms, built-in automation, and a single owner driving design through execution. Read on to learn how these models are evolving, or get in touch.
Global Capability Centers in a Time of Permacrisis
In today’s permacrisis of economic swings, supply shocks, and regulatory flux, leaders want steadier levers. GCCs are the instrument of choice: they lock in cost visibility, protect delivery, and build durable capabilities.
With the rise in GCC leverage, comes the need to set them up quickly and ready-to-run. That means selecting the right tech and sourcing model up front, with standard platforms, automation and AI built into the design. Just as critical is governance: a single accountable owner with the authority to carry the program end-to-end, from design to build to run.
This is driving demand for holistic GCC setup solutions. Enterprises want high-ownership constructs that simplify the journey from vision to launch.
Large multinationals are favoring one-stop solutions to cut cross-function friction (legal, tax, facilities, hiring, run-ops), and lock in one program owner with unified milestones and SLAs.
Mid-market enterprises favor the same model for different reasons: leaner oversight, and a faster path to the first 50-200 hires and initial production workloads.
Emerging globalizers and PE/VC-backed firms value a ready-to-run package that brings entity formation, space, talent, payroll, compliance, and day-two operations under one roof.
With GCC agendas moving higher on executive calendars, the imperative is clear: choose a partner that can own the journey end-to-end. The mandate is simple: fewer handoffs, faster time to live, and tighter control of risk and compliance, favoring single-window providers with a single accountable owner and clearer economics.
Provider alliances reshape the global capability center setup market
As enterprises push for ready-to-run, single-window solutions, providers have retooled their offerings accordingly. The past couple of years have shown a trend of service providers, including Big 4s, building provisions for such solutions.
We assessed provider alliances formed to offer single-window GCC setup solutions, focusing on what works and the potential pitfalls in these partnerships:
- KPMG-Gloplax (2023): A packaged GCC-as-a-service built around KPMG’s advisory and Gloplax’s on-ground execution of entity formation, initial hiring, etc.
What works: One-stop packaging for GCC solutions; faster T0→T1 for clients that want minimal internal orchestration
Potential pitfalls: Undefined day-two accountability (SLAs, ownership, exit/transfer mechanics)
- Accenture-ANSR (2024): A minority-stake acquisition in ANSR that fuses Accenture’s global scale with ANSR’s mature GCC build playbook
What works: Speed of decision-making, repeatable playbooks, and integrated governance at scale
Potential pitfalls: Integration/culture misfit and possible channel conflicts; dilution of ANSR’s entrepreneurial pace inside a large-enterprise cadence
- Hexaware-SMC² (2025): A full acquisition to deepen BOT/BOTT capabilities, leveraging SMC²’s build-and-transfer muscle and Hexaware’s delivery backbone
What works: Faster launch cycles, standardized BOT patterns, and credible transfer mechanics for mid-market enterprises
Potential pitfalls: Culture/operating cadence mismatch; transition-margin erosion; leadership attrition at handover
- Deloitte-Embark (2025): A strategic alliance pairing Deloitte’s strategy/transformation depth with Embark’s on-ground execution (facility setup, talent, payroll, compliance)
What works: Stronger pipeline and access driven by Deloitte’s enterprise influence; parallel on-ground build (entity, facility, hiring) to compress time to live
Potential pitfalls: Coordination gaps and decision latency when there’s no single PMO, budget, or SLA
How the latest Deloitte partnership is potentially bigger than it seems
Deloitte’s partnership with Embark, builds meaningfully on an already strong presence in the GCC space, while making it clear that it’s ready to contend with the early pace-setters driving the evolution of end-to-end GCC enablement.
Deloitte India has been an active player in the GCC ecosystem for years, particularly on the advisory side, supporting clients with GCC strategy, business case articulation, operating model design, location strategy, and tax and regulatory planning. It has also increasingly been involved in transformation-led engagements within established GCCs, especially in areas like risk, finance, and procurement.
However, what Deloitte lacked was the infrastructure and execution muscle needed to translate strategy into a full-fledged setup on the ground. This is where the Embark partnership becomes significant. Embark, the GCC-focused arm of Embassy Group, has its roots in commercial real estate and GCC-specific infrastructure services, and brings the ability to operationalize Deloitte’s strategic inputs, covering everything from facility setup and legal entity formation to payroll, talent acquisition, and compliance. Together, they can now offer a true end-to-end GCC setup experience, bridging the gap between upfront advisory and day-one readiness.
Compared with the other leading play in this space, that is Accenture’s equity-backed play in ANSR, Deloitte’s partnership with Embark is intentionally lighter-weight, an orchestration model rather than direct ownership. This means less unilateral control for Deloitte than Accenture enjoys, but greater flexibility to scale, swap components, and deepen the relationship at a later stage (including potential M&A).
The equity structure can accelerate governance yet introduce integration/culture-fit complexity, as is seen in the Accenture-ANSR alliance; while partnership-led models demand crisp contracting and program discipline.
Importantly, Deloitte’s outsized influence with enterprises’ corporate HQ can offset the control gap. Even at arm’s length it can shape end-to-end decisions, steer vendor selection, and standardize operating constructs better than its competition.
Deloitte isn’t just adding a partner, it’s converting years of GCC advisory incumbency into single-accountability execution. Overall, this is a consequential early position, more than a typical alliance, and it makes Deloitte a formidable counterweight to its competition like Accenture’s vertically integrated path.
Fundamentals for successful global capability center partnerships
As more alliances take shape, providers should align on the following fundamentals to ensure successful outcomes with GCC-focused partnerships:
- Decide the control model and make accountability clear
Before you launch, lock the operating model: who has decision rights across design, build, and run, and how escalations work. Name a single program owner with one PMO, one budget, and one SLA. This avoids coordination gaps
- Align ways of working to avoid culture and integration drag
In partnerships, align ways of working early to avoid culture and integration drag. In acquisitions, do culture diligence, secure leadership retention, and set decision rights with weekly check-ins
- Build for real demand and design the scale/exit path on day zero
Partnerships work when there’s pipeline and influence with target clients. Providers should segment the first wave (client tier, geo, functions), size the capacity, and keep the pipeline warm
How we see this space evolving
We expect more alliances and selective acquisitions as single-window, set-up-to-run model becomes the baseline across large and mid-market enterprises. But whether a provider should pursue this is situational: it’s the right move only when you have (1) a real pipeline and (2) relationship gravity with enterprise decision-makers. Without both, it’s a bandwagon move.
If the conditions are met, go deliberate, not generic: providers should choose assets or partners that close a specific capability gap (on-ground execution, BOT, run-ops), align with their strategy, and support their preferred control model (equity/ownership vs. partnership/orchestration). They should run it as one program with a single PMO, budget, and SLA, and measure success by first-time-right launch and sustained day-two outcomes.
To discuss GCC set-up solutions, please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected]. Learn more about how we can help your enterprise to leverage GCCs, or read our report on the next big provider play for GCC opportunities.
Catch the webinar, GCC Setups: Evolving Expectations, Engagement Models, and Commercial Strategy, for the latest trends reshaping the provider-supported GCC setup landscape, the strategies enterprises and providers need to succeed, and the pitfalls to avoid.
