To Outsource or Go Captive – that is the Question

Share this Post

H. Narayana Swamy

Partner and Director, CaptiveAide

Those who do not know this would be surprised to hear that there are over 750 companies (Source NASSCOM) that have set up their own IT and/or shared services operations in India over the last decade or so employing in excess of 500,000 professionals.

The fact of the matter is that India is the largest destination for outsourcing of a variety of software, infrastructure and business process services. Business process services themselves have such a wide range of areas and functions and range from the very basic voice based services to more complex knowledge services.

Over the last several decades the Indian market place has evolved in almost every sphere relating to business. The collective and truly globalized experience of the intellectual talent over these years coupled with the significant liberalization of policies and frameworks related to doing business, creation of world class infrastructure along with a hugely successful telecommunications industry, have been key contributors to the establishment of these global in house centers (or captives as they are colloquially called).

Is it really for everyone though? There continue to remain so many scenarios and situations wherein traditional outsourcing is the best method to get one’s returns. Besides, having outsourced all these years the benefits that now accrue may not be easily reproduced by a new captive operation.

Yet there could be strategic reasons why a company could decide to go the captive route. It could be because a company seeks Innovation from its offshore teams, it could be for developing a global talent and leader pool, it could be because the work itself is very strategic and so on.

How does a company go about determining the right path for itself? What are some of the metrics and considerations that it must take into account in making such a decision? Just like a build vs buy decision that companies make so often it’s a captive vs outsource decision that needs to be made.

And even if a company decided that captive was the right way to go how do they ensure that they get it right the first time around, risk free?

www.captiveaide.com

Recent Posts

Girish Kamath

Sr. Partner, Head – GCC Operations

30+ years in the Indian IT industry. 18+ years of experience as a Managing Director building and running Global Competency Center (GCC) captives. Built and operationally managed 1800+ resources across multi-city, multi-functional GCC for a leading US gaming company for over 10 years. Subsequently has built 5 additional GCCs in India.

Earlier in his career, he managed large, distributed programs for global customers across Europe and US for a large global IT services company.

Suma Subramanian

Co-founder and Managing Partner

30+ years experience in People Management, Human Resources Strategy, Design, Change Management and Operations. Formerly, Chief People Officer with a leading Infrastructure Management services company and before that, with one of the world’s largest IT services firms, managing HR for their largest business division with 10,000+ workforce and responsible for their key “Best Employer practices” in her corporate HR role

Transitioned captive operations for some of the world’s largest financial institutions. As the HRO Practice Leader, she is responsible for creating the high-performance workplace, creating a work culture that mirrors the GCC parent.

She is an Executive Coach, and is Certified in Change Leadership from Cornell University, a Certified NLP Practitioner, a Lead Assessor ISO9001 & Assessor BS7799

Narayanaswamy H (aka Swamy)

Co-founder and Managing Partner

35+ years of Finance and Operations experience with over two decades of CFO/COO level experience with global companies. Significant experience in Mergers & Acquisitions, raising Capital, post merger Integration

Been an advisor to several global enterprises and their offshore capability centers As CFO for the captive delivery center of one of the largest decision sciences companies, played a key role in growing it to 2000+ people. Prior experience includes setting up MNC subsidiaries including legal, regulatory and compliance matters

Jawahar Bekay

Founder & Managing Partner

Established CaptiveAide in 2016 as a specialist consulting and operations capable firm dedicated to helping companies from outside India to set up their captive entities or what are now called Global Capability Centers or GCC.

35+ years in the global IT industry with over two and half decades as CEO and strategic-level experience with global enterprises and markets. Co-founded one of India’s leading IT services companies in the infrastructure space. Co-founded Asia’s leading internet software development company. Global head of strategy and CEO for Indian captive operations for a $350M IT services company.

He has worked with large F500 and Global 200 clients in successful offshoring strategies both service provider and captive. Has built, acquired, integrated and managed multiple, cross-border companies.

Yes, I'd like to get into detail.

Schedule a time for a detailed discussion with our experts.