Bengaluru Emerges as the Hotspot for GCCs

Over three decades strong, Canadian information management giant OpenText recently highlighted its growth in India by expanding its Bengaluru-based centre of excellence (CoE). Spanning over 70,000 sqft, the new facility is an addition to the focused expansion plans that the MNC has in India. 

The CoE is not a mere back office; it houses engineering and product development teams that focus on OpenText’s business clouds, AI, cybersecurity, and DevOps. There are over 6000 employees in India, contributing to almost 25% of the company’s global workforce. Interestingly, the last two years alone saw an increase of 194% in the Bengaluru workforce. 

“The talent pool is clearly in India,” said Saurabh Saxena, regional vice president of OpenText India, in an exclusive interaction with AIM. 

“The unique thing about India is that the talent pool is not stagnant. In some of the other countries, once a generation of the talent pool is exhausted, you don’t have a second generation. But in India, the talent pool is continuous in nature, and that gives us the unique opportunity to tap into it. That’s why almost every organisation, including OpenText, is betting aggressively on the CoE talent pool,” he said. 

In addition to the talent pool, the team attributes the Indian government’s AI focus as an attractive reason for growth. “With all the digitisation efforts, if you look at the initiatives that the government of India has, some of them are really world-class. That’s a huge opportunity for OpenText,” Kapil Kaul, regional vice president of presales at APAC, told AIM.  

Bengaluru Remains a GCC HotSpot

At the recent Bengaluru Tech Summit, the Karnataka government introduced the GCC Policy 2024 to position itself as a global innovation hub and create 3.5 lakh jobs by 2029. The initiative is set to attract 500 new GCCs to the state and potentially create an economic output of $50 billion. 

Karnataka’s IT minister Priyank M Kharge led a discussion at the event highlighting the state’s position as a global hub for GCCs and the government’s dedication to driving growth and innovation in the sector. 

“Bengaluru Tech Summit is a testament to Karnataka’s global leadership in technology and innovation. Through the GCC Policy and forums like this, we aim to ensure that Karnataka remains the top destination for GCCs to thrive and innovate,” he said. 

As per AIM Research, GCCs employ over 2.2 million people in India, with major hubs in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. Bengaluru’s large share (34%) highlights its position as India’s top hub for GCCs, supported by its strong IT industry, skilled workforce, and good infrastructure.  

As of September this year, Bengaluru was home to approximately 450 GCCs. It can also be attributed to Bengaluru being an early player in the IT sector, making it a preferred choice for GCCs. 

According to the Karnataka government’s latest GCC policy, 500 new GCCs have been established in the state, with an overall goal of reaching 1,000 by 2029.

India-Centric 

In India, OpenText’s suite of products is implemented across sectors, including BFSI, telecom, pharmaceuticals, and others. The company claims that eight out of the 10 largest banks in the country use OpenText solutions.  

It refers to its operations in India as innovation centres rather than traditional CoE.  While the centres handle back-office functions, the emphasis is on driving technological advancements and innovation within the country. 

“If you’ve got 5,000-6,000 engineers working purely on product development, engineering and professional services, then there’s a strong innovation hub,” said Saxena. 

Aviators and Agentic AI 

While the year of agentic AI is going full-swing with enterprises extensively jumping on the bandwagon, OpenText has also come out with an agentic suite of products. 

OpenText’s Aviator platform is a generative AI solution that supports multiple applications across industries. Complementing this is the Agentic Framework, which introduces autonomous agents capable of handling multi-step business processes. There are 15 Aviators and over 100 agents. 

“With agent technology, you’re looking at a future where things could be solved across multiple clouds and multiple processes. And, what is causing this shift is efficiency. Because not within one solution is the process finishing. It’s actually crossing multiple different solutions, and that’s where the focus is,” explained Kaul when asked about the current trend and focus for the agentic workforce. 

With the newly expanded facility that can house 657 people and facilities in other cities like Hyderabad, OpenText is pretty solid about leveraging Indian talent for OpenText’s success. The team even joked about Bengaluru’s weather being an incentive behind the expansion plans. Conducive weather being an advantage or not, Bengaluru is sure emerging as the hotspot for GCCs in the world.  

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