Building a Global Capability Center:
A Strategic Guide to India
alliantTalent Today
alliantTalent has successfully built a global team of over 1,200 professionals across diverse fields
including IT, marketing, business development, tax, audit, and digital services.
BUILDING A GLOBAL CAPABILITY CENTER IN ONE YEAR
Initiated GCC Strategic Direction
Jan. 2020
Assembled Core Leadership Team
Jan. 2020
Identified Physical Location for the Office
Mar. 2020
Hired our Attorney in India
Mar. 2020
Nationwide Lockdown Due to COVID-19
Mar. 2020
On-boarded Our First Employee in India
April 2020
Established Banking Operations
April 2020
Launched IT Strategy with 7 People
May 2020
Hired CBRE and Selected the Lease Office Space
May 2020
Established a Staffing Partnership
May 2020
Implementation of Security Framework & VDI with Role-Based Access
June 2020
Completed GCC Incorporation
June 2020
Secured Regulatory Mandates
June 2020
Finalized Operational Authorization
June 2020
Transitioned to an Internal Recruitment Strategy
July 2020
Signed the Lease for Office Space
Aug. 2020
Established a Virtual Workforce Integration Strategy
Aug. 2020
Formal Commencement of GCC's Commercial Operations
Sept. 2020
Signed our First SOW with a CPA Firm
Sept. 2020
Employee Count: 41
Sept. 2020
Employee Count: 56
Oct. 2020
Employee Count: 79
Nov. 2020
Employee Count: 93
Dec. 2020
Expanded Operations to Support 30,000 Clients
Dec. 2020
Inauguration of Our Office
Jan. 2021
Ready to Scale Your
Operations Globally?
Executive Summary
In January 2020, our organization made the strategic decision to establish a Global Capability Center (GCC) in India to enhance operational capabilities and build a foundation for future growth. When COVID-19 struck in March 2020, we turned this extraordinary challenge into a strategic advantage. By capitalizing on Hyderabad’s 90% remote workforce capability and significantly reduced lease rentals, we accelerated our expansion through innovative approaches. Within one year, our operations scaled from 3 to 94 team members, we tripled our client base from 10,000 to 30,000, and we evaluated over 27,000 specialized claims.
Today, alliantTalent is a powerhouse team of 1,200+ skilled professionals across IT, marketing, business development, tax, audit, and digital services, serving 30,000+ businesses and partnering with 400+ CPA firms. Having successfully established a GCC in India, we have the expertise to help clients achieve similar success. This white paper details our journey, highlighting both the challenges and innovative solutions that have driven our growth to date.
The Challenge
Business Context
The decision to establish a GCC during a global pandemic wasn’t made lightly. We were experiencing significant challenges in finding the specialized expertise needed to support our growth, particularly in IT and accounting within our existing talent markets. While our client base was rapidly growing, our ability to scale was constrained by these talent limitations.
India emerged as our location of choice due to its deep talent pool, particularly in professional services, technology, engineering, and finance. The country’s growing infrastructure and reputation as a global services hub offered us access to the expertise we needed not only for our own growth but also to enhance the resources and capabilities we could provide to our partners.
Strategic Imperative
Our objectives were clear and ambitious:
- Establish a fully operational GCC
- Source the best talent with the expertise needed to support multiple service lines
- Maintain service quality while significantly increasing our technical and professional capabilities
- Create a foundation for future growth and service expansion
Phase 1: Building a Foundation – The First Critical Steps
Strategic Planning
The initial phase involved assembling a specialized cross-border team of corporate lawyers, tax advisors, and compliance specialists from both India and the US to ensure comprehensive expertise and strategic guidance throughout the process. These experts collaboratively developed our establishment framework, with each bringing crucial regional insights to the table. The US team provided guidance on corporate structure and international compliance, while our Indian experts navigated local regulations and business practices.
Through careful planning and daily coordination between the teams, we systematically worked through each phase of the process – from initial documentation to final registration. Despite the complexity of the requirements, the strength of our expert team enabled us to complete the establishment within our targeted time frame.
Establishing Our Legal Entity
The first step of the process was to establish a legal entity for the new business. Initially, we underestimated the documentation requirements—however, working with attorneys in both US and India allowed us to learn the importance of having original documents properly authenticated.
The expert legal team guided us through:
- Entity structure determination optimal for our business model
- Director documentation requirements
- Comprehensive documentation preparation assistance
- Board resolutions + director identification requirements
- Constitutional documents
- Address proof documentation
- Beneficial ownership declarations
- Coordination between US and Indian authorities
Banking and Financial Infrastructure
Setting up banking operations required careful attention to both US and Indian regulatory requirements. The banking setup presented unexpected challenges, particularly around Know Your Owner (KYO) requirements. What we initially estimated as a two-week process extended to nearly a month. A turning point came through establishing a strong relationship with a local bank that understood our business model.
We learned the critical importance of:
- Detailed documentation of fund sources
- Clear authorized dealer designations
- Comprehensive anti-money laundering compliance
Tax & Regulatory Framework
The regulatory landscape proved more complex than we anticipated. We discovered the necessity of parallel tax considerations in both US and Indian jurisdictions. Given the tax implications of international operations, we worked closely with our tax experts in both countries to optimally structure banking and financial flows. All revenue generated in India faced a 30% tax from Indian authorities, with additional US taxation upon fund transfer, so our team helped us strategically position the business to mitigate these risks.
Our focus areas included:
- Proper documentation for tax reporting
- Strategic employee allocation between US and Indian payrolls
- Implementing financial controls that satisfy tax authorities in both jurisdictions
- US and Indian regulations + requirements for separate financial, HR, and payroll systems
- Development of transfer pricing methodology
- Complexities and benefits of SEZ setup
- OECD permanent establishment considerations
A Key Partnership
Our partnership with CBRE proved invaluable during this phase. We focused on people, process, and technology aspects, while CBRE handled:
- Location analysis and selection
- Property evaluation and negotiation
- Infrastructure planning
- Compliance with local real estate regulations
Unlock the Full Potential of Your Global Workforce
HIRING PROCESS
ID the talent pool
Create profiles to
assess talent pool
ID candidates
Prompts to
assess soft skills
Face-to-face
interview w/ US team
Final assessment
Hire
Phase 2: People, Process, and Technology
People Strategy
Our approach to building the team was rooted in our successful US-based culture of hyper collaboration.
The goal was to mirror the high-performance, investment-focused environment that defined our domestic growth while extending these values to accommodate local culture.
Talent Acquisition
Our initial approach to talent acquisition taught us valuable lessons. An early partnership with a staffing firm yielded disappointing results—less than 10% of interviewed candidates met our standards. This led to a pivotal decision to build our own talent acquisition team.
Key improvements included:
- Mandatory probation periods to ensure mutual compatibility
- Regular feedback loops to continuously improve our hiring process
- Developing a candidate profile focusing on technical ability, communication skills, and growth potential
- Implementing a screening process including written prompts and technical assessments which helped us find candidates faster
Training Evolution
Our initial training approach required significant adjustment.
We refined our process by:
- Limiting training groups to 5-6 people maximum
- Implementing mandatory on-camera policies for remote training
- Daily 3-hour training windows (1.5 hours morning/evening) led by dedicated US team members
- Developing a mentor identification program
- Providing outside coaching to enhance the communication of our team
Investment in People
Our commitment to investing in talent looked beyond employment – we wanted to help our people build careers and foster long-term professional growth through meaningful work and continuous development opportunities. To achieve this vision, we established comprehensive programs focused on:
- Career progression pathways
- Leadership development programs
- Skills-based project alignment
- Continuous learning platforms
- Achievement recognition programs
- Programs to obtain additional certifications
Transform Your Business with a Global Talent Strategy
Process Implementation
Process adaptation required careful analysis of our existing US operations, with a focus on minimizing operational disruption. We took a methodical approach that leveraged our established best practices while creating mirrored processes for seamless integration with our India teams. Our strategy included:
- Documenting current processes in detail, ensuring full implementation of existing best practices by service line
- Identifying areas requiring modification for remote work, focusing on opportunities where both teams could adapt for consistent workflow
- Adapting workflows to account for time zone differences and cross-team collaboration
- Implementing communication protocols to ensure seamless coordination between US and India operations
- Creating a change management strategy for both the US and India, and identifying our drivers for the organization
Technology Infrastructure Development
A cornerstone of our GCC implementation was establishing a technology infrastructure that would support global operations while maintaining the highest security standards. After a comprehensive analysis of existing technology stacks across teams, we created customized environments based on specific team and service line requirements and replicated existing functionality for each business division, ensuring continuity of operations. We aimed to build a cyber risk posture framed around a holistic risk-based security strategy that is SSAE18 / SOC2 compliant and periodically assessed to well-known security frameworks – NIST CSF and CIS CSC.
Key infrastructure elements:
An over-emphasis on data security by ensuring all client data remained in US data centers, backed by ISO 27001 certification, rooted in our commitment to information security management and data protection
- Security operation center (SOC) to monitor for security threats
- Tailored Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) aligned with individual business unit needs and current usage patterns
- Secure client environment access protocols enabling professionals to work within client systems while maintaining data security
- Identity and access management (IAM) and in-depth systems protection (numerous firewalls, next-gen antivirus NGAV, intrusion detection system (IDS), email security, etc.)
- Comprehensive monitoring systems achieving 99.9% system up time, with keystroke-level tracking
- Security education and training awareness (SETA) program
- GDPR and CCPA data privacy controls, ensuring no cross-border transfer of data
The technology infrastructure was designed with scalability in mind, anticipating three years of growth from day one. This forward-thinking approach proved crucial as we expanded from serving one client to managing hundreds of thousands while continuing to be responsible data stewards, protecting all sensitive data.
We established an integrated IT service desk aligned with specific service lines, ensuring technical support teams understood both the business context and user needs.
The IT infrastructure included:
- Service desk teams integrated within business units
- Performance monitoring systems that maintain our strict three-second response time standard
- Environment optimization based on team-specific technology requirements and usage patterns
Building a Global Capability
Center Made Easy
PERFORMANCE
Scaling from 3 to 100+ hires
Client base expansion
of 10,000-30,000
Processing of 27,000+
specialized claims
Development of
new service lines
Established a financial
consulting practice
Enhanced profitability
through operational efficiency
Phase 3: Scaling and Performance
By investing in comprehensive leadership and technical training programs that empowered our managers, we ensured sustainable growth. We began delivering to clients as early as November 2020 and rapidly expanded our operations. Within 12 months, we grew from an initial team of 3 to a team of 93, but not without challenges. To mitigate these, we defined clear career progression paths along with internal management tracks and implemented regular cultural round tables to foster open dialogues between staff and leadership. Additionally, continuous feedback ensured alignment with our core values of transparency and collaboration.
We implemented:
- Balanced organizational structure to maintain optimal performance and efficiency
- Quality control processes
- Dashboard reporting to manage accountability and KPIs
Key Success Factors
Critical elements driving outcomes:
- Matched skill set and competencies to maximize contribution margin
- Integration of experienced US-certified professionals
- Agile methodology enabling rapid strategy adjustments
- Investment in professional development and certifications
- Cultural focus on transparency and collaboration
- Implementation of secure technology infrastructure
- Leadership commitment to innovation and growth
Strategic Impact
alliantTalent has successfully built a global team of over 1,200 professionals across diverse fields including IT, marketing, accounting, finance, business development, tax, audit, and digital services.
Today, our firm could not operate or serve our clients without the support our India office.
This dedicated team now supports 30,000+ businesses and hundreds of CPAs, a testament to our successful implementation of a GCC despite the challenges of COVID-19.
The strength of our foundation combined with our investment in internal capabilities and technological infrastructure has enabled us to maintain the highest quality standards while fostering innovation across continents.
These learnings and experiences now form the foundation of our consulting practice, where we guide clients through their own GCC implementations with proven methodologies, realistic timelines, risk mitigation strategies, and cultural integration frameworks that we’ve tested firsthand.
