Infosys Strengthens GCC Practice with Appointment of Deval Shah as Leader

Infosys is expanding its capabilities with a full-fledged global capability centre (GCC) practice and has appointed Deval Shah, the former MD and country head of India for Danske IT and Support Services India, as its new GCC leader, according to reports. Shah is currently the Vice President and Delivery Head at Infosys. Infosys won a $454 million contract with Danske Bank two years ago. As part of this, Infosys acquired Danske Bank's IT centre in India, which employs 1,400 people. Danske Bank, based in Denmark, provides banking services to individuals and businesses, as well as large corporations and institutions. Infosys is accelerating the bank's technological transformation, improving access to talent and capabilities, and increasing productivity.

Infosys stated in an internal note to employees that one of its key growth priorities under Project Altius is to win more business from the Gulf Cooperation Councils. "The GCC market is expanding rapidly, offering opportunities for both multi-year transformation deals for setting up new GCCs (BOT (build, operate and transfer), assisted captives, JVs, etc.) and providing embedded support for scaling up existing ones," the note stated. It also stated that the firm is experiencing strong momentum in their deal pipeline, with multiple deals requiring assistance with solutioning and other support functions such as commercials, legal, and tax compliance. "In that context, to enhance our capabilities in setting up GCCs and in line with industry best practices, we are excited to announce the launch of Infosys' GCC practice, expanding the existing COE (centre of excellence) into a full-fledged practice," said the note.

When asked about the expanded scope for GCCs, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh stated that the company is working closely with GCCs and clients to help set up or scale different models. "We recently announced a significant win in the GCC with a services business and an airline business. So we feel pretty good."

In January, it was reported that Infosys is establishing a GCC for Lufthansa in Bengaluru as part of a nearly $300 million IT contract with the German airline.This GCC aims to improve the Lufthansa Group's software and product development, as well as increase support for its products among external airline market customers.

Cognizant recently appointed Sailaja Josyula as the global head of its GCC service line.She will be based in Hyderabad and will be in charge of carrying out Cognizant's global GCC strategy, including the formation and leadership of a cross-functional team. Josyula returned to Cognizant after a brief stint with EY. In a recent interview, Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar stated that the GCCs are not adversaries and that the company is beginning to actively collaborate with them to complete some of their work.