more direct interactions are required. Seen at this level, globalization is a highly complex scenario, relying – for maximum advantage – on a corporation’s ability to choose the best global resources to fit the range of services supplied.
One SSO cannot easily research and develop the global sites to source the best on offer from global markets in terms of time zones, quality, cost, local expertise, language and culture. This is the stage at which many organizations take a closer look at global BPO partnering options.
GE Capital is one organization that did, in 1997, set its sights on – and deliver – global shared services operations. Over the course of seven and a half years, it successfully established centers in India, China and Budapest – operating as one global operation but from a number of regional centers. In 2005, the entity was spun off into what is today Genpact – providing global BPO services via a world-wide network of centers.
Partnering for leverage
Tiger Tyagarajan, executive vice president of Genpact and previously CEO of GE Capital’s International Services, sees the emergence of the global provider market as offering an opportunity for corporations to step up global services provision with a significantly shorter time span and significantly lower risk.
“Such partnerships between global organizations make good business sense,” he says. “Some of the most interesting relationships we have been developing over the past years are those where the customer wants to leverage our networks and capabilities beyond national or regional operations, to every part of the globe.
“A key factor here is ‘market presence,’ or perceived strength in the markets where services are