GCC Models
How much do you want to own, and how soon? That is the real question behind every India entry decision. Captive, Build-Operate-Transfer, and Employer of Record (EOR) are not competing products. They are three points on one ownership spectrum, and the right answer depends on your timeline, risk appetite, and how central India is to your long-term plans.
We work exclusively with Global Capability Centres. Helping companies choose the right entry model, and change models as they grow, is what we do every day.
Why India, why now
A Global Capability Centre is your own team in India: your processes, your standards, your intellectual property, doing real work for your global business. Not an outsourcing contract, but your company operating in India.
The model is no longer an experiment. Industry research shows that 174 Fortune 500 companies now run more than 390 GCCs in India, employing over 950,000 professionals. The share of Fortune 500 companies with a GCC in India has grown from 22% in 2015 to 35% in 2025.
The playbook works at Fortune 500 scale. Our job is to make the same playbook work for your company, whether your centre will be 20 people or 2,000.
Source: GCC Landscape Report 2025.
The ownership spectrum
Every entry model answers the same three questions differently: who employs your people, who runs the operation, and who carries the compliance risk.
Employer of Record (EOR)
We legally employ your people in India on your behalf. No entity, no incorporation, no statutory registrations on your side. You direct the work; we carry employment and compliance. The fastest way to test India with real hires.
Explore the EOR modelBuild-Operate-Transfer (BOT)
We set up the centre, hire the team, run operations, and hold the risk while the centre matures. When it is stable, we transfer the entity, the people, and the processes to you under a defined handover. You get a proven centre without carrying the early-stage risk.
Explore the BOT modelCaptive
Your entity, your employees, your operation, from the first hire. We handle incorporation, hiring, workspace, payroll, and compliance around you, so you get full ownership without navigating India alone.
Explore the Captive modelSide by side
| EOR | BOT | Captive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed to first hire | Weeks | Months (ATG builds while you watch) | Months (entity first, then hiring) |
| Indian entity required | No | Not initially; transferred to you later | Yes, from day one |
| Who employs your team | ATG, on your behalf | ATG during build and operate; you after transfer | You |
| Who carries compliance risk | ATG | ATG until transfer | You, with ATG managing it end to end |
| Degree of control | Full direction of work; no entity ownership | Growing; full ownership at transfer | Full, from day one |
| Best for | Testing India, first hires, urgent talent needs | Committed to India but want entry de-risked | India is core to long-term strategy |
No model is "best". Each is best for a stage. Many of our clients start in one column and move to another.
Models are stages
The decision you make today does not lock you in. A common path: hire your first five people under EOR to prove the talent case, then incorporate and move to a captive centre once the case is made. Another: enter through BOT, let us carry the operational risk while the centre matures, then take ownership at transfer.
Because we work only with GCCs, we design every engagement with the next stage in mind. Contracts, employment structures, and processes are set up so that moving between models is a planned step, not a painful renegotiation.
Why decide with ATG
GCCs are our only business. We are not a services firm with a GCC practice on the side; 100% of our clients are building or running Global Capability Centres in India. That focus is why nothing about your situation will surprise us.
The firm is founded and led by Chartered Accountants. The people who recommend a model are the same professionals who will execute it and stand behind the numbers. And we are city-agnostic: we build your centre where your talent and strategy point, whether that is Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, NCR, or beyond.
See how we handle the risks of operating in IndiaFAQ
With outsourcing, a vendor's team does contracted work under the vendor's control. A GCC is your own team: your processes, your quality standards, your intellectual property. Even under EOR or during a BOT engagement, the work, the direction, and the output belong to you.
It depends on horizon. EOR has the lowest cost to start and no setup investment, but a per-employee fee makes it comparatively expensive at scale. A captive centre costs more to establish but has the lowest long-run cost per employee. This trade-off is usually the core of the model decision, and it is exactly what we work through with you in a consultation.
Yes, and we plan for it from the start. EOR to Captive and BOT to Captive are the two most common transitions. We structure employment contracts and processes so the move is a defined project with a defined handover, not a restart.
Three questions settle most cases: how quickly do you need people working, are you ready to own an Indian entity, and how central is India to your five-year plan. If you can answer those, the model usually chooses itself. If you cannot yet, that is a normal place to be, and a conversation will get you there faster than a spreadsheet.
Tell us where you are in your thinking. We respond within one business day and work across US, UK, and European time zones.
