ServiceNow arm invests in ANSR to set up CoEs in India

ServiceNow, an IT services company, has invested in ANSR, a firm based in the US and Bengaluru that specializes in building, managing, and scaling teams through global capability centers (GCCs). This partnership will allow ANSR to establish ServiceNow centers of excellence in over 60 GCCs, training 3,500 individuals in India on ServiceNow's offerings. 

The investment is being made through ServiceNow Ecosystem Ventures, which has committed $150 million to invest in partners and is also focused on expanding ServiceNow offerings across industries, domains, and go-to-market strategies in various regions. 

Lalit Ahuja, the founder and CEO of ANSR, stated, "GCCs have become an attractive proposition, and many platform companies have adopted a distinctive GCC strategy. ServiceNow is one such example, where the opportunity lies in broadening and deepening the utilisation of their world-class product. Platform players are leveraging the GCC route with a direct-to-enterprise playbook. In a way, we are becoming the super app for the GCCs."  

ANSR has partnered with other platform players to bring operational efficiency, aiming to add one GCC to its portfolio every week by 2025, compared to the previous rate of one GCC every three weeks. 

ANSR, which specialises in helping Fortune 200 and 500 companies establish tech centers in India, plans to list on Nasdaq in 2024. The company has already brought over 100 GCCs to India, employing over 100,000 individuals. ANSR has enlisted US financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald as the investment banker for its planned IPO next year. 

David Parsons, SVP of Ecosystem Ventures at ServiceNow, commented, "ANSR, as a market leader in India, presents a unique opportunity to seamlessly integrate ServiceNow into their GCCs, enabling end-to-end automation for some of the most prominent Fortune 500 enterprises worldwide." 

ANSR is re-platforming its GCC service delivery portfolio by leveraging the ServiceNow Platform. This will provide an integrated approach for the 40,000 GCC employees who require seamless access to services across HR, finance, and IT functions. Re-platforming to ServiceNow also involves incorporating NowAssist, ServiceNow's generative AI capability, to enhance productivity and employee satisfaction. 

According to a report by Nasscom, the IT industry's apex body, and the India Brand Equity Foundation, India is home to 45% of the world's GCCs. It is projected that by 2030, over 4.5 million people will be employed in local GCCs.