India’s growing GCC trend has influenced our investment strategy in this region: NTT DATA’s John Lombard

The GCC landscape in India is burgeoning, catapulting the country to the status of a potential global hub for these facilities. A report this year by Nasscom and Zinnov found that over 1,700 centers generate about $64.6 billion in annual revenue and employ over 1.9 million professionals. This is expected to be $100 billion by 2030 and employ over 2.5 million professionals. 

The multinational companies establishing GCCs in India have always paved the way for other technology and consultation providers to invest alongside. One such example is IT modernization and service provider NTT DATA. 

“Many multinational companies are making substantial investments in India; our partners, too, are expanding their footprint in India, which aligns with our growth plans. These investments influence our strategy,” said John Lombard, NTT DATA’s CEO for APAC told TechCircle in an interview.

“We closely monitor where our partners focus their resources to ensure we align and invest alongside them. The global capability center trend is a prime example of this collaborative approach.”

India serves as a critical market for NTT DATA. From a business point of view, India along with Australia are the largest centers for the company. India also serves as the global capability hub for NTT DATA with a significant workforce engaged in internal operation support tasks like application development. 

Last month, NTT DATA announced that it will be acquiring Karnataka-based Niveus Solutions. It is a cloud engineering company that specializes in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services. This acquisition will add 1,000 GCP engineering professionals to enhance NTT DATA's Google Cloud Business Unit. The company also said at the time that it would help position itself as a leading global system integrator for Google Cloud.

“Our strategy to balance tech solutions, cloud, and applications includes significant investment in upskilling our team and pursuing M&A opportunities. Our planned acquisition of Niveus will make us one of the largest Google Cloud partners in the Asia Pacific, strengthening our position in the cloud space,” Lombard said.

NTT DATA recently partnered with Google Cloud to deliver capabilities like application modernization, managed services, data, and artificial Intelligence (AI). This includes upskilling 1,000 employees and dedicating a specialized team to the Google Cloud market, aiming for a tenfold increase in the company’s cloud business within three years.

Further, 2024 has been a year of consolidation for NTT DATA, he said. To be sure, at the beginning of the fiscal year 2024 in April, the Japan-based firm adopted an updated operating model, with strategic integration of NTT DATA and NTT Limited and restructuring their operations into two three regional units — EMEAL, APAC, and North America.

“Bringing multiple companies together meant integrating various financial systems, HR platforms, and different versions of Salesforce. While some of this work will extend into 2025, we’ve made significant progress on operational integration throughout the year,” said. Lombard further added that unifying teams and aligning cultures is also a key priority.

Speaking about his plans for APAC specifically, Lombard said, “Looking ahead, we anticipate double-digit growth, with certain areas poised for significant expansion. Our recent announcement about acquiring Niveus highlights one of those growth areas.”