Operations Transformation for a Global Sports Company via GCC as a Service

Client

A global sports and lifestyle brand

Our client is a US-based global sports and entertainment brand. Apart from manufacturing premium golf equipment and accessories, the company manages several well-known lifestyle and sports brands, maintaining a strong presence in the golf and active-wear markets.

Challenge

Talent acquisition and vendor consolidation

The client had an existing legal entity in India but needed specialized IT skillsets to support the company across multiple brands.

• The client identified the need for global technology talent to fill longstanding open positions.
• Existing IT services partners provided some staffing, but at a high cost.
• There were concerns around intellectual property (IP) protection, retention issues, and poor quality with the contractor model.

Consequently, the client sought to establish a stable, employee-based model.

Solution

Enterprise digital operations via a global capability center

The company decided to launch a hybrid global capability center (GCC), leveraging its established India-based entity. Utilizing GCC-as-a-service, the client built a results-driven digitech operation, reducing risk while enhancing productivity and accelerating upcoming implementations.

• The initiative began with an agile e-commerce development team to expedite critical projects and decrease IT spend.
• The scope quickly expanded to include development and support for multiple SAP modules, including SD, FICO, PLM, MM, PP, TM, GTS, ABAP, and Testing.
• Hexaware rapidly recruited an initial scrum team of six within 30 days and developed a roadmap for a full GCC buildout in Hyderabad, targeting over 200 employees.
• Early GCC success prompted the client to leverage the center for further growth opportunities.
• A client-branded office was established, featuring amenities such as an indoor golf simulator and putting greens.
• Hexaware’s methodologies and best practices ensured quality, speed, and agility for digital and SAP initiatives.

Benefits

Business process optimization for scalable growth

The partnership resulted in a high-performing team that initially focused on the SAP implementation to support the expanding enterprise, before broadening into other global business services. The existing entity enabled direct hiring of GCC employees onto the company’s payroll, streamlining transitions.

• The consolidation of seven vendors led to significant cost savings by moving away from vendor-based services.
• The global capability center continued to grow, ramping up to over 300 employees.
• The success of the initial team drove expansion and the addition of a second capability within three months.
• Service desk capability and 24/7 operations were added.

Summary

Enabling operations transformation via GCC

Our client, a tech-enabled golf company leveraging SAP, established a new GCC in Hyderabad to support growth, strengthen in-house technical talent, reduce costs and reliance on outsourcing through vendor consolidation, and deliver timely implementations for its expanding enterprise.

Scale talent, optimize operations, and drive sustained enterprise growth by leveraging GCC as a service. Learn more about our full suite of offerings by visiting our GCC page.

Disclaimer: This content was originally posted on/has been sourced from SMC Squared (now a part of Hexaware).