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How a US company chose where to build its global capability centre, 2 locations from a shortlist of 6.
Skillfi mapped talent, costs, suppliers and the local ecosystem in six cities, interviewed 30 people on the ground and built a scorecard leadership could agree on. The first centre hit its savings target five months early. It's how our fractional research team supports big location decisions.
A big, hard-to-reverse decision, made on opinions.
The company planned to build a global capability centre of more than 400 people for engineering, data, finance operations and customer support within three years. Each centre would cost around $900,000 to set up and more than $8 million a year to run, so choosing the wrong location would be expensive and slow to undo.
Leadership was split. Some wanted the obvious, established hubs, others pushed for lower-cost cities. The shortlist had six locations across India, the Philippines, Poland and Mexico, but no shared data on talent, real costs or the local ecosystem. Most of what the team had came from vendors with something to sell.
Every vendor told us their city was the obvious choice. We needed evidence, not a sales pitch.
CFO, client
Score the whole ecosystem, not just salaries.
Cheap salaries mean little if people leave within a year or the right vendors aren't there. We agreed the scoring weights with leadership before collecting any data, then tested every number against people running centres in each city. Entity and employment questions were reviewed with our legal and compliance partners.
Supply, attrition and pay trends
Graduate and experienced talent pools for each role family, attrition rates and how fast pay was rising in every city.
Who else is there, and what support exists
Universities and training partners, competing GCCs, government incentives and special economic zones, time-zone overlap, and 30 interviews with GCC leaders, HR heads and recruiters.
Vendors and a 3-year cost model
Office and flexible workspace, employer-of-record and payroll partners, recruiters and IT vendors scored in each city, rolled into a 3-year total cost of ownership.
Eight weeks, week by week
From a divided leadership team to a single, evidence-backed decision. Here's how the study unfolded.
- Week 15 weighted criteria
Criteria & weights
Leadership agreed what mattered most, and how much, before any location data was shared.
- Week 2–36 locations
Talent & cost data
Talent supply, attrition, pay levels and pay inflation gathered for every role family in every city.
- Week 3–4Vendors scored
Ecosystem & vendor mapping
Universities, competing GCCs, incentives and the local supplier network mapped and scored.
- Week 5–630 interviews
Interviews on the ground
Conversations with GCC leaders, HR heads, recruiters and vendors to check the data against real experience.
- Week 7Cost per location
3-year cost model
Salaries, real estate, setup, vendors and expected pay inflation combined into a total cost for each location.
- Week 82 locations chosen
Scorecard & decision
Every location scored side by side, with a clear recommendation that leadership approved in a single meeting.
How the six locations compared
Each city was scored on talent, cost, ecosystem, risk and speed to scale. The winners weren't the cheapest or the biggest. They were the best fit for each role.
Engineering & data
- Deep engineering talent pool
- Lower attrition than nearby hubs
- Strong vendor network
Finance ops & EU support
- Finance & language skills
- European-hours coverage
- EU-ready suppliers
Too much competition
- 30%+ attrition from other GCCs
- Fast pay inflation
- ~$2.4M of savings at risk
Pune, Manila, Guadalajara
- Pune: engineering fallback
- Manila: support at scale
- Guadalajara: US time-zone option
The first year of the new centres
Months to reach the cost-savings target
The right location meant faster hiring, lower attrition and savings five months early.
We walked into the board meeting with a scorecard instead of opinions. The decision took one meeting, and the numbers have held up since.
CEO, clientPlanning a global capability centre?
Our fractional research team will map talent, costs and the local ecosystem across your shortlist and give you a scorecard your leadership can agree on. Once you've chosen, a fractional recruiter can hire your first wave and we can set up your global HRIS.
- Talent & ecosystem data for every location
- A vendor & supplier map
- A 3-year total cost model
- A weighted scorecard & recommendation
30 minutes. No obligation.
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