Back-office boys to front runners: GCC spurs Ingram Micro’s global AI innovation

CHENNAI: India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are undergoing a paradigm shift: from low-cost support operations to global innovation hubs. Among those participating in this transformation is Ingram Micro, which has a key centre here in Chennai.

For the Fortune 90 technology company, Chennai is helping build what it describes as an “operating system” for the global technology ecosystem, connecting 1,500 technology vendors and OEMs with about 160,000 customers worldwide.

The broader ecosystem it serves is valued at nearly $6 trillion. “Today GCCs have to become order makers from order takers,” said Sanjib Sahoo, president, Global Platform Group, Ingram Micro. “It’s no longer a labour arbitrage model; it’s about capability augmentation,”  he told DT Next in an interaction.

The company has developed 42 million lines of code for its AI-powered Xvantage platform, built over 400 home-grown AI and machine-learning models and has more than 35 patents pending, with a significant share of the work originating from India. “A lot of that innovation is built here,” Sahoo sought to point out.

Elaborating, he said “the global technology ecosystem is about $6 trillion, but the solutioning is happening over here from the GCC side, from building AI to training AI models to helping infrastructure rationalisation to building security... We want to attract more talent to be a part of a company that is solving such big problems, which is in the global technology ecosystem. It’s almost like working in a $54 billion startup with a big dream. We want to have the scale of a Fortune 90 with the speed of a startup.”

The Chennai centre, which employs more than 500 people, has emerged as a specialised hub for AI, data and engineering-led innovation. “Chennai is doing a really good job in driving the AI innovation of the company,” Sahoo said, noting that other locations like Pune and Mumbai focus on customer integration and legacy systems while the southern hub is increasingly shaping the company’s future technology stack.

The shift reflects a broader change in how multinational companies perceive India. Rather than executing instructions from headquarters, engineers are increasingly involved in product design, platform development and business problem-solving. “The coding can be done as a commodity,” Sahoo said.

Future talent, he argued, must understand the “why” behind technology and not just the “how”. “Everybody’s becoming full stack, which means understand why, understand business, train the specs.”

Artificial intelligence is accelerating that transition. While many companies remain stuck in pilot projects, Sahoo said the real challenge is not technology but mindset. “AI is a journey, not a destination,” he said, arguing that organisations should focus less on automation and cost reduction and more on growth, customer experience and new revenue opportunities. “Don’t fear AI, cheer AI,” he emphasised.

He also believes India possesses the technical depth needed for the next phase of innovation, though professionals must become better at communicating ideas and business value. Indian engineers are “very good solution providers”, he said, but need to improve storytelling and customer-facing skills.

As Ingram Micro expands its Chennai operations, the company is looking beyond headcount growth. “I’m not looking at scale of headcount only, I’m looking at scale of capability,” Sahoo said, adding  “One head can give you output of 10 heads if you have the right talent.”

For Chennai, the message is loud and clear: GCCs are no longer back offices. They are increasingly becoming the innovation engines powering global enterprises.