The role of global capability centres in India is changing as companies push them beyond execution into value creation. At Flexera, artificial intelligence plays a key role in this shift, but leaders say success depends equally on understanding business context and taking ownership of outcomes, not just building technology.
Flexera, a US based provider of technology intelligence, IT asset management, and FinOps solutions, has tied its India centre closely to product direction and enterprise results. For years, GCCs focused on predictability, timelines, and efficiency at scale. That model has evolved as centres mature and mandates expand. “We have moved from gigantic to ginormous with both AI and GCC. We are at this position where we are moving from setting up a back office to now being co creators of value. That puts interesting dimensions on what’s happening,” said Niladri Ray, VP Engineering and Country Head India at Flexera, speaking to a business platform.
Ray said the shift is about maturity rather than labels. India teams now contribute directly to value creation alongside global peers. “When you talk about centres, it’s like the human body. We are all part of a larger system here. We look at our ARRs very carefully. All the new stuff that we do has to create a net new ARR. At Flexera, we sit between the multitude of all the technologies in the world,” he said. This requires engineers to think beyond delivery and align closely with revenue impact and customer needs.
AI is treated as a core operating layer at Flexera, not a feature add on. “We are adopting and using AI at scale as part of that, to make everybody relevant, not just one or two people,” Ray said. At the same time, he stressed governance, cost control, and auditability as AI increases cloud and compute spend. India teams have led efforts such as AI based entitlement ingestion, automating how enterprises analyse licenses, contracts, invoices, and usage data to reduce waste and risk. The focus, Ray said, is on moving fast from POC to POV and then scaling proven value across platforms.
For young professionals, Ray said the bigger shift is learning the business problem, not just the tool. “Focus on the ‘so what’, focus on the business, focus on the problem. You’re good enough to find a solution. And there are plenty of them,” he said. As AI lowers technical barriers, he believes future advantage will come from business fluency, collaboration across regions, and productivity led growth rather than unchecked headcount expansion.
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