Driving Innovation and Efficiency: The Role of GCCs and Cat Digital in India’s Tech Revolution

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Akash Jain, India Leader, Cat Digital at Caterpillar

GCCs in India have seen tremendous growth, especially in the technology space. What are the key advantages of operating a GCC in India? How has Cat Digital leveraged this growth to drive innovation and efficiency?

The growth of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India offers substantial opportunities, driven by a skilled workforce, technological advancements, favorable government policies, and cost advantages in strategic locations. As the market evolves, the role of GCCs is also evolving –

Value Creation: GCCs are transitioning from cost centers to profit centers, expanding capabilities to support parent companies and diversify into new business opportunities, such as offering analytics solutions to other companies.

ESG Initiatives: GCCs are adopting advanced technologies to meet Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets, enhancing their brand and market relevance. Cybersecurity: GCCs are becoming crucial in safeguarding data, ensuring compliance, and mitigating cybersecurity risks.

Regional Transformation: The growth of Tier-II cities as strategic hubs is fueling the expansion of GCCs across India.

Over the past 20 years, Caterpillar Inc. has significantly invested in R&D to deliver best-in-class innovation, including autonomy, alternative fuels, connectivity and digital, and electrification (AACE) technologies. Most of the investments in India are concentrated on our manufacturing facilities and the R&D centers, which are not only serving domestic needs but also providing products and services for the global market. Our R&D centre in Tamil Nadu is one of the largest Global Capability Centers (GCC) in Chennai. We have a large team of engineers including doctorate scholars currently working here. They are at the core of our R&D operations, offering diverse engineering expertise—mechanical, hydraulics, electronics, software, autonomy, and more

Caterpillar introduced Cat Digital in India in 2018, to bring digital capabilities to customers and dealers. This team of software and data engineers, data scientists, architects, product managers, developers and testers from India are leveraging advanced digital infrastructure and IoT intelligence to create smarter data driven solutions, optimizing use and performance of heavy machinery.

India’s talent pool is renowned for its technical expertise. How has Cat Digital harnessed this talent to support the company’s digital transformation journey?

India’s tech talent pool has grown by 120% in 5 . Within Caterpillar India, Cat Digital workforce has grown exponentially since 2018. . Our investment in skilled, diverse talent includes partnerships with universities in Chennai and Bangalore, known for computer science and AI programs, along with providing internship opportunities. We are supporting our current employees, with learning opportunities, upskilling programs and career planning. We consistently assess talent, focus on development and mobility to ensure learning and growth.

Upskilling is critical for staying ahead in the fast-evolving digital landscape. How does Cat Digital India approach the upskilling of its workforce? What strategies have been most successful in retaining top talent in the highly competitive Indian tech market?

In today’s evolving landscape of AI, 5G, and IoT, engineers are moving beyond traditional design & development roles to become data engineers, software developers, product managers, and cybersecurity experts. Their diverse skills are driving digital transformation and advancing a data-driven future. With a fast growth in India’s tech talent pool over the past five years, the demand for these skills is clearly evident. GCCs are empowering companies to build high-value talent, driving enhanced research and development, creating innovative products and services tailored to both local and global markets, and bolstering India’s competitiveness on the global stage.

At Cat Digital our young and dynamic team of software engineers, data scientists, product managers, developers, and testers are actively engaged in emerging disciplines like autonomy, electrification, and connectivity, bringing advanced digital capabilities to our customers. We are focused on building a progressive mindset among our employees. To ensure this, we offer opportunities for continuous upskilling and reskilling, enabling them to work with the latest technologies and tools in the market.

How do you foster a culture of innovation within Cat Digital India? What initiatives or practices have been introduced to encourage creativity and drive cutting-edge solutions?

We believe having the right talent equipped with deep domain expertise and skills is the cornerstone of success. When our teams lead with an ownership mindset and work on next-gen technologies, they drive meaningful outcomes that maximize our customers’ business potential.

We have several career development programs. Caterpillar’s Digital & IT Development Program provides college graduates the opportunity to advance their technical and leadership skills through challenging assignments across multiple areas of the business. Program participants have three one-year rotations during their time in the program. This allows program participants to diversify their technical skills and build their professional network.

We also host internal events where our talent collaborates on real-life challenges faced by our business as well as customers. Our culture plays an important role in enabling information and knowledge exchange with easy access to leadership and resources. It is not uncommon for one to see teams huddled around sandboxes across our floor collaborating in real time across geographies and teams.

As GCCs continue to evolve, what role do you see Cat Digital playing over the next 5-10 years? How do you plan to further capitalize on India’s talent and innovation capabilities?

India’s talent and innovation capabilities will continue to be central to our growth. We have the talent in India, and our trajectory for the future is focused on developing products with new technologies and new ways of working so that what we are developing is up to global standards from a cost, quality, and velocity perspective.

Innovation is a two-way street. Innovation at GCCs attracts talent and conversely, talent brings new perspectives and drives innovation. At its core, it is the availability of skilled talent in India that is driving the immense growth in GCCs. GCCs bring in the latest technologies, global practices and standards which set new benchmarks for other organizations and assist in large-scale talent development.

The modern technology, processes, standards etc. that GCCs have introduced in India also creates opportunities to deliver solutions to some of the challenges faced by GCCs. This drives local innovation and start-ups which tend to these GCCs and contributes to the economy.

With GCCs often working in tandem with global teams, how does Cat Digital ensure seamless collaboration across geographies? What technologies or frameworks have been most effective in integrating global teams?

Our strategic locations across US, India and Slovakia and globally distributed teams ensure we have working hours as well as skilled talent overlap which significantly enhances collaboration and our delivery to the enterprise.

We leverage cloud-based platforms, agile methodologies to ensure smooth coordination between global teams. Our adoption of DevOps practices also ensures that development, operations and support teams are closely integrated helping us align to global priorities.