Debasis Panda on How India's Tech Talent Drives Innovation at TransUnion’s GCCs

In an era where technological prowess and innovation are crucial for global success, India's abundant talent and supportive ecosystem are making significant strides in the realm of Global Capability Centers (GCCs). Debasis Panda, Senior Vice President and Head of TransUnion’s GCCs in Costa Rica, India, and South Africa, shares insights into how India's vast pool of skilled professionals and vibrant startup culture are driving digital transformation and innovation at TransUnion. With approximately 2.5 million STEM graduates annually, India offers a formidable workforce that is well-prepared to tackle the challenges of software development, cloud computing, data science, and AI. In this interview, Panda explores how TransUnion’s GCC in India leverages this talent to foster innovation, build future-ready teams, and create seamless customer experiences on a global scale. Excerpts: 

How do you see India's technology and talent contributing to the growth and success of Global Capability Centers (GCCs)?

India has the world’s largest annual cohort of STEM graduates, approximately 2.5 million each year, with at least one third of undergraduate students pursuing STEM degrees. This large talent pool of skilled professionals in fields of software development, cloud computing, data science, AI and engineering in India provides GCCs access to professionals who are well prepared to drive innovation and transformation. 

Indian GCCs are well-positioned to leverage the unique Indian public digital infrastructure that focuses on developing solutions rather than building complex infrastructure platforms. 

The country’s supportive ecosystem of vibrant startups along with government policies like land subsidies, power subsidies, IT park incentives, workforce incentives and skills development incentives have further helped establish GCCs as innovation hubs.

This combination of talent, technological prowess, and a supportive ecosystem have played a pivotal role in the growth and success of India’s Global Capability Centers (GCCs), including TransUnion’s own GCC in India.

What initiatives have you led or been part of to build core innovation capabilities such as intelligent automation, cloud computing, or data science and analytics?

TransUnion’s GCC India is a well-rounded microcosm of the enterprise, spearheading many digital transformation and innovation initiatives across more than 30 countries, and is a key contributor to TransUnion’s modernization program. The GCC India plays a pivotal role in TransUnion’s mission to migrate products and services to the cloud, ultimately transforming its operations by enabling streamlined product delivery and faster innovation. 

We are also supporting deep modernization for the enterprise through the transformation of our solution enablement platform for managing, governing, analyzing and delivering data and insights. This platform connects separate data and analytic assets built for credit risk, marketing and fraud prevention and concentrates them in a single, layered and unified environment that sits at the core of the business. This unified approach allows TransUnion to deliver a more accurate, complete and compliant picture of consumers, no matter the use case.

We are tech partners for the internal infrastructure and development platform, enabling business-facing enterprise applications and platforms which allows teams to consistently develop, deploy and manage product and application lifecycles in a hybrid cloud environment which adheres to our TransUnion-defined security and compliance standards.

A significant part of TransUnion’s intelligent automation is based out of the GCC India. The team supports the enterprise globally and has created automated solutions that improve quality and eliminate human errors and the need to rework failed transactions. This has increased scalability through reduced transaction times and execution during non-business hours​ and has improved team productivity by enabling them to focus on higher value tasks and minimize routine, menial work​.

TransUnion’s global leader for Data Science and Analytics is part of the GCC India and helps steer teams globally to leverage data for solutions, strategic decision-making and business growth.

How do you approach the creation of a skilled, future-ready workforce in your organization

At TransUnion, we have developed an associate-driven culture of excellence, ensuring that our learning programs are dynamic and aligned to our business needs. We follow a bottom-up approach where various learning programs are developed by our associates, for our associates. This peer-to-peer learning model has not only helped us build a future-ready workforce, it has also enhanced collaboration and helped build an innovation mindset.

Our unique talent operating model — TU Connect — is a structured, comprehensive, inclusive, global program with a set of seven experiential learning and problem-solving initiatives: Internal Gig Jobs, AWS GameDays, Upskill-N-Reskill, F1 – Assist with Speed, DataLabs, Hackathons for Business, and Digitization. TU Connect is driven across our enablement teams and is closely aligned to TransUnion’s values and beliefs. 

These initiatives create a culture of associate-driven excellence and an elastic internal talent marketplace. As much as 40% of the entire TransUnion workforce has participated in one of the ‘TU Connect’ initiatives, helping foster a culture of excellence and innovation and creating a deep base of knowledge and expertise across the business. The various learning programs at TransUnion GCC India have helped us groom a future-ready workforce that enables the accelerated transformation of our business. 

Can you describe a program or strategy you have implemented to develop next-generation leaders within your team or organization? 

Organic talent growth focused on leadership development is a strategic business priority within TransUnion’s GCC India. It helps us reduce dependency on external hiring, minimizing recruitments costs and mitigating risks associated with skills gaps or cultural mismatches. Our leadership development programs enhance leadership capabilities, and support leaders’ career progression. 

We conduct periodic talent reviews across all levels to identify high-potential individuals and create professional development plans to map learning and growth opportunities. We proactively develop succession plans to build a steady pipeline of future leaders. 

The GCC India also has a dedicated mentorship program for advancing associates’ careers, with a focus on women in leadership roles. All of these efforts have seen the GCC India develop a deep pipeline of global leaders.  

What measures have you taken to build greater efficiencies and seamless experiences for consumers and customers on a global scale?

TransUnion’s GCC India contributes significantly towards transforming customer experiences through innovative digitalized initiatives by embedding technology and data. Providing frictionless digital experiences with a human-centric pivot is at the core of our innovation and we focus on developing and implementing solutions that offer best-in-class customer experiences. Our teams have extended customer workflows from historically being point solutions to now offering broad, configurable platforms that deliver effective and actionable insights.

We have enabled secure, tailored customer experiences integrated with superior identity verification and targeted precision. Our ‘customer-first’ approach is integral to TransUnion’s promise of making trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person, stewarded with care, so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good®. TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people in more than 30 countries.  

How do you leverage data science and analytics to drive decision-making and innovation within your GCC?

TransUnion is a global information insights company, and Data Science and Analytics are at the core of our operations. Our global Data Science and Analytics team leader is part of the GCC India, supported by an extensive team that offers high-performing analytics products and services across 30 countries. 

We also have an exclusive Data Science and Analytics team within the GCC India which enables TransUnion’s internal stakeholders to help harness the immense power of data to uncover valuable trends, patterns and actionable insights in accordance with regulatory and information security compliance. 

Any team within our organization can reach out to our Data Science experts to gain insights tailored to their requirement. Our goal is to democratize data access and empower all teams within the organization to make data-driven decisions, helping them to confidently navigate complex challenges and drive innovation.

In what ways do you think GCCs can further evolve to support enterprise strategy and global operations in the next five years?

Companies in the future will heavily rely on leveraging advanced technologies and data to stay competitive. TransUnion’s GCC India, in the next five years, will further develop this capability and have access to top talent in these areas. GCCs are already operating as the innovation and transformation hubs for various enterprises, and in the next five years they will gain more maturity with robust capability development. GCCs will see an increased global leadership footprint showcasing their strategic importance for scaling operations, transforming the business, and unlocking unprecedented business value for the enterprise.