Buyers usually compare five offshore models as if they were rival products. In fact they are five positions along one line. The line measures how much delivery management you keep. At one end you direct individual engineers. At the other you own an entire engineering company in India. This guide places each model on the line, gives a four-question chooser and links to a longer article on each.
The five models
| Model | Who directs the work | Who hires and carries attrition | Who owns the entity | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff augmentation | You, person by person | The supplier | The supplier | You need named skills inside a process that works |
| Dedicated pod | The pod's delivery lead, against your priorities | The supplier | The supplier | Work arrives as a steady flow and you prefer to judge results |
| Offshore delivery centre (ODC) | A delivery head at the supplier | The supplier | The supplier | A multi-year programme needs a unit that grows with the work |
| Build-operate-transfer (BOT) | The supplier at first, then you | The supplier, until transfer | Transfers to you | You want your own centre without building it alone |
| Captive centre (GCC) | Your own leaders | You | You | The need is permanent and large |
GCC means Global Capability Centre here. In the Gulf region the same letters stand for the Gulf Cooperation Council, so spell the term out when you brief a supplier. The side-by-side comparison of the four main models works through the differences in detail.
Model 1: staff augmentation
You add named engineers to your team and direct them yourself. The model suits a specific skill gap for a bounded period.
The cost is the time of your own leads. Each added engineer needs direction, review and context, and that time does not appear on an invoice. The article on augmentation management cost gives a formula for your own numbers and a table of team size against model. It stops paying earlier than most buyers expect: the break comes when coordination takes more of your leads' week than design and review.
Model 2: dedicated pod
A pod is a cross-functional team, usually with developers, a tester and a delivery lead, assigned to your product. You set priorities and review results. The delivery lead manages the people.
A pod suits continuous work: a product with a backlog that never empties. Ask three things before signing. Can you interview and approve each engineer? Who pays for replacement and handover? Which measures will the pod report each month?
Model 3: offshore delivery centre
An ODC is a unit run by the supplier in India under one delivery head, working to your brand and process. The supplier takes on hiring, payroll, equipment, premises and the statutory side. You get scale without setting up a company.
Choose it for a multi-year programme with enough headcount to justify its own management layer. The question to ask is what happens at the edges: how fast the unit can grow, how it can shrink, and what you receive if you leave.
Model 4: build-operate-transfer
The supplier builds a team, runs it for an agreed period, and then hands it to you, along with the entity and the staff if you want them. Whether it works depends on the first contract. Three items must be fixed at signing: the date of transfer, its price and the way employees move across, with their terms.
If any of the three is left open, the arrangement is plain outsourcing with a different label. The BOT step-by-step article gives the stages and clauses.
Model 5: captive centre
A captive centre is a company in India, with your ownership, your employees and your leaders. The cost per engineer can be lowest once it is running. The fixed cost is highest: an entity, a statutory calendar, employment obligations, premises, a hiring function and local leaders with real authority.
Time horizon counts for more than headcount. A permanent and large need justifies a captive centre. If it is uncertain, start with a lighter model. The GCC set-up article lists the steps.
Choose in four questions
- How long will you need the team? Under a year points to augmentation or a pod. Several years points to an ODC or BOT.
- Who will manage delivery? If you have capacity and want control, choose augmentation. If you prefer to buy the management, choose a pod or higher.
- Do you want a permanent capability? BOT and captive centres end in ownership. The other models do not.
- How large will the team be? Small teams suit augmentation. Mid-sized teams suit a pod. Large and long-lived teams suit an ODC, BOT or a captive centre.
Begin a step below where your plan sits on the line. Moving up is simple. Moving down means undoing contracts and teams. The comparison with hiring at home is in offshore versus in-house.
Making it deliver
Time zones are seldom the reason a team underperforms. Slow decisions, context held only in conversations and out-of-hours cover that relies on goodwill do the damage. India is on UTC+05:30 all year and does not use daylight saving time. Source: Time in India. That fixed offset makes the shared hours with UK, Gulf and US offices predictable, so you can compute them before you sign.
The article on managing a split team has the overlap table, the decision template and three measures. One habit solves much of the problem: hand the remote team a whole module to own, and not a stream of tasks from another board.
Ownership, access and data location
Settle three things in every model.
Ownership. Indian copyright law requires a written, signed assignment that states its term and territory, and applies defaults when it does not. State a perpetual term and a worldwide territory; the section is quoted in the security and IP article.
Access. Engineers should work on masked data by default, with a logged exception for real records. Revoke access on the day someone leaves.
Data location. Rules for payment data, outsourced IT and personal data decide where your data may sit. The security and IP article lists six questions to ask any supplier.
What changes by model in the contract
| Clause | Augmentation | Pod | ODC | BOT or captive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approval of people | Each person | Each person and the lead | Delivery head and key roles | Each offer, until transfer |
| Replacement | Overlap and handover | Overlap and handover | Succession plan for the head | Retention terms |
| Reporting | Your own tracker | Monthly delivery measures | Service levels | Transfer milestones |
| Exit | Notice and handover note | Notice and handover pack | Scale-down terms | Transfer mechanism |
Ask the supplier to fill this table in for their offer. Blank cells show where the contract is silent.
Questions buyers ask
Where should we begin?
Take augmentation for one or two named skills in a working process, a pod for a continuous flow of work, an ODC for a large programme and BOT if you want a centre of your own. Begin a step lower than planned and move up when results support it.
How does an ODC differ from a GCC?
The difference is ownership. The supplier operates an ODC on your behalf, while a GCC is a company you own and staff. BOT links the two.
At what size does augmentation stop working?
When coordination takes over your leads' week. Use the formula in the augmentation article in place of a fixed headcount.
How do we pick a supplier?
Compare two or three on the same questions, using documents as evidence. Choosing a software development company in India has a checklist. A senior outside view helps; see what CTO as a service is.
Where Brihat Infotech fits
Brihat Infotech offers four supplier-side models: offshore delivery centres, build-operate-transfer, dedicated pods and team augmentation. You approve each engineer, and your code sits in your own repository from the first commit.