Global Technology & Business Services Council (GTBSC)

The Global Technology & Business Services Council (GTBSC) is an alliance of national IT and business services associations that speaks for the worldwide tech-services sector. It coordinates policy advocacy, research, and workforce initiatives across member bodies that together represent millions of professionals working in IT outsourcing, shared services, and digital delivery.

GTBSC is a federation, not a company. It binds together 12 industry associations — including IAOP, NASSCOM, ABSL Poland, IBPAP, and other national peak bodies — under one shared platform that speaks to governments, multinational buyers, and global media on issues that cut across borders. Member associations keep their own governance; GTBSC sets joint positions on cross-border concerns like data flow, talent mobility, and tax treatment.

The council was formed to give the global services industry a coherent voice the way the World Steel Association does for steelmakers or the International Chamber of Commerce does for general trade. According to NASSCOM, India’s IT-BPM peak body, “the global technology services sector now employs well over 10 million skilled workers, and that scale needs a unified channel into regulators and buyers.”

Inside the council, decisions are reached by consensus among member chairs. Joint statements, research, and position papers move forward only when the participating associations sign off — a structure that keeps national priorities visible rather than blurred.

How it works

GTBSC operates through working groups drawn from member-association staff. Each group focuses on a single theme: regulatory advocacy, talent and skills, sustainability, or research. Outputs are typically white papers, joint letters to governments, or industry briefings released at flagship events such as IAOP’s annual Outsourcing World Summit or NASSCOM’s Technology and Leadership Forum.

The council does not handle commercial contracts. It funds itself through member-association dues and occasional sponsor support tied to specific reports. Research dissemination usually happens via the host association’s site rather than through a separate GTBSC publisher.

Functions and deliverables

Working-group outputs feed into the wider industry conversation that Statista’s worldwide IT-services market outlook tracks at the macro level, but GTBSC’s role is to give that conversation a single coordinated industry voice rather than a stack of separate national positions.

Examples

A clear example came during the COVID-19 disruption, when GTBSC member associations issued a joint report titled “A Unified Global Response for the Technology and Business Services Industry.” The paper documented how member firms shifted millions of seats to work-from-home delivery and pushed for regulatory flexibility on data handling outside of secured offices.

A second example is the council’s running engagement with data-localization debates. As India, Indonesia, and several EU member states have proposed stricter rules on cross-border data movement, GTBSC has used joint NASSCOM-IAOP-ABSL statements to argue for interoperable frameworks rather than country-by-country lockdowns, a position echoed in the OECD’s Data Free Flow with Trust programme.

A third example is talent. GTBSC associations have aligned on shared skills taxonomies for cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics roles, so a multinational buyer signing a contract in Manila and Krakow on the same week can compare delivery capability on like-for-like terms. The Philippines’ IBPAP, Poland’s ABSL, and India’s NASSCOM all reference variants of this framework in their published industry roadmaps.

Related terms

• Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): the broader service category GTBSC’s member associations represent.
• Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO): the IT-services half of the sector GTBSC speaks for.
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO): the higher-skill segment increasingly covered in GTBSC research.
• Offshoring: the cross-border delivery model the council’s policy work touches most often.
• Nearshoring: a regional variant the council monitors as supply chains rebalance.
• Shared Services and Outsourcing (SSO): the captive-plus-outsourced model many GTBSC member firms run.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI): a key policy lever member associations track for incoming services investment.
• Digital Transformation: the demand driver behind most GTBSC research themes.

FAQ

Who founded the Global Technology & Business Services Council?

GTBSC was formed by a group of national IT and business-services associations seeking a single global voice for the sector. Founding members include IAOP, NASSCOM, ABSL Poland, and IBPAP, with other national bodies joining over time.

How is GTBSC different from IAOP or NASSCOM?

IAOP and NASSCOM are individual industry associations with their own members and revenue. GTBSC is a council that sits above them, it coordinates joint positions across associations rather than recruiting member firms directly.

Does GTBSC certify outsourcing providers?

No. The council does not run a certification or accreditation scheme. Provider-level certifications such as IAOP’s COP designation stay with the individual member associations.

What policy issues does GTBSC focus on?

The council prioritizes cross-border data flow, talent mobility, tax treatment of services exports, and sustainability reporting. These are issues where uncoordinated national rules can hurt multi-country delivery models.

Where can I read GTBSC reports?

Most joint outputs are released through the host member association’s site. For example, joint COVID-response reports appeared via NASSCOM and IAOP channels. There is no separate central report library.

If you want to benchmark your own delivery footprint against the standards GTBSC member associations track, talk to Outsource Accelerator about matching with a vetted provider.