Market Impact Report

Fix the baton pass: Transitions will make or break enterprise models

Transitions, which involve the structured movement of work, processes, and capabilities from enterprises to internal global capability center (GCC) or shared services teams and outsourcing providers, remain one of the most misunderstood and underused levers of enterprise value within global services transformation initiatives. While most transitions deliver cost and continuity, they fall short on paving the path for agility, transformation, and defining business outcomes.

Transitions have outgrown their role as administrative handovers and should now represent the foundational operating model for the Services-as-Software™ (SaS) era. As enterprises shift to artificial-intelligence-infused service delivery, transitions test resilience, capture knowledge, and build or compromise future-readiness.

HFS Research and Infosys BPM surveyed 153 business and functional leaders and 152 transition management team leaders from GCCs and service providers. The research reveals a consistent headline: Transitions are not meeting strategic expectations for either enterprises or their transition partners, underscoring the need for stronger co-ownership, design discipline, and trust across all involved parties.

Six structural failures undermine transition success:
    • Accountability remains vague
      Transitions start under pressure, shaped by ambitious transformation promises, aggressive timelines, and high expectations that are rarely re-baselined. More than half (58%) of enterprises and 50% of transition management teams admit that ownership remains unclear across workstreams. Governance vacuums persist, and co-design is rarely prioritized.
    • Trust gaps persist across both sides
      Only 13% of enterprises consider provider playbooks relevant. In parallel, transition management teams report insufficient documentation (58%) and limited access to subject matter experts (SMEs) (40%) as key blockers. These mirrored frustrations reveal mutual distrust and misalignment.
    • Metrics fail to reflect business outcomes
      While 86% of enterprises support experience-level agreements (XLAs), just 28% currently track them. Measurement frameworks remain anchored in legacy service-level agreements (SLAs), lacking critical indicators such as adoption, engagement, and resilience.
    • Change management begins too late
      About half (52%) of enterprises acknowledge that change management starts after execution begins, and 48% of transition team leaders cite client change maturity as a limiting factor.
    • Transitions succeed at stabilization, but stall when it comes to transformation
      Only 41% of enterprises and 39% of transition management teams say transitions meet value expectations. While transition management teams typically deliver on cost savings, transition timeliness, and service continuity mandates, higher-order benefits such as agility, process innovation, and change adoption often remain unrealized within most enterprise environments.
    • Technology remains underleveraged
      Most transitions fail to harness AI-powered analytics, automation, and intelligent tooling that could accelerate knowledge transfer, detect hidden risks early, and provide visibility into operational performance. Nearly 59% of transition management teams face information security or privacy restrictions, and 47% cite integration complexity as a barrier that limits the use of advanced solutions.

This report lays out a transition playbook structured around four foundational pillars, designed to guide both enterprise leaders and transition management teams in building co-owned, future-ready operating models.

These dimensions form the foundation of what must become “capital T” Transitions—cross-functional, co-owned, and designed for continuous capability building. Most current efforts remain stuck in “small t” transitions—tactical projects focused on stabilization. Elevating transitions means rethinking their purpose, not just improving their execution.

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