GBS World

The brief

Providers on this platform are classified two ways at once - by what they do (back office, contact centre, finance and accounting, IT outsourcing, digital, sales) and by where they operate (Africa, the Americas, Emerging Europe, the Middle East). A buyer almost always filters on both.

Layered on top is a verification programme where providers are assessed against dozens to hundreds of data points, with client reviews, case studies and performance metrics attached. That is not a listing - it is a record with a lifecycle.

What we built

The data model came before any interface work, because the combination of multi-category, multi-geography and multi-tier verification is exactly the structure that forces a rebuild if it is guessed at.

Faceted search across both dimensions, with provider profiles rich enough to carry verification status, review data and case studies rather than a name and a paragraph.

Matchmaking and RFP management sit on top of the directory, which is the step that turns a listings site into an actual marketplace: buyers do not just browse, they issue a requirement and get routed.

A research and thought-leadership library - location benchmarking, pricing analysis, nearshore and offshore reports - gives the platform an organic acquisition channel independent of the provider listings.

Why it works

Verification is the platform's entire defensibility. Any directory can list providers; the value here is that being listed means something, so the certification workflow is core infrastructure rather than a badge graphic.