Sourcing & location strategy

Domestic, offshore, and nearshore analysis and execution — an honest read on what to build, what to buy, and where the work should sit.

Every mid-market technology organization is a set of sourcing decisions, whether anyone made them deliberately or not. What's done by employees, what's done by contractors, what's done by vendors; what sits onshore, nearshore, offshore; what you build because it differentiates you and what you buy because it doesn't.

Most companies inherit these answers rather than choose them. Then something forces the question: a cost target, a talent gap, an acquisition, or a provider relationship that's quietly stopped earning its invoice.

A cost mandate — often PE-driven — that IT is expected to meet without breaking what works. A capability gap the local market can't fill at mid-market compensation. A development team that's grown expensive faster than it's grown productive. An offshore or nearshore arrangement that looked good in the rate card and less good in the delivery. Or the make-or-break version: selecting a major provider — development, infrastructure, or an MSP for day-to-day operations — where the wrong choice gets relived monthly for years.

On that last one, a note: we don't provide managed services, development, or staff augmentation ourselves — that's what keeps the recommendation honest. But we do know the firms that provide them well, because we've seen them deliver inside real engagements. That means a selection doesn't start from a blank page: we can make swift introductions to providers with track records we can vouch for, and when timing matters, we can occasionally subcontract the work through our network to compress procurement from months to weeks. Independent advice, with a head start on execution.

An executive who has actually run sourced organizations — onshore, nearshore, and offshore — starts with the work itself: what must stay close to the business, what can move, and what should never have been in-house at all. Then the honest economics: fully loaded costs, not rate-card costs — management overhead, time zones, turnover, rework, and the eighteen months it takes most offshore arrangements to hit stride.

Where execution follows, our network includes the specialists and implementers to stand the arrangement up — transition planning, provider onboarding, and the governance that keeps a rate card from quietly becoming a dependency.

A sourcing map for the whole technology function: what sits where and why, what it costs against alternatives, and a sequenced path from here to there that doesn't bet the operation on a single cutover. Where providers are involved: a selection run on your terms, a contract with the exit doors left open, and a governance rhythm that catches drift while it's still cheap.

Not an outsourcing pitch — the honest answer is sometimes "bring it back in-house," and we've given it. Not a body shop with a bench to place. And not a rate-card arbitrage exercise dressed up as strategy: savings that degrade delivery aren't savings; they're deferred costs.

The model behind this work is on our leadership page: a senior network, not a junior pyramid — principals who've run these decisions at scale, with specialist depth brought in exactly when needed. Sourcing questions also surface naturally inside a stack & team assessment, if the honest first question is "what do we even have?"

If the cost target has a date on it, the analysis should start before the panic does. Start the conversation.