Move the right work to the right location.
Where offshoring works
- Finance, accounting and back-office operations
- Customer support and technical support
- Software development, QA and DevOps
- Marketing operations, content production and design
- Data processing, research and analytics
What we deliver
- Function-by-function assessment: what to keep, what to move, what to automate
- Location strategy - India, Philippines, South Africa, EU near-shore, or hybrid
- Vendor selection or captive build
- Transition plan with knowledge capture, shadowing and quality gates
- Governance model - KPIs, SLAs, escalation, quarterly reviews
How it lands
Every transition is instrumented. Baseline SLAs are measured before the move so the business can see, in real numbers, whether service holds up. We stay through stabilisation and only step out once the offshore team is hitting targets independently.
Outsourcing consulting and the make-or-buy decision
Before you pick a location, you have to decide whether to keep the work in-house at all. The make-or-buy decision (also called make vs buy analysis, or the outsourcing decision framework) is where most cost mistakes are made - either outsourcing what should have stayed in-house, or clinging to work that is genuinely non-core. As an outsourcing consultant, we run the decision against a repeatable framework:
- Strategic fit - is this activity core to how we win in the market, or does it just have to happen well?
- Cost comparison - fully-loaded in-house cost against realistic outsourced cost, including transition and governance
- Risk and control - what is the cost of the process going wrong, and who bears it after the move?
- Scale sensitivity - does the cost per unit fall faster in-house or with a specialist partner?
- Reversibility - if the decision is wrong in two years, what does it cost to bring the work back?
The output is a defensible recommendation - make, buy, or hybrid - with the sizing, transition plan and governance model attached. It is often the first workstream on an offshoring or outsourcing consulting mandate.
Offshoring pairs well with procurement transformation and business strategy - the operating model, the location and the go-forward plan need to line up.
Offshoring decisions rest on a like-for-like cost comparison, not a headline rate. We break the price into materials, labour, overhead and margin so the negotiation is about cost drivers, not goodwill. See how we build a should-cost model.
Frequently asked questions
Won't offshoring hurt quality?
Not when it is designed and governed properly. We build detailed KPIs, quality gates and shadowing periods into every transition. Service levels are measured before and after so any drift is caught early - and in most cases quality improves because the offshore team is dedicated to a narrower scope than the original in-house team.
Which functions offshore well?
Finance and accounting, customer support, technical support, back-office operations, data processing, software development and QA, marketing operations, and design production. Anything rules-based, digital-first, or repeatable is a strong candidate.
How long does a typical offshore transition take?
3-6 months from decision to steady state for a mid-sized function. We can move faster where the process is well documented, or take longer where knowledge is tacit and needs to be captured before it is handed over.
Related services
Specialist areas that complement this work.
About Caventis
Caventis (Caventis Ltd, registered in England & Wales, company number 17158263) is a UK procurement, supply chain and cost reduction consultancy. It works with mid-market and PE-backed businesses to identify and deliver savings across procurement, operations and back-office spend, typically on a shared-savings basis where the majority of the fee is tied to realised, P&L-verified outcomes.
The firm was founded by Matt Buckley (MCIPS, Cranfield MBA, FCMI Chartered Manager), who leads every engagement personally, drawing on 15+ years of procurement, supply chain and cost transformation experience at bp and General Motors. Caventis is headquartered in the United Kingdom and serves clients nationwide.
Considering offshoring?
A Cost Review shows which functions are best-fit and sizes the saving.