Today, the outsourcing picture is more complex. Many factors have emerged to complicate decisions, including an aging workforce, the rapidly changing regulatory landscape, cross-border issues, new business models, and the patchwork quilt that many organizations represent after years of acquisitions and mergers. Compound these issues with the appearance of more outsourcing options, and the decision takes on both greater importance and risk than ever before.

Worldwide, companies are leaning toward offshore solutions-for example, moving certain jobs such as programming and customer service to low-wage countries-much the way they have for years in the manufacturing industries. But is this the real silver bullet? Sophisticated methodologies are available to help executives answer this question and make much more insightful outsourcing decisions, whether they involve offshore or onshore resources, off-site or on-site solutions, or some combination thereof.