Cost saving has been one of the most important objectives in any global sourcing decision. Author in this paper emphasizes on many strategic and tactical objectives/benefits that can be derived out of a well thought-out outsourcing or offshoring decision, other then cost saving. Benefits can be tactical like rapid scaling for short-term, high-volume tasks to strategic like reaching out to new customer segments, tap low-margin high-volume customer segments, penetrate new geographies, leverage new channels, conversion of fixed cost to variable cost.

Global sourcing decision is also taken with the objective of adapting to Market Force, covering for skills shortage, technology and connectivity Advancements, access to global best practices, business continuity & disaster Recovery.

While most of the strategic and tactical objectives/benefits described in this Paper inherently have the ability to improve efficiency of operations and/or improve the competitive abilities of the user enterprise, absolute cost savings should not be the sole objective of an outsourcing decision. The focus should instead be on the strategic value gained in return for the investment made, which could be higher in some instances, than the cost of doing it inhouse.