by Johnnie Moore
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by Johnnie Moore
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The Insight
Bestshoring is not a location. It is the architecture that governs where work lives, who does it, and how the operating model supports both. Most logistics organizations inherited their operating structure rather than designed it. This blog introduces the visual framework that makes the design gap visible.
Ask a logistics leader whether they are onshoring, nearshoring, or offshoring, and you will get an answer. Ask them how those location choices connect to their delivery model, and you will usually get silence.
That silence reveals a design gap. Not a knowledge gap. Not a capability gap. A design gap. Most logistics leaders inherited their current operating structure rather than designed it. Location decisions, delivery model decisions, and operating model design are being made in separate conversations, by separate teams, against separate criteria.
The Bestshoring Architecture™ was built to close that gap. It positions bestshoring not as another location option alongside onshoring and offshoring, but as the strategic layer that governs location strategy, delivery model, and operating model as an integrated system.
The Bestshoring Architecture Framework
Upstream
Bestshoring Strategy
Sits at the top. Every decision below flows from that strategic frame: where should work live, who should do it, and how should it be organized?
Peer Decisions
Location Strategy + Delivery Model
The two strategic decision domains, grouped together because they must be designed in concert. Location addresses the “where” (onshore, nearshore, offshore, or hybrid). Delivery Model addresses the “who and how” (captive, outsourced, hybrid, or managed services). Neither can be decided in isolation without creating downstream misalignment.
Enablement Layer
Technology and AI Enablement
Wraps the entire structure because it is not a separate decision layer. It shapes what work humans should do at all, how dispersed teams collaborate, and how governance scales.
Why the Hierarchy Matters
When organizations invert this architecture, they start with a location decision (“we need to offshore”) or a delivery model decision (“we need a BPO partner”) and then build strategy around it. The result is predictable: location choices that do not align with delivery model requirements, delivery models that do not reflect strategic priorities, and operating models assembled from mismatched components.
Industry Evidence
According to SSON Research, 58 percent of shared services organizations now use hybrid models combining captive and outsourced teams, yet fewer than half believe their model is creating value. The architecture gap is not theoretical.
Architecture-first means the strategic questions get answered before the structural ones. Why are we doing this? What outcomes must it deliver? Only then: where should the work live, who should do it, and how should the operating model be designed to support both?
Where the Six Dimensions Fit
The Bestshoring Architecture™ defines the structural hierarchy. But knowing the hierarchy is not the same as knowing whether your organization is ready to execute within it.
Framework Connection
That is the role of the Six Dimensions of Bestshoring Readiness™: the diagnostic framework that reveals where your model is strong, where it is vulnerable, and which dimensions need attention first.
Together, the Architecture and the Six Dimensions answer a question most assessments miss: is your bestshoring model designed as an integrated architecture, or assembled from isolated decisions?
Self-Assessment
Twenty questions. Five minutes. Clarity on which dimensions need attention first.
Expert Conversation
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