Reshoring operations to the U.S. is never a simple move. These strategic projects touch nearly every workflow, vendor relationship, and functional area within the organization. Timelines must be carefully coordinated to minimize disruption and managing the technology elements is a critical part of maintaining operations.
Before your team commits to a reshoring project’s schedule or scope, you need a clear view of the systems, data, connections, and infrastructure that power the business. We put together a handful of technology considerations that can help guide early project planning efforts and ensure decision makers have the right information to reduce risk, minimize disruption, and maintain performance throughout the transition to your U.S. location.
Understanding System Visibility Before Reshoring Operations
A thorough data and systems discovery effort will help you see all the places technology is at work inside your organization. Look at your existing infrastructure and applications, including integrations between internal systems as well as connections to external platforms, such as cloud services, vendor systems, public data feeds, and equipment monitoring solutions. Be aware that shadow IT may also exist in your environment. This refers to tools and systems installed by employees that didn’t go through official IT review or approval. Shadow IT apps and solutions may not be managed by your technology team, but they could be considered a critical asset by the departments that use them. Work to understand what you’ll need to accommodate, integrate, adopt, or replace as part of your onshoring project.
Accounting for Industrial IoT and Non-User Technology Dependencies
Industrial IoT—the Internet of Things—can represent a significant portion of an enterprise’s technology stack. Devices such as instrumentation sensors, automated equipment controls, smart meters, and other non-user endpoints will likely need to be included in the move. Define what’s needed, why, how it’s connected now, where data flows to and from, and how the data is used. Those details, along with security requirements for the various devices, will help the team coordinate the necessary connectivity and endpoint protection measures when operations relocate to the U.S. Your maintenance and operations teams might also need updated training to configure and manage the various systems and equipment for use in the new location.
Preparing Data for Migration and Operational Readiness
Before data can be moved, you need to know what you have, what’s needed, what’s missing, and what it will take to address any gaps. From master process documentation to supplier records, everything should be complete, accurate, and up to date. Assign individuals or small teams to act as stewards of the various groups of records, matching functional areas to their various system databases as much as possible. This will help accelerate the data review, cleansing, and archival processes, which can be time-consuming and often can’t be fully automated. Depending on how your system architecture will change during onshoring, you may also need to plan time for reformatting the data before ingestion into new platforms.
Designing the Right IT Architecture for U.S. Operations
Domestic availability of cloud services and on-premises hardware might be different from what your overseas location has now. Define your latency tolerance, your resilience profile, your forecasted bandwidth requirements, and the systems your enterprise considers mission critical. Many companies discover that a hybrid environment, with services provided via both cloud and onsite, are optimal. Define if some workloads must run locally, whether to minimize latency, maintain physical security, or control uptime, and if others perform better in the cloud. Part of your early planning efforts should include a candid assessment of what your IT team can realistically support during the move so you can adjust the plan’s scope, timeline, or labor parameters.
Reshoring success depends heavily on early technology planning. By gaining full visibility into systems, accounting for IoT and non-user technologies, ensuring data readiness, and designing a resilient IT architecture, project teams can minimize disruption and maintain performance throughout the transition.
FAQ
What is the biggest technology risk in reshoring operations?
The biggest risk is lack of visibility into systems and dependencies. Without a full understanding of how applications, data, and integrations interact, organizations may overlook critical components that can disrupt operations.
Why is Industrial IoT important during reshoring?
Industrial IoT devices support essential operational processes through real-time data collection and automation. If these systems are not properly accounted for, their disruption can lead to downtime or inaccurate reporting.
How long does data preparation typically take during reshoring?
Data preparation timelines vary depending on data quality and system complexity, but it often takes longer than expected due to manual validation and cleansing requirements.
Should companies move everything to the cloud when reshoring?
Not necessarily. Many organizations benefit from a hybrid approach that balances cloud scalability with on-premises performance and control.
How can teams reduce disruption during a reshoring transition?
Teams can reduce disruption by planning technology changes early, mapping all systems and dependencies, ensuring data quality, and aligning infrastructure with operational requirements.
