Offshoring as a theoretical concept clearly relates to the process of sending work overseas, however the majority of the research on offshoring has focused the decision stage rather than the complete lifecycle. This paper is based on longitudinal case studies of two Global Fortune 500 companies which are sending work from several of their globally dispersed business units to their R&D centers in China & India. A generic process of distributing work globally; from decision to transfer and operational governance is described. Studying the decisions translated into practice, aspects such as managerial intentionality, path dependence, and the need for strategic alignment are highlighted. Our results show that these companies consider offshoring as an ongoing iterative process of managing complex work in a global organization, where one transfer project may result in more functions being transferred. This paper develops the foundations of a process framework to support sustainable offshoring practice.