[tomakaze]

it's cyclical.
1. cash gets tight, management looks at bottom line and nothing else, outsouces. most everyplace i've ever worked IT is considered overhead - which is why we wind up with desks in closets or in the subbasement next to the furnace.
2. early on, it becomes rapidly appearant the level of service isnt gonna cut but their stuck with a support contract with outfit that just cant deliver, resolve issues in a timely fashion the way onsite IT can.
3. outsourced contract expires, IT goes back inhouse. and there is much rejoicing with the userbase
4. enter new top level management guy, the cycle begins anew.

[Route101]

Exactly...It's a business cycle. Companies outsource their IT to save money. That's o.k. for awhile, but finally comes a time when they realize they can do it cheaper in house because of the higher and higher prices the outsourcing firms start charging....ebb and flow...ebb and flow....

[SamAdams76]

For most companies, IT is a joke and a very big hit on the corporation's bottom line.

At my company, you could have a ticket open for days for something as minor as an e-mail problem. A few years ago, I found it was much easier just to fix my own issues and those of my co-workers. Now everybody in the office comes to me while the IT guys sit around doing who know's what.

[Lazamataz]

Your cycle description is accurate, and in your model, the offshoring outsourcers are -- as they are in my experience -- bona-fide incompetent morons and gap-jawed fly-traps.