Companies confronting the need to “do more with less” should take a long, hard look at their outsourced commitments before they lay off staff. And although bringing tasks in house means more work for already burdened IT departments, it’s also a chance to take control of costs and re-invest in a more purpose-driven approach. This podcast from SearchCIO offers some perspectives you might want to consider.

Most start up companies I worked for did everything in-house, but we also engaged consultants in ways that became longer and more expenseive than intended. A big company might outsource to save money by handing off “routine” tasks like server maintenance and management. Small startups might outsource because they don’t know whether the task is going to be needed for more than a short period of time. Rather than hire a team of software engingeers, manage them for a year, then lay them off, you might engage a consulting company in the early growth stages as you better understand your needs.

But when the revenue stalls…a day of reckoning comes. There are many “what exactly does that person do?” questions. It is terribly frustrating for IT departments that are well-run because, if everyone is doing their jobs well, the IT function is very low profile. Management can’t see all the problems you have prevented, they just see heads.