70% of executives have pulled outsourced work back in-house over the last 5 years.
Most people read that as proof that outsourcing is dying.
I read it as proof that the wrong model of outsourcing is dying. The version where you rent developers by the hour, manage them yourself, absorb the overhead, and hope they don't rotate off at month 4.
The vendors who embedded into the client's business, owned outcomes, and proved measurable velocity improvement survived the insourcing wave. They're still in those companies.
We've had a client through a PE buyout, a corporate acquisition, a new CTO, and a new board. The engagement survived all of it.
The contract didn't keep us there. Proving the work was worth continuing every month kept us there.
The vendor evaluation criterion that doesn't fit on a scorecard: does this partner earn the right to stay, or do they rely on switching costs to prevent you from leaving?