At what point does outsourcing go too far?
Our industry is known for outsourcing quite a bit of work. These are the areas where we commonly see outsourcing:
Security guard services. This is cyclical for some companies, but the overall trend I've seen is that companies have moved to hire third party guard services companies to be their on-site security personnel. It's allowed companies like Andrews Int'l, Garda, Allied Barton and others to become very big players in our industry, and it has allowed small start-ups to enter the marketplace with a couple amber-light cars and some uniforms. Generally, end-users prefer this because it lowers costs and because they don't have to provide the benefits that they would have to provide if those same employees were full-time, in-house employees. Management of these employees can sometimes be more difficult. On the other hand, the client obtains a team specifically trained in their business area from a company that has learned best practices by serving a number of clients. Or at least that's what you're told when you hire these companies.
Installation services. While most installations are still done by in-house technicians, I've seen entire companies that are built upon the ability to provide contract low-voltage installation. Big government contractors will hire these firms because they don't retain the numbers of installing techs to handle the projects they win. Consumer technology providers (think satellite TV) will hire these companies. Even companies that do most of their installs with in-house personnel with hire out this work when they have a project that is too big for their complement of full-time installers. It's also common to outsource some specialty work like high-voltage/electrical parts of security projects.
Monitoring. This has been the big one in outsourcing for years. Alarm dealers that might have tried to operate their own monitoring stations a decade ago have found it more profitable to outsource the monitoring of their accounts to 3rd party monitoring companies that are often certified and UL-listed. This keeps the dealers focused on their primary business of selling and installing alarm systems, without losing rights to their RMR by entirely selling the account.