The following is a great article from Forbes about accepting help in areas where you are not an expert, allowing you to focus on what is important for your enterprise.
How the Decision to Outsource IT Freed My Staff
Now this article focuses on outsourcing what I will call “standard” IT services. It doesn’t mention outsourcing mobile development in particular, but the notion is the same. Most IT departments who may have some internal software development, likely don’t have the mobile experts necessary to build sophisticated mobile systems. Yet there are businesses, like Software Ops, who specialize in mobile app system development. Instead of investing in areas of expertise where you have to compete for talent and spend time and energy to gain knowledge, spend your time building a strong partnership. Let the experts handle your technical needs.
One of the best quotes in the article is the following:
“While cost is always a consideration, it was clear that we didn’t want to simply select a vendor on price alone – we wanted to weigh factors to find a true business partner.”
If cost is the outcome you are looking for, then by all means go to the lower bidder. But if putting fantastic software systems to work at your business that produce return-on-investment, then select a partner who will give you that outcome. There is a reason some vendors can only compete on price, it’s not hard to figure out they have less to offer.