Re: A service provider that doesn't bill because their attempted fixes failed?
If there is enough to employ one full time employee, it's worth having in-house
And that is why you fail.
What if that one employee goes off ill, or has a holiday? Or what if, $Deity forbid, they quit and all their knowledge disappears with them?
To consider running something in house verses outsourcing, I reckon you need a bare minimum of two staff but preferably three. And don't forget their overheads when working out if insourcing is cheaper: Pension, cost of desk space, equipment, training, etc.
I'm not being paid by an outsourcing company, but people who always assume that "Outsourcing is bad" are just deluded. Like anything in life, there is rarely a standard good answer. Outsourcing has its place, just as insourcing has its place.