[smoyer]

Your experience closely mirrors mine in that contracting out the work will cost you more overall. It's in the contracting company's interest to misinterpret specifications so long as they can bill more (you can't irritate the client too much or they'll quit). On the other hand, it's nothing like the way government contractors in the US overcharge the American public.

At one point, we also had a division of our company set-up in India, and when staffed carefully, they became remote members of the team (just like other remote workers). The only downside to this arrangement was that it was hard to keep qualified employees as (at the time), you could change jobs twice a year for a 20% bump each time.