Input or output? Outsourced publishing services and how to use them.

That's a great article about the use of outsourced IT services within the publishing industry. There is no doubt about the fact that this approach will increase in the near future. I know directly a number of publishing companies that are use to internally develop bits and pieces of very fine software, but the questions are: for how long will they be able to keep up with the speed of the technology? How much will this cost to these companies? Will this cost only money - in the best scenario - or it is more likely that it will cost their survival on the market?