Several reasons.  Yes, the IP issue may be one of them, though this is
usually simple to work out whether you hire an individual or a firm to do
the work.  Speaking from experience though, management usually views a
consulting firm favorably for several reasons:

1.) The contractual obligation is with a firm, rather than an individual.
This means (in theory at least) if the programmer working on your project
steps in front of a bus or gets married or does something similarly
foolish, someone else will be there to take up the reins.

2.) In the event of non-completion or other major problems with the
project, it's usually a lot easier to sue and recover damages from a
company than an individual.  Companies usually have money and insurance,
independents may or may not.

3.) Consulting firms usually have account reps, people whose sole job is
to speak with upper management on their own level, using the same language
and attitudes.  Don't discount the importance of this -- upper management
often has little understanding of or faith in geeks, especially geeks not
on their own payroll.  Its an interface thing, doesn't necessarily make
sense, it just is.

So really, management is looking for the same thing we all want -- a good
interface, redundancy and fault tolerance, and reliability.

Dale
--
"Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that
curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly."
          - Arnold Edinborough


On Fri, 11 Jan 2002, Josh Koffman wrote:

> Just as a general question, why do companies make this decision? Is it
> to avoid intellectual property squabbles in the future?
>
> Josh
>
> David J Binnington wrote:
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: pic microcontroller discussion list
> > > [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of Josh Koffman
> > > Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 1:03 AM
> > > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: [PIC]: Programmer
> > >
> > >
> > > Perhaps then a shift in thinking should occur in who you're hiring.
> > > Instead of hiring a contract employee, hire another company or
> > > consulting firm to write the code for you. I know there are those on the
> > > list that perform services like that. Perhaps then you could ask for a
> > > list of projects completed and a list of customers, and call them to
> > > find out how satisfied they were.

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