In order to outsource effectively, though, you need the ability to judge which vendors are strongest. I think there's been a pattern of thinking technical talent isn't needed when outsourcing when the opposite is true.
This is why many technical tenders have both a price evaluation criteria and a technical feasibility assessment. Best practice would be for folks conducting both assessments to be subject matter expert in those areas.
Agreed, but when the talent isn't there, its easy for "helped supervise a contract to deliver X" to get equated with "expertise in X." Expertise is also needed to know what are big problems in a RFQ response, vs small problems. There's a tendency sometimes without that expertise to make a list and whichever team has the most +'s and least -'s to win out.
Agreed. Although, sometimes difficult in practice. Evaluation committee selection itself is as much of an art as a science.