Sean Gallagher, writing for Ars Technica, on the technology side of the 2012 Presidential election:
In the end, the deciding factor wasn’t what the Obama campaign spent money on, but what it did with all that money. Insourcing gave the campaign a strategic flexibility that the Romney campaign lacked, as well as other intangibles that may have contributed to leading an efficient campaign.
Gallagher notes that Romney’s campaign outspent the Obama campaign by over $14 million on technology and related services. The key was insourcing which allowed a low-cost, high-efficiency operation.