We don't know what business the GP is in. If somebody is in an IT department that supports the core business, rather than is the core business, doing things like reporting applications, internal enterprise apps, etc... is the UX still the core product?
If you're making a maintenance team scheduling app for an oilfield service company, and you outsource the UX and save hiring on a team of Javascript/HTML5 devs that would have little work afterward, isn't that rational?
I'm in an IT department that primarily supports the core business. The UX is an afterthought in a tight margin industry and we generally settle for "it works and isn't too confusing". I'm not happy about that, but it is what it is. <banghead>
If you're making a maintenance team scheduling app for an oilfield service company, and you outsource the UX and save hiring on a team of Javascript/HTML5 devs that would have little work afterward, isn't that rational?