How To Build A Business Case For Outsourcing eLearning Development

How To Build A Business Case For Outsourcing eLearning Development
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Summary: There are several compelling reasons to go for outsourcing the development of online learning. This article offers 5 tips that will help you build a strong and convincing business case for outsourcing your eLearning initiatives.

Ways To Go For Outsourcing eLearning Development

As part of the Learning and Development department, you will be in a position to convince your senior management that outsourcing eLearning development is the way forward for your organization. Building a strong business case means providing grounds for the initial investment, support from the decision-makers, and steps to align eLearning with your organization’s business goals.

However, making a business case for outsourcing eLearning development can be a tricky proposition—there are enough myths about outsourcing floating around that you need to break through, many objections that you need to tackle. This article offers 5 tips on how to build a good business case for outsourcing eLearning development.

1. Outfox Your Competition By Outsourcing eLearning

Global corporate organizations today are working in leaner ways to maximize their productivity and profits, and also to stay ahead of their fellow competitors and the ever-increasing corporate competition. The backbone of any organization is the workforce who work for it. To achieve a competitive edge and stay ahead of the curve, there should be no higher priority than ensuring learner success, because their success is the organization's success. In other words, the key to developing a sustainable competitive advantage is to first begin with disseminating quality training content to learners.

An organization that keeps its training relevant by developing content using the latest strategies and technology has a distinct advantage over its competition. By outsourcing eLearning development to specialized experts, corporate organizations have a chance to implement a robust and scalable learning platform for their learners. Content that has been expertly put together assists them in accomplishing job tasks easily and increases their work performance and productivity.

2. Reduce Costs Associated With Maintaining An In-house Development Team

Finding the right personnel to be part of your in-house development team and training them can be a costly and drawn out affair. This is because training never stops, and they will need to constantly update their skills and knowledge, gain certificates, and so on.

Outsourcing online learning development can be relatively more cost-effective, as organizations do not have to hire a dedicated development team to develop the content. They needn't invest in the technology and tools necessary to do the particular job. The development vendor will have their own tools (or in some cases, they will add the cost of obtaining the tools and software to your final fee).

3. Create eLearning The Right Way With Specialists

An in-house development team may lack the necessary skills to work with rapid authoring tools and expertise in instructional to design, develop high-quality online training content. eLearning vendors, on the other hand, have specialized, dedicated teams comprising Instructional Designers and authoring tools experts, who take care of every step of the development process.

You can scale up development on-demand, as the vendors specialize in using rapid authoring tools which allows them to rapidly produce high-quality modules, all while keeping the content engaging and effective. Good online learning development vendors are also fully transparent and systematized about their Project Management processes and welcome the client’s feedback at every step of the project.

4. Learners Want Relevant And Mobile Content

As companies strive to produce just-in-time learning opportunities for their modern-day learners and compete for cost-effectiveness and efficiency, outsourcing eLearning development is moving to the forefront to meet the training needs of an ever-changing corporate scenario.

To keep up with these ever-changing training challenges, vendors use the latest rapid authoring tools to tailor content that is just right for the modern learner: engaging and interactive. These learning and design experts also use advanced Instructional Design strategies to keep your eLearning up to modern standards. These strategies include:

- Mobile learning
- Responsive learning
- Scenario-based learning
- Gamification

5. Value Added Services Along With eLearning Development

A good outsourcing vendor will, along with developing high-impactful and engaging eLearning content, also offer various value-added services such as:

  • eLearning course translations to cater to a globally-spread workforce.
  • A Learning Management System (LMS), which is a software application used to plan, deliver, and publish online courses.

Your online courses could be easily hosted on an LMS, giving your learners instant and constant access to the content and learning resources. The backbone of any training is the content, and the quality of the content is critical to the success of learning and development programs.

Leading corporate companies are turning to outsource eLearning development as a vital investment to achieving the training goals that can give them measurable bottom-line results and an increased competitive advantage. Make use of these 5 tips to build a strong business case for outsourcing and to win the necessary business and financial investment from your decision-makers.