The Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Development Vendors

This is the era of outsourcing. Likeit or not, outsourcing is a strategic necessity to remain competitive and tocontrol costs (an increasing need). Whether you are contracting a singledevelopment project or your entire development operation, you must ensure yourdevelopment provider is up to the challenge. So what should you look for?

Riskmanagement

The commitment to outsourcing bringsrisk. If you pick the wrong partner your reputation could be in question and yourdecision could compromise the success of your company. You may not get a secondchance to get it right. How do you know if your provider aligns with yourorganization? How do you spot a mismatch beforethe relationship begins?

Learning solutions development iscomplex. To design, develop, and implement an effective learning program a developer needs to understand thebusiness objectives, the subject matter, and the audience needs. They need toknow how to get the subject matter out of the heads of the SMEs. They must knowthe review process, know how to coordinate development, know how to determinean effective instructional-design strategy, and know how to get it done on timeand on budget. And that’s just for the traditional modalities of instructionaldelivery. When it comes to mobile and social, they need to dig deeper into theprocesses and behaviors on the job, as well as the organizational dynamics ofthe company environment itself—I haven’t even touched on the technical needsthemselves.

The mobile- and social-learningmodalities are far from historic classroom and web-based training. Mobile andsocial learning engages the audience, not only with the content but also bysynchronizing with the workflow and the organizational structure itself. Doesyour current outsource provider have the savvy to implement these sophisticatedsolutions?

Unfortunately, no base metric existsthat every procurement officer could reference to choose the right provider; theyare often comparing apples with zebras. Outsourcing learning development is notlike outsourcing manufacturing or customer service, where there is a clear setof standards to draw upon and transactions to measure against. Nor is this likeoutsourcing accounting or legal tasks where there are industry-requirededucational and certification requirements.

Disaster stories

There’s nothing easy about it. It’shard for you to do, and you work inside your company. It’s harder for anoutsource provider because they do not. How do you determine which provider hasthe expertise to do it right?

One fact is clear. The success rateof outsourcing is dismal. Over the last two years, I’ve been collecting casestudies and research data to support this statement. From my personalperspective, over the last 13 years, I oversaw the outsourcing relationships ofover 50 clients and my teams completed over one-thousand custom solutions. Theclients were not lightweights. Most were in the Fortune 150 and 10 are the topcompany in their industry. Our engagements ranged from short-term $15,000projects to multi-year $5,000,000 accounts.

One persistent fact was clear; inthe vast majority of the accounts, we were replacinga former provider who had failed.

Some of these failures bordered onhistoric. For example, the pharmaceutical company that nearly missed its deadlinefor compliance with a Corporate Integrity Agreement mandate from the Office ofInspector General, Health, and Human Services, and the FDA. Or the globaltechnology leader that nearly missed the rollout date of their largest softwarerelease in history. Or the sole-source provider that had to refund one-milliondollars after the first year of the relationship. These are just a few, each causedby the failed outsourcing relationship with a learning development provider.

Why is there such a high rate offailure? More importantly, what can we do to overcome it?  

The sevenattributes of highly effective development vendors

I havewitnessed many organizations that produced excellent results, while alsowitnessing countless other organizations that have struggled. I have seenimpressive successes and massive failures many times. What makes one initiativesucceed while others fail?

I dug intomy archives, evaluated a lot of case studies, surveyed my past clients,examined the many successes and failures that I witnessed, and tried to definethe most important success factors for development outsourcing.

The attributes that make a difference

I took myobservations and constructed a framework that I call the seven attributes of highly effectivedevelopment vendors (Figure 1). These are the vendor’s attributesrequired to produce effective solutions and strong outsourcing relationships.These seven attributes compartmentalizethose characteristics that really make a difference. The attributes are,in order of importance: Experience, methodology, infrastructure, process,technology, talent, and innovation.

Figure 1:The framework for identifying the right outsourcing partner

Theseattributes focus on the key requirements that identify the right outsourcingpartner for your current needs. The goal is to identify a partner that canachieve your vision and produce a healthy business relationship where both ofyou succeed.

What is “success” in an outsourcing partnership?

When Idesigned the framework, I needed a definition of “success” that represents ahealthy outsourcing partnership. My definition: Successis the equilibrium where the client achieves their original vision andthe provider makes a profit.

When thisequation is balanced, great things happen. The product rolls out on time, thelearners are pleased with the result, we solve challenging business problemswith confidence, and the relationship continues to strengthen. When theequation is out of balance, then no one is happy. The product developmenttakes too long, the SMEs don’t commit, the learners find the coursesirrelevant, trust wavers, and we spend too much time and energy trying tosalvage the relationship.

Knowing the attributes when you see them

The goalof the seven attributes is to help you identify the strengths and weaknesses ofyour prospective partners and identify the essential areas where a misalignmentcould risk the success of your initiative. Here are the seven attributes and all the things you must check out tohelp you know them when you see them.

Experience

This meansthe experience of the provider related to your company’s needs, as well as theday-to-day working experience they will establish with your leaders,stakeholders, and SMEs. This includes their experience in your industry, yoursubject domain, the complexity of your solutions, the modalities you are using,and their proven accomplishments in these areas.

Methodology

This meansthe existence of an effective instructional-design philosophy and associatedmethodology. This includes the orientation and adoption of that philosophy andmethodology across all of their teams and their ability to apply it to a widerange of solutions (low- or high-complexity, single or mass production, onlineor classroom, mobile, social, etc.).

Infrastructure

This isthe ability to sustain a cost-effective, scalable staffing model withoutsacrificing quality. Infrastructure includes the supporting back-officebusiness processes necessary to produce an efficient development operation andits influence on the outsourcing relationship.

Process

Process isthe workflows the prospective partner uses to develop the solutions and theirconsistent application across their organization. This includes the activitiesand techniques used by the development teams, including their flexibility, teamcomposition, global integration, stakeholder and SME interactions, usertesting, etc.

Technology

Thisrefers to the tools the prospective partner uses to support their end-to-enddevelopment, including financial management, production management, deliverablereviews and testing, issues tracking, and project management, etc. It alsoincludes the prospective partner’s competence using your authoring, learningmanagement, and deployment (eLearning, mobile, social, etc.) environments.

Talent

This meansthe qualifications of the prospective partner’s staff to meet the specificneeds of your company. This includes their standard credentials, onboardingprocess, definition of roles, integration of global staff, and ongoing staffdevelopment. It also includes their ability to provide full-service consultingservices or merely staffing services.

Innovation

This meansthe prospective partner’s ability to help you adopt new techniques andtechnologies, through their in-house capability or through other partnerships.This includes their participation in the industry, their recognition as athought leader, their experimentation with innovation, and their ability toprovide their thought leaders to support your initiatives. (This is massivelyimportant with today’s emerging learning technologies.)

Theorder matters

Why are theattributes in this order? If talent is so important, then why is it sixth onthe list? Answer: Because there is a clear dependence between the attributes. Withouta strong predecessor each attribute is weakened. For example, if the vendor hasno experience in your business, then they are more likely to fail to understandyour needs—and thus nothing else matters. You could have the brightest talentin the world, but if adequate infrastructure, processes, and technology do notsupport them, then they flounder with inconsistent results and will not achievetheir potential. Innovation is great, but not if you can’t deliver the basics.And so on. These are some of the reasons why the listing is in this order.

Trustand competitive ability

These sevenattributes, in my opinion, will greatly assist the buyer’s ability to producean effective RFP (request for proposal) and identify the right partner.Applying the nuances of the seven attributes will also allow the vendor and theclient to form an alignment in a constructive relationship. I’d further suggestthat a solid study of each attribute could lead to improvement opportunitiesfor any vendor and increase their competitive ability.

What we do is very hard—there’s no questionabout it. No two projects look the same. No two clients have the same needs. Thecomplexity and sophistication of our solutions continues to advance. Identifyinga perfect partner who fits each unique need and has the capability of producinga long-term trusted relationship is aforemost challenge in any business and for any individual asked to make thischoice.