Tips for Successful Relationships with Learning Solutions Development Providers

Thecommitment to outsourcing bears risk. If you don’tpick the right partner, then your customers could question your reputation and competitorscould challenge the success of your company. You may not get a second chance toget it right. So how do you spot a vendor’sweaknesses? How do you know if they will align with your organization?

Earlierthis year, I wrote a book called The Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Development Vendors.As part of an extended research process, I set out todetermine what made a successful outsourcing relationship, learn what made somany such relationships fail, and how to provide guidance for future success.

Let’sstart with my basic premise: A successful outsourcing relationship is the equilibrium between when theclient is fully achieving their vision and the vendor is making a profit.Both sides of this equation areimportant to success.

Thisisn’ttricky. When the equation is balanced, great things happen. The product rollsout on time, the learners are pleased with the result, challenging businessproblems are solved with confidence, and the relationship continues tostrengthen. When the equation is out of balance, no one is happy. Productdevelopment takes too long, the SMEs don’tcommit, the learners find the courses irrelevant, trust waivers, and too muchtime and energy is spent trying to salvage the relationship.

Tips for choosing the right partner

Usingthe seven attributes as a guide, here are some key questions and considerationsto include the next time you are seeking a partner for your learning-solutionsdevelopment:

Experience

Dothey have experience in your industry? Not just their company, but the peoplethat they will assign? (Watch for the bait-and-switch.) Do they have experiencein the modality you have selected? Do they have experience with the subjectmatter you are addressing? A firm with experience developing classroom coursesfor product sales in manufacturing may not be the best choice for an onlinecourse in leadership for a pharmaceutical company.

Methodology

Dothey have one? Are they dedicated to it? Is it something that everyemployee understands or just something that the sales representative shows inthe proposal? ADDIE isn’t enough. Yourpartner needs a clear methodology that will guide all their employees. Cantheir methodology scale between small and large projects, high and lowcomplexity, and across modalities?

Infrastructure

Canthey sustain a scalable staffing model to meet your needs without sacrificingquality? Are their recruiting processes proactive or just-in-time? Do they havethorough orientation and mentoring programs and do they actually conduct them?Are they centralized or decentralized? (I personally prefer centralizedorganizations.)

Process

Dothey have refined, standard workflows, including content drafting, reviews andtesting, product development, and SME interaction? How do they organize theirteam composition and how do they integrate global resources? Are they followinga linear process or an iterative process? Do all their employees follow theirprocesses (or are they making it up as they go along)? Deming once said, “Youput good people in a bad process and the process will win every time.”

Technology

Dothey have technology to support their end-to-end processes? What do they usefor project management, resource management, workflow management, SME reviews,feedback and issues tracking, and (online) user testing? If they don’thave solid technology they are manually handling these tasks and that increasestheir project management overhead and, thus, diverts your budget that couldotherwise be invested in the actual product you need.

Talent

Whatare the qualifications of the staff, including the education and experience?How do they define assignment of roles? Do their ID’shave master’s degrees in instructional design ormerely bachelor’sdegrees unrelated to learning? This is vital. You are trusting them with yourbusiness. You need to have high expectations of the talent they are assigningyou.

Innovation

Willthey be able to provide leadership in the adoption of new techniques andtechnologies? Are they actively involved in the industry? Do they have provensuccess with adoption of new techniques? Do they have the resources toexperiment with innovative techniques, make mistakes, learn, and refine theirability before introducing you to the ideas?

About pricing

Now comes the hard part: pricing. Here are three tips togetting the pricing right.

First, determine your best partner based on the seven attributes, then negotiate. Do not select your partner based onprice. Your best candidate initially might be higher priced, but there may besome really good reasons. The candidates want your business. They will haggle.

Second, communicate your budget parameters early in the selection process. Give your candidates a fairchance to propose a practical solution. Withholding the budget information willalmost always result in proposals outside your means and/or unintentionallyeliminate the candidate who was the best choice.

Third, make sure the candidates understand your definitionof course complexity, typically categorized as low, medium, high, and that youunderstand theirs. There are dozens of ways to define these categories, so youmust ensure that you have a common expectation aboutthe final product.

Use the framework!

Ihave been fortunate to be involved with so many successful outsourcinginitiatives. I’ve also been witness to a large numberof failures. From both sides, I’ve defined the sevenattributes framework. I hope this advice will improve your odds of a successfuloutsourcing relationship.

References

West, William. Seven Attributes of Highly Effective Development Vendors: Secrets toEstablishing a Successful Client/Vendor Relationship. Quantum7 Publishing,2014.

Note from the Editor: Meet the author!

William West will be attending The eLearning Guild’sDevLearn Conference & Expo 2014 in Las Vegas, October 29 – 31! Come by theQuantum7 booth in the Expo, or look for him around the conference!