3 Clear Benefits Of Outsourcing Your Company’s eLearning Development
A company’s eLearning Development isn’t static, it’s an ongoing, constantly evolving process – DEVELOPING as the company evolves – or at least that’s the way it should be! In an earlier post, we talked about The Importance of Custom eLearning Development and its obvious advantages over standard, pre-packaged eLearning courses.
We recommended creating customized eLearning courses that start with the learners (employees) and the organization’s objectives in mind. Information should be presented in a logical way that engages the learners and allows them to retain more. Training courses should be dynamic in order to maintain their relevancy, by allowing for changes as the organization changes.
So Why Outsource Your eLearning Development?
At the end of the day, most organizations’ primary goal is to turn a profit for their investors and shareholders. In other words – make more money! The simplest accounting formula to explain it is: Revenue – Expenses = Profits
With this in mind, an organization should try to maximize revenue while minimizing their expenses to generate more profits.
1. Dedicated Resources & Expertise – The Opportunity Cost of eLearning Development
Creating a great eLearning solution can cost your organization considerable TIME, MONEY and RESOURCES – three things that are usually very limited and valuable for every company. eLearning Development companies are built around teams of diverse individuals who specialize in creating and continuously improving digital training programs. They are dedicated to keeping up with best-in-class practices, changing technologies, and creating the best training materials for their clients.
By leaving the creation of your training programs to these agencies, your company can focus on its core business and let the expert training developers do what they do best.
Think of a specialized service that we all need at some point in our lives. Let’s say – general checkups at the family doctor. On one hand, you could spend the time, money, and effort to attend medical school to qualify yourself as doctor, avoiding paying expensive doctor’s fees.
However, do remember that when you head off to med school, you will still have your full time job and bills to pay.
On the other hand, you can pay the doctor for his already acquired qualification and years of training. In the end, you will save years of time and thousands of dollars by paying the doctor his fee. By so doing, you can continue focusing on your career and getting better at whatever it is that you do. This is one of the fundamental justifications for outsourcing your training to an eLearning Development company – Opportunity Cost!
2. Cost Savings From Economies of Scale
Anyone who went to business school probably came across this term in one of their first microeconomics classes. Economies of Scale refers to the cost advantages that an organization gains due to its size, output, and scale of operation. Usually by scaling up, the organization begins to save money in costs because they can spread their fixed costs over more units or output.
This is the case when teaming up with an eLearning development agency. The agency already has a dedicated full time team and realizes cost savings from using its team to create eLearning materials for multiple clients – including your company.
Since the agency spreads its costs over several clients, they can offer their service to your organization for considerably less that you could do it on your own. You will pay their fee for developing your eLearning program but avoid the huge financial and resource investment they made to create a specialized business.
3) Failing Their Way to Success
We’ve all heard the adage – ‘Practice makes perfect’.
In most things there is a learning curve, whether it’s playing a sport, learning a musical instrument, creating art, or developing eLearning solutions. With practice and time, they all improve.
Established eLearning development companies have tried and tested numerous training solutions with several clients in a variety of industries. Some of these solutions have failed, under performed, or exceeded expectations. They know what works and what doesn’t. This experience is something that should not be overlooked.
By teaming up with an established eLearning company, your organization benefits from a refined service and avoids making the costly errors that they might have made with other clients in the past.
Although outsourcing your eLearning development will give your company access to more resources, a dedicated team of experts at your disposal, and the opportunity to save money, you will still need to ensure that you have an internal team that works with the agency. After all, no one knows your business like you do, so your company will have to be actively engaged with the agency to provide guidance.