Outsourcing training content development has emerged as one of the best ways to quickly obtain quality training material at a sensible cost. Apart from quick turnaround times, outsourcing content development provides you with access to world-class instructional design talent and subject matter expertise.
Not to forget, it also helps businesses control the cost of the development process while drastically reducing the risk involved.
On one hand, thanks to these benefits, more and more businesses are realising the potential of outsourcing their training content needs. On the other, thanks to a growing market, new players are entering the content development landscape.
As a result, there is an abundance of options in the market which can easily confuse anyone.
This is especially true when one realises the potentially serious repercussions of choosing the wrong elearning content provider.
To help you avoid doing that, here's the step by step process to ensure you choose the best elearning company for your needs:
Understand Your Objective
The first step of the process, understanding your objective is also the most important step. There must be a reason for you to choose to outsource the development of your training content.
If, for instance, your objective is to gain access to expertise you don't have available on your team, you may need to look for niche specific content providers. Similarly, if your objective behind outsourcing is quick delivery, you may want to look for a content provider that has a team big enough to meet your deadlines.
Carefully executing this step will push you in the right direction for the rest of the selection process.
Determine A Budget
For any business decision, the budget is one of the most influential factors. In this case, your available budget will help you trim the list of potential outsourcing partners.
Those that fall above or below your budget window will be eliminated.
However, while deciding your budget, keep in mind that it will have a direct impact on quality of the end product and set your expectations accordingly.
Look For Prospective Vendors In Online Directories
Once you are clear about your objectives and have determined your budget, it is time to search for potential outsourcing partners. While you can simply start with a Google search, it is better to look for niche specific directories.
Such directories help you quickly get an overview of all the best players in the industry and offer in-depth comparisons of features that have the biggest impact on the finished product.
Analyse Their Online Reputation
By this step, you must have a list of prospects you want to work with. Now, it is time to start refining your list.
The simplest way to do this is to start by checking out the online reputation of all the prospects on your list.
Don't just limit your research to the reviews on their websites. Dive deep and look for unbiased reviews on niche directories, search engines, and social media platforms.
Also pay attention to the amount of experience they possess. If this is your first time outsourcing, it is best to stay away from inexperienced companies.
Ask For Samples
After you have filtered out the options that have poor online reputation, it is time to establish contact with the rest of prospects on your list.
In this step, you will be asking them for samples of their work.
Keep in mind that many content providers offer whitelabel content authoring services and are bound by non-disclosure agreements.
With that said, any content provider worth their salt will still have at least a few examples of their work to share with a prospective client (you).
Assign A Pilot Project
Finally, after you have looked at a few samples and narrowed down to a final few candidates on your list, it is time to contact them to discuss a pilot project.
This doesn't have to be a deliverable that will take them several days or even hours to develop. Give them a simple task that they can execute and deliver within a short frame of time.
This step will not only help you analyse the quality of the content you will receive when you work with them, but it will also help you understand how seriously they take deadlines and how flexible they are when it comes to accommodating client requests.
