Myths About E-Learning Outsourcing

Get it done cheaper: If you are looking for a cheap solution, be ready to sacrifice quality. If a cheap solution is really what you want, get a bunch of summer trainees to do the job. DO NOT expect a vendor to deliver what your team of experts delivers, at one-tenth the cost. Or, the next best solution—outsource to Uganda or Mogadishu, at least the conversion rate will make more sense.

Get it done quicker: If you think you are crunched for time and you want to outsource, chances are your project will be screwed. Outsourcing needs planning. More planning because there are two sets of plans—one at your level and another plan at the outsourcer's level. If you are crunched for time, you will not have time to transfer information, plan reviews, and monitor quality. Outsourcing works if you are crunched for resource, but not when you are crunched for time.

Provide selective information: Transparency works! Your vendors need to see the big picture to appreciate the constraints or put in extra effort for you. When you plan your timelines and review cycles, plan in tandem. Push vendors to take up anything that you don’t want to: This does not work. If you don’t want to do something, yet want a share of the pie, you have bought yourself a ticket to the heart of one unhappy customer! Your vendors are not your bunch of slaves, nor are they your second rung employees. Treat them like partners and both will benefit mutually.

Flexible payment time: Be prompt with your payments. Nothing worsens a relationship more than misunderstandings about money. If you are getting paid for the project that you are doing, respect the fact that your vendor is doing the same work for a payment. So, make you payments on time and as promised.

Save project management costs: Not really! You need to invest time into building a relationship. Set up a system of communication protocol between your team and the vendor's team. If your client is no where in the picture, it is all the more important to ensure that there is clear and transparent communication in terms of standards, requirements, and deadlines.

Remember that it is not a robot that you have outsourced your work to; it is a team of human beings that are alive and performing. Treat them as you would treat your partners. They are the ones who are helping you deliver.