Chief Learning Officer - September 2007 - (Page 56)

business intelligence Learning Outsourcing Market Overview Susan Lee Companies that seek to become high-performing organizations or achieve the agility required to remain competitive require well-aligned and highly effective learning programs that improve speed to proficiency, increase organizational efficiency and assist in the rapid transfer of knowledge and skills across the enterprise. A company can develop this learning efficiency organically over time, or it can outsource the learning function to an expert and achieve this efficiency more quickly. Advantages of learning outsourcing include focus on organizational core competencies, reduction in overall learning costs and access to content development, technology and delivery expertise. But learning outsourcing is not without its challenges, which include potential for loss of intellectual property, wrong cultural fit and confusion over who provides what. Every other month, IDC surveys Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board (BIB) on a variety of topics to measure the attitudes, issues and interests of senior training executives. This article looks at learning outsourcing and address questions such as: What is the definition of outsourcing? Who are the decision makers to outsource? Why do companies outsource? How do companies choose a learning outsource provider? How widespread is learning outsourcing? What is the nature of learning outsourcing engagements? What is the learning audience? How satisfied are buyers with their outsourcing provider? How likely are companies to outsource in the future? Why do some companies choose not to outsource? Learning Outsourcing Definition There continues to be a diverse understanding of the term “learning outsourcing.” IDC defines it as the ongoing transfer of the management and execution of one or more complete learning processes to an external services provider, with the key word being “management” — by IDC’s definition, true outsourcing engagements are ones in which the vendor is responsible for not only the execution but the management of that function. For example, a buyer who makes a short- or long-term commitment to a content development vendor but retains management of that activity has not outsourced the content development function, nor is the vendor that provides these services, by definition, an outsourcing provider. Some buyers, however, equate the procurement of learning services from a third-party vendor as outsourcing. As such, when BIB participants were asked to provide names of two companies they thought of when they heard the term “training outsourcing provider,” the list contained a significant number of companies that do not specifically market themselves September 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 56 http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Strategies Selling up, Selling Down Take Five Imperatives Guest Editorial Learning Solutions Embarking on a Learning Journey Clo Profile Environment CIGNA Service Operations: Making Strategic Change Happen, and Making It Stick Tactics Black & Decker: On-Demand Learning Creation and Consumption Productivity The Army You Have Human Capital Holiday Inn Express: Delivering Critical Training Globally Case Study: Tegan Jones Business Intelligence Case Study: Lisa Rummler Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

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