secrets to outsourcing

Secrets to Outsourcing: Writing effective RFP’s and proposals

Crafted by William V. West @williamvwest Copyright 2012

Let’s all agree to this!

Our world is moving fast. We need a team to succeed.

There are hundreds of providers.

There are many variables.

The seas are high and the waves are rough.

Without the right team, it could be a disaster.

The grand challenge for Outsourcing

Without a good team…you may be this

Or this…

How to express your value, strengths, and how you would meet the needs.

Understanding the RFP process and the define your own perspective.

(The influence of Procurement.)

Our Objective

The State of the Industry

Greater than $10 billion

$5.1 billion to $10 billion

$1.1 billion to $5 billion

$501 million to $1 billion

$251 million to $500 million



Less than $50 million

More than 250,000

100,000-250,000

50,000-100,000

10,000-50,000

5,000-10,000

1,000-5,000

Company Revenue Company Employees

Gobal

Domestic

Most

Only Half

Less Than Half

I Don't Know

Located Achieving KPI’s

8 ©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

Inc.

What is Being Outsourced?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Other

Project management

Facilitation

Programming and integration

Instructional design

Content writing

Media development


Inc.

How Much Content is Outsourced?

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

100%

75%-99%

51% -75%

20%-50%

11%-20%

6%-10%

1%-5%

0%


Inc.

99%-100%

75%-99%

51% -75%

20%-50%

11%-20%

06%-10%

99%-100%

75%-99%

51% -75%

20%-50%

11%-20%

06%-10%

2014 Outsourced 2015 Outsourcing

Good new to vendors 25% plan to Increase their outsourcing

21% plan to outsource

more than 50% of all content development

Of those companies outsourcing…


Inc.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Reduce costs

Lack of in-house capabilities

Lack of in-house SME

Staffing capacity

Faster development times

Access to innovation

Over 50%

Of All

Key Drivers to Outsource Overall: Outsource to supplement capacity and capability of current staff.

For those outsourcing 50% or more: Increase capacity and speed for high volumes; plus tap innovation.

Note: Cost is 5th for all populations. Apparently not the driving force.


Inc.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Quality

Timeliness

Productivity

Capacity

Innovation

Cost

Value

Overall

Overall

> 50%

20% - 50%

Overall Satisfaction: 39%

Satisfaction with Quality: 44%; However only 5% ranked Quality as “Extremely Satisfied”

Those outsourcing 50% or more: Overall Satisfaction = 50%

Those outsourcing 50% or more: Satisfaction with Quality: 52%; However only 3% ranked Quality as “Extremely Satisfied”

It gets worse… Those outsourcing 20%-50%: Overall Satisfaction = 26%

No One was “Extremely Satisfied”

Note to Vendors:

Ain’t Nobody

Happy…

Overall population: No score was over 50%!!!

Satisfaction with Outsourcing


Inc.

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Project management

Instructional design

SME relations

Test, Review, Approvals

Media

LMS integration

Needs analysis

Highly Satisfied Challenges All

What are the top challenges of content development Both in-house and outsourcing

What do the Highly Satisfied Know That We Don’t

Overall Highly Satisfied

Ok, we all agree. So what do we look for in a vendor? We’ll come back to this question…


Inc.

How many vendors have been replaced in the last three years?

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

None 1% - 10% 10% - 25% 25% - 50% 50% - 75% More than 75%


Inc.

75-100

50-75

25-50

10-25

1-10

None

75-100

50-75

25-50

10-25

1-10

None

The bad news

In the past three years, 63% of all companies have replaced their vendor

Of those outsourcing 50% or more, over 76% have replaced their vendor

17% replaced more than 25% of their vendors

Overall Outsourcing 50%+ %Vendors Replaced %Vendors Replaced

32% replaced more than 25% of their vendors


Inc.

What’s the Problem?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Poor cultural fit

Lack of experience with our business

Inability to staff/scale to our needs

Inexperienced staff

Cost/cost overruns

Delivery delays/inability to meet deadlines

Poor communication/difficult to work with

Quality and effectiveness issues


Inc.

Why are the vendors being replaced?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

Poor cultural fit

Lack of experience with our business

Inability to staff/scale to our needs

Inexperienced staff

Cost/cost overruns

Delivery delays/inability to meet deadlines

Poor communication/difficult to work with

Quality and effectiveness issues

Of All Over 50%

A Clear Leader

Close behind

And it costs you!

For those outsourcing more than 50%, the issues are magnified across all categories.

So, let’s remember this when we get to the selection criteria. Quality and communications are the big issues, followed by the inability to get the work done on-time and on budget.


Inc.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Quality

Cost

Trust

Personnel

Instructional design expertise

Industry expertise

Timeliness

Flexibility

Of all Over 50%

What factors influence a successful outsourcing relationship?

So, we all agree to what’s important.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Quality Cost

Trust Personnel

Instructional design expertise Industry expertise

Timeliness Flexibility

Highly Satisfied Impact Overall

Likewise for the Highly Satisfied group.

The scores are nearly identical.


Inc.

What are we doing wrong?

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Qualifications of the staff

Ability to support Innovation

Maturity of development processes

Technology to support the relationship and processes

Mature ID methodology

Experience with our business/industry

Relationship with account leaders

Ability to scale without losing quality

Highly Satisfied Selection Overall

Remember the top two issues? Quality and communications. So, where are the contributors? Last!

Though it is all relative. Keep in mind that only 39% were satisfied overall.

And the factors to getting the work done efficiently?

Aren’t the staff important? Yes, but only if they have the infrastructure to succeed.

It starts with the Selection Process


Inc.

Summary ò  We all agree that quality and communications are the key to success.

ò  We all agree that delivery delays and cost overruns reduce the value.

ò  We agree that

ò  instructional design,

ò  testing/review/approvals,

ò  SME relations, and

ò  project management

are our biggest challenges; internally and externally.


Inc.

The Proposal Process

Keys to Success? 1.  An account manager who understands the business, effectively leads,

and produces a consistent customer experience.

2.  Well conceived and tested ID methodology for consistent quality and effectiveness; for all modalities, complexities, and volumes.

3.  An infrastructure to respond to your needs without sacrificing quality

4.  A refined development process for efficient, on time, every time; in addition to facilitating an effective relationship with SME’s

5.  Supporting technology to facilitate development and collaboration, reduce overhead (and eliminate spreadsheets)

6.  Yes, talented staff, supported by a healthy framework that enables them to thrive, reach their potential, and achieve your vision.

7.  Then, innovation! It’s very exciting, but only if you can achieve the basics without pain.


Inc.

There’s a wide variance in service providers Use of Dialog/Terminology

Individual Strengths

You must find common ground that meets what the other side thinks is important

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES

Need a framework for successful outsourcing

Seven Attributes Framework

Aligning the Client/Vendor :

Selection << AND >> Operationalization

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Experience: The experience of the vendor related to the client’s needs—the company and the actual people that they will assign, the quality of their past work, and the model for the day-to-day working relationship that will produce an effective outsourcing experience.

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Methodology: The vendor’s ownership of and dedication to an effective instructional design philosophy and methodology and their ability to apply it to a wide range of solutions types (low-level, high-level, one-off ’s, mass production, and all the latest modalities).

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Infrastructure: The vendor’s ability to sustain a scalable staffing model without sacrificing quality, their hiring and orientation processes, structure of the organization (centralized or decentralized), and the supporting operating structure.

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Process: The workflows used to develop the training, including content drafting, reviews and testing, product development, SME interaction, the maturity and flexibility of their processes, team composition, and global integration.

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Technology: The tools used to support the end-to-end development, including project management, resource management, reviews and testing, issues tracking, and workflow management, as well as experience with the client’s tools.

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Talent: The qualifications of the staff, including the education and experience, on-boarding and development programs, definition and assignment of roles, location, and on-going staff development.

SEVEN ATTRIBUTES Innovation: The vendor’s ability to provide leadership in the adoption of new techniques and technologies, their involvement in the industry, proven success with adoption, and capability for experimentation.

What was that again? Miss any?

EXPERIENCE

What constitutes a complex environment?

What produces a successful customer experience?

EXPERIENCE Why is Experience important?

What we do is complex

You are unique

Your situation is unique

You need someone you can trust

You want a successful experience

EXPERIENCE Company

Is there synergy between companies?

Why do they want your business?

Do they have subject matter experience?

Do they have industry experience?

Have they been in your circumstance?

EXPERIENCE Solution

Can they handle your business complexity?

Can they handle your solution complexity?

(Remember the pricing sheet?)

Have you seen their quality, affordable examples?

EXPERIENCE

Trust

How do they partner with SME’s?

Who is their Account Manager? Qualified?

Have they ever been fired?

Do you need just one or would a combination work better?

METHODOLOGY What is an instructional design methodology?

What are the key components?

How do you implement?

METHODOLOGY Why is Methodology important?

There’s a big difference between accuracy and effectiveness

Consistency across all teams and projects is vital

Evolution of adult learning isn’t trivial

Scalability mandates a common foundation

METHODOLOGY COMPANY

Do they have one?

Is it just a name and a graphic?

Do they teach all their staff how to apply it?

Do they monitor its adherence?

METHODOLOGY SOLUTION

Does it address the pedagogy or just the process?

Do they have templates for all deliverables?

Is it effective for single projects as well as mass development?

Is it effective for all modalities?

Is it effective for low, medium, high complexity?

INFRASTRUCTURE

What is the most complex/frustrating

aspect of a customer/vendor relation?

What are the largest barriers to scaling:

Growing or implementing something large

INFRASTRUCTURE

Not an obvious quality to assess

Fundamental to painless business

Ensures solid leadership

Limits/supports scalability

INFRASTRUCTURE STAFFING

Sustainable staffing model

Scalability

Utilization and bench strength

Proactive or JIT

Are they available now?

INFRASTRUCTURE

QUALIFICATIONS

Strength of management

Tenure of employment

Involvement in your account

INFRASTRUCTURE PROCESSES

SOW and administrative

Invoicing and payment needs

Commission structure and dedication

PROCESS

Diagram your process

Break it down into phases,

key activities, SME relations,

and deliverables

PROCESS

Why is process important?

Why not allow each ID to use their best practice? Why isn’t one process good enough?

PROCESS

Why are my SME’s frustrated?

PROCESS

What to look for:

Do they have a process? Do they follow it?

Is their process linear, water fall, or is it iterative?

What is the transactional cost of handoffs among members?

PROCESS

Is their process online or on paper?

How is their draft/review process conducted? How do they conduct alpha/beta tests? (Do they?)

Are they SME friendly:

How do they conduct the relationship with SME’s?

PROCESS

And, what’s the biggest challenge of all:

How do they adapt to constants change And shifting timelines?

TECHNOLOGY

Where is technology needed most?

How does technology influence the

process, price, experience?

TECHNOLOGY Do they have workflow technology?

What tools are used for management?

What about online course testing?

What about content reviews?

Do they know your tools?

(How many spreadsheets are they using?)

TALENT

Why isn’t talent first?

Note the roles you currently use?

How do the work together?

What challenges them?

TALENT

They/you could have the best talent in the world

(we often think so)

If they are not supported well, then

they will not achieve their potential

TALENT What are their academic qualifications?

What is their client experience?

How do they on-board and coach?

Are they centralized?

Are they team-based or all-in-one?

Are they a staffing or consulting company?

TALENT

What are the roles?

What skills do you require of each role?

TALENT

The keys

Do the staff have the foundational knowledge?

Do they have experience in your environment?

Do they develop or manage/deliver training?

TALENT

Onboarding and mentoring to develop new staff,

And transfer skills across staff.

Centralization vs. decentralization

The increased demand for orientation and mentoring

INNOVATION

What are the innovations

you’ve implemented

What excites/scares you

most now?

INNOVATION

You need a long-term partner

Our world is changing quickly

Experimentation is the key to success

INNOVATION Are they reputable thought-leaders?

Are they involved in the industry?

Do they experiment (and fail)?

Do they publish and present?

Can they help adopt new ideas?

INNOVATION You should demand

reputable thought-leaders

Industry involvement

Do they publish and present?

INNOVATION

What is their process for experimenting

and failing?

Can they help adopt new ideas?

Can they partner?

Bon Voyage!

Secrets to Outsourcing

Bill West Twitter and LinkedIn @williamvwest

812-360-2077

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