The document discusses key factors for successful outsourcing relationships: experience, methodology, infrastructure, process, technology, talent, and innovation. It emphasizes that vendors must have experience relevant to the client's industry and complexity, a consistent instructional design methodology, scalable infrastructure, well-defined processes including for collaborating with subject matter experts, technology to support the work, qualified talent, and an ability to drive innovation. Selecting vendors based on these attributes and operationalizing the relationship accordingly can help align expectations and produce successful outsourcing outcomes.

1. Secrets to Outsourcing:
Writing effective RFP’s and proposals
Crafted by William V. West
@williamvwest
Copyright 2012

2. Let’s all agree to this!
Our world is moving fast.
We need a team to succeed.

3. 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

4. Without a good team…you may be this

5. Or this…

6. 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

7. The State of the Industry

8. 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
$101 million to $250 million
$51 million to $100 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,

9. 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
9
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

10. 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%
10
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

11. 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…
11
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

12. 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.
12
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

13. 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
13
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

14. 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…
14
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

15. 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%
15
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

16. 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
16
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

17. 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
17
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

18. 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.
18
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

19. 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.
19
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

20. 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
20
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

21. 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.
21
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

22. The Proposal Process

23. 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.
23
©2014 Brandon Hall Group,

24. 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

25. SEVEN ATTRIBUTES
Need a framework for successful outsourcing
Seven Attributes Framework
Aligning the Client/Vendor :
Selection << AND >> Operationalization

26. 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.

27. 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).

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. What was that again? Miss any?

34. EXPERIENCE
What constitutes a complex environment?
What produces a successful
customer experience?

35. 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

36. 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?

37. 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?

38. EXPERIENCE
Trust
How do they partner with SME’s?
Who is their Account Manager? Qualified?
Have they ever been fired?

39. METHODOLOGY
What is an instructional design methodology?
What are the key components?
How do you implement?

40. 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

41. 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?

42. 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?

43. 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

44. INFRASTRUCTURE
Not an obvious quality to assess
Fundamental to painless business
Ensures solid leadership
Limits/supports scalability

45. INFRASTRUCTURE
STAFFING
Sustainable staffing model
Scalability
Utilization and bench strength
Proactive or JIT
Are they available now?

46. INFRASTRUCTURE
QUALIFICATIONS
Strength of management
Tenure of employment
Involvement in your account

47. INFRASTRUCTURE
PROCESSES
SOW and administrative
Invoicing and payment needs
Commission structure and dedication

48. PROCESS
Diagram your process
Break it down into phases,
key activities, SME relations,
and deliverables

49. PROCESS
Why is process important?
Why not allow each ID to use their best practice?
Why isn’t one process good enough?

50. PROCESS
Why are my SME’s frustrated?

51. 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?

52. 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?

53. PROCESS
And, what’s the biggest challenge of all:
How do they adapt to constants change
And shifting timelines?

54. TECHNOLOGY
Where is technology needed most?
How does technology influence the
process, price, experience?

55. 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?)

56. TALENT
Why isn’t talent first?
Note the roles you currently use?
How do the work together?
What challenges them?

57. 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

58. 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?

59. TALENT
What are the roles?
What skills do you require of each role?

60. TALENT
The keys
Do the staff have the foundational knowledge?
Do they have experience in your environment?
Do they develop or manage/deliver training?

61. TALENT
Onboarding and mentoring to develop new staff,
And transfer skills across staff.
Centralization vs. decentralization
The increased demand for orientation and mentoring

62. INNOVATION
What are the innovations
you’ve implemented
What excites/scares you
most now?

63. INNOVATION
You need a long-term partner
Our world is changing quickly
Experimentation is the key to success

64. 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?

65. INNOVATION
You should demand
reputable thought-leaders
Industry involvement
Do they publish and present?

66. INNOVATION
What is their process for experimenting
and failing?
Can they help adopt new ideas?
Can they partner?

67. Bon Voyage!

68. Secrets to Outsourcing
Bill West
Twitter and LinkedIn @williamvwest
812-360-2077