 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
||||||||
|
 |
|
Executive Summary Benefits and Challenges Today, a growing number of organizations recognize that few—if any—of their training activities fall within their core set of activities or competencies. As a result, the past several years have seen a noticeable increase in the number of companies procuring outsourced services to satisfy their learning and training needs. For some companies, outsourcing is an easy way to make training (an often ill-defined and murky business process) go away; for others, it is an opportunity to raise the overall quality of learning and training, as well as to ensure the strategic relevance of these activities to core business objectives. The promised benefits of learning outsourcing (LO) are indeed appealing. However, to achieve these benefits and reach the tipping point that some players believe is just around the corner, vendors and clients alike need to grapple with a number of challenging issues and business realities, which we address in this report. The report provides background, analysis, and practical advice from industry leaders and consultants who have been in the trenches of learning outsourcing. This report is a must-read for:
LO promises to:
LO Evolution and Elements of Successful LO General outsourcing has been a thriving business for many years, often involving large and long-term projects. But the primary technological focus of early LO projects was learning administration. Today, technology plays a much greater enabling—and potentially transforming—role. People with whom we talked during our research said that the emerging LO industry needs to digest the lessons of the past in business-process redesign (BPR) and in the outsourcing of manufacturing, information-technology (IT), finance, and HR activities. Contrary to most people's belief, LO is not new: Some 50 to 75 projects of various sizes have taken place in the past 10 to 15 years. We are now in the third wave of learning outsourcing, with a rapid increase in the number of LO deals and a rise in the number of larger vendors entering the market. Most large players see opportunities to leverage technology to deliver learning and training more cost-effectively (as well as many other benefits). A look at the successes of the first and second waves of LO points to the following challenges and opportunities for LO vendors in the third wave:
The Supplier Landscape One can segment LO suppliers in several ways. This section of the report describes two complementary segmentation approaches that provide different perspectives on the competitive landscape:
The Future of LO A common set of forces drives both the demand and the supply sides of LO and will significantly influence the final shape of the LO growth curve. This section presents a demand-supply model to help analysts project and track industry growth as supply and demand factors change. In this section, we also indicate what type of growth curve is most likely to occur. The section explores the likely level of LO adoption in the corporate sector (and in specific industries) in the next two to three years, as well as in small to midsize businesses (SMBs), schools and higher education, and government. We discuss the specific factors likely to influence adoption in each of these sectors and examine international trends and differences in learning outsourcing. In general, industries and sectors that have past (and positive) experience with outsourcing, have an in-depth understanding of learning and training, and consider these activities to be critical to business objectives will see the highest growth in the next two to three years. Recommendations and Action Steps LO success strategies are emerging from industry leaders who have been in the trenches. In the early stages of LO planning, companies are wise to create corporate learning profiles to identify and understand the costs of their current training operations, map the distribution of these training operations, and assess the degree to which learning and training staff support performance and business outcomes. Despite uncertainties about future LO growth and opportunities, LO is likely to follow a path similar to that of other forms of outsourcing—although perhaps not with an identical adoption curve. As a result, executives and managers in HR and training need to prepare for and educate themselves about LO so that they can make good decisions when the time comes to consider LO seriously. This section defines specific action steps that chief learning officers (CLOs), vice presidents of HR, and other executives who will likely have to take the lead in preparing for LO can take to prepare for LO. It also presents solid advice from two leading LO suppliers for both users and suppliers of LO services. The report concludes with some focused advice and gentle warnings to LO vendors about factors they need to be aware of to be successful. Table of Contents
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Download the Executive Summary |
|
||||||||||||
(Korean Inquiries)
(Japanese site)