Outsourcing & Insourcing

Lou Bonaiuto was another speaker at the 2008 Day of Learning. He provided a nice recap of the major issues that come in to play when an organization makes the commitment to outsource a service or to insource a service.

Given the colorful backdrop of the move Lou led to help one of our ‘local’ banks outsource their learning. Then in a few years he was asked to bring learning back in house. Lou is clearly an expert in the challenges either change can bring.

Lou pointed out that outsourcing the learning function in general has met with mixed results. In my mind this may in part be due to the need for organizations to ‘own’ their learning/change/growth. You can’t ask a consultant to prioritize you day. Yet they can help you implement and work through the challenges you choose to address.Cost, capacity, unique skill sets, politics and culture are all reasons to do either outsource or insource.

Some of the insight I found most valuable from Lou’s remarks included the philosophical considerations of service level expectations, balance of control, and ownership of the assets and intellectual capital. Another lesson from his experience is to plan on insourcing when you plan to outsource. In other words hope for the best but give some consideration to how you would make changes if the partnerships don’t work as well as everyone would like.View Lou’s presentation on line at the LearningWiki.