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Buy vs Build - Donald Taylor

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www.opensesame.com BUY OR BUILD? SEVEN KEY QUESTIONS The traditional approach to deciding whether to buy or build learning materials was based largely on initial cost. Today, however, the decision is more complex. On the one hand, producing modern training materials in-house has become increasingly complex and expensive. On the other, the web provides access to a wider-range of good value materials than ever. When deciding whether to buy or build, therefore, consider the learning content pyramid and associated table above, using these seven key questions as a guide: 1. Is the issue best solved with learning materials? If not, tackle the actual root causes of the issue. 2. Is the content part of a high-profile, long-term program? Commission the content externally. 3. Is this a low-risk issue where production values are unimportant? Provide access to it from the internet. 4. Is this issue best tackled with quality content aligned to job roles? Use Curated Content Sets. 5. Can the issue be tackled with self-service, 'good enough' content? Buy generic content from a catalogue. 6. Is the issue in the 'gray zone': a mixture of company-specific and generic information? Establish the component parts, and the total cost of ownership of each, then create company-specific content internally, and buy in the rest. 7. Does the issue only involve content unique to the business? Create the content internally. Sometimes creating content internally is the right thing to do, but the cost in terms of time, effort and opportunity cost is so large that it should always be the last option that the L&D department turns to. 5 10

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