eLearning procurement – Is there a different way?

We recently ran an open poll across LinkedIn, inviting L&D professionals for their views on eLearning procurement. We wanted to question whether the current structure of clients working with their agencies on a project-by-project basis was the optimal setup. The findings point to an appetite for new ways of working.

Most clients polled are working across multiple projects at any one time and 67% are not happy with the timescales, most projects simply take too long to implement. From our experience, this can be anything from the time lost associated with budget approval, internal approval cycles, sign-offs and the time lost on negotiation and administering the payment process.

In some cases, the piece of learning has become less relevant as it’s now 3-4 months later and during that time the message has changed, particularly true in periods of disruption like a pandemic. Over the last year, in particular, budget allocation is becoming a more difficult and drawn-out process.

83% of those surveyed said they would like to work more collaboratively with their external learning agencies. Being truly collaborative means much more than familiarity with the brand, it’s about creating a strong team dynamic that allows everyone to get under the skin of the subject matter and find innovative ways to deliver on learning objectives.

It also means having open access to expertise and guidance; being able to bounce ideas with experts outside of your immediate team, who have years of experience in creating great digital learning. Could it be that procuring agency work on a project-by-project basis is a barrier to this? Does it put more emphasis on the contract, pricing, terms, and the administration, than it does on finding the best possible learning solution?

 To fix this, we propose a new way of procuring elearning that offers budget flexibility through manageable monthly subscription payments, meaning getting to market quicker with less time wasted.

This approach would deliver on what organisations need most, more support in the initial set up phase of a project. Our snapshot poll, which you can read below, indicates that clients rate access to their agencies’ expertise and guidance as highly valuable, with project discovery, learning design, and developer resources coming out on top.

We asked organisations specifically if they would prefer a relationship with their agency on a subscription model. Whilst this would disrupt many years of traditional procurement, half of those surveyed said they would be interested, saying it would give them more freedom to do their job properly.

Fenturi is in discussions with several clients about this new, innovative way of working together. Do get in touch if you would like to know more. You can call us on  0117 440 1000 or email us at  hello@fenturi.com