Why Outsourcing Your eLearning Development Beats Hiring In House

Companies are investing more in eLearning than ever before. Training programs that once lived in binders and classrooms now move through learning management systems, interactive modules, and mobile friendly lessons. This shift opens new opportunities but also brings new demands. Strong eLearning requires design skill, technical understanding, storytelling ability, and the capacity to work fast without sacrificing accuracy.

Organizations looking to expand their digital learning often face a major decision. Should they hire an internal team or outsource development to a specialized partner? Both paths can work, but they are far from equal. When the goal is faster delivery, higher quality, and a better return on investment, outsourcing often wins.

This article breaks down why. It looks at real business pressures, practical resource limits, the rising expectations of learners, and the fast changes happening in training technology. It also includes a detailed look at how LMS Portals supports organizations with custom SCORM course development that fits business goals and raises training outcomes.

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The Real Cost of Building an In House eLearning Team

Hiring employees seems straightforward. You open job posts, screen resumes, interview a few promising candidates, then bring in the people who seem to know the tools and methods you need. On paper this looks stable and predictable. In practice, building a strong in house eLearning team is heavy, costly, and slower than many leaders expect.

Salary and overhead add up fast

Instructional designers, multimedia producers, learning strategists, SCORM developers, and quality reviewers each require specialized skills. Hiring a single generalist rarely works. You often need a small mixed team to create content that is polished and consistent. Once hired, the organization must cover salaries, benefits, equipment, software licenses, training, and ongoing management.

You still need to fund the learning curve

Even a talented new hire needs time to adjust to your company culture, your terminology, and your workflows. If your organization has a steep learning curve or a complex product line, the acclimation period grows longer. During that time, production slows and content quality is harder to control.

Bandwidth becomes a constant problem

An internal team can only produce at the pace of its members. If you suddenly need ten new modules, a curriculum rebuild, or a tight launch schedule, you have limited options. You either stretch your staff thin or slow the project. Neither is good for business. Outsourcing avoids that bottleneck.

Talent turnover disrupts momentum

People change jobs. When a key designer or developer leaves, your production pipeline takes a hit. Replacing specialized talent is difficult because experienced eLearning professionals are in high demand. In contrast, an outsourced team protects you from this turbulence because the partner handles staffing and redundancy.

Why Outsourcing Gives You Bigger, Faster Wins

Outsourcing is not simply about handing work to someone else. It is about gaining capacity, expertise, flexibility, and speed without the weight of permanent headcount. Good eLearning partners operate like an extension of your team but arrive ready to produce from day one.

1. You gain immediate access to experts

Specialized eLearning firms employ professionals who create courses every day. They understand instructional design, learning psychology, multimedia production, accessibility requirements, SCORM standards, and best practices for engagement. You are not training them. You are leveraging experience that is already proven.

2. The quality jumps from the start

Outsourced teams follow refined processes. They use templates, QA systems, and production workflows shaped by years of trial and improvement. This gives you courses that are polished, functional, and effective without the growing pains of building those systems internally.

3. You get capacity on demand

Need ten courses this quarter and two the next? Outsourcing adapts to your schedule. You scale up and down without layoffs or delays. This level of flexibility is almost impossible with an internal team.

4. You cut overhead and protect your budget

Outsourcing turns fixed costs into variable ones. Instead of paying full time salaries, you pay only for the work you need. This is especially useful for organizations with seasonal training cycles or occasional large projects.

5. Your team can focus on strategy

Internal staff often get pulled into tasks like video editing, graphics work, or SCORM packaging. Outsourcing removes those distractions. Your team can focus on what they do best. They can drive training strategy, collaborate with departments, and oversee quality rather than struggle to handle production tasks.

6. Speed improves significantly

A mature eLearning production company has a workflow that is built to move quickly while staying accurate. They have designers, developers, editors, and testers working in parallel. This leads to faster turnaround and smoother launches.

The Demand for SCORM Ready Content

SCORM compliance remains a core requirement for companies that rely on LMS platforms for tracking and reporting. Even with the rise of xAPI and cmi5, SCORM is still the most common packaging format for corporate training. Creating SCORM ready content requires technical skill, strict formatting, and careful testing across platforms.

Many organizations struggle to do this in house because:

• SCORM development tools can be expensive and complex.

• Troubleshooting SCORM errors requires experience most internal teams do not have.

• Updates to content often require repackaging and retesting to ensure tracking continues to work.

• Mixing media, quizzes, and custom interactions increases the technical load.

This is one of the strongest reasons outsourcing has become more appealing. SCORM is reliable, but only when built with consistency and attention to detail.

Why SCORM Projects Benefit Even More From Outsourcing

Outsourcing becomes especially valuable when a company needs SCORM modules that are stable, engaging, and compatible across multiple LMS platforms.

Specialized tools and skills

SCORM development partners work with tools like Storyline, Captivate, Adapt, and specialized build systems. They know the quirks of each tool and how to optimize content for performance and tracking.

Faster debugging

SCORM errors can stall a project. Outsourced teams troubleshoot these issues daily. They can identify problems quickly and provide fixes before learners ever see the module.

Better long term maintenance

A good outsourcing partner keeps source files organized, version controlled, and easy to update. When you need changes, the partner can revise, repackage, and retest the module in less time and with less disruption.

Consistency across all modules

SCORM modules built in house often vary in quality if different staff members produce them. Outsourcing ensures consistency across branding, navigation, interactions, and reporting.

The Rising Expectation for Modern eLearning

Learners want more than simple slides with next buttons. They expect interactive content that respects their time, supports real world application, and holds their attention.

Many companies now demand:

• Short video explainers

• Gamified scenarios

• Branching conversations

• Simulations

• Mobile friendly lessons

• Strong accessibility compliance

• Clean visuals and smooth animations

This level of polish often exceeds what a small internal team can deliver without adding more staff or tools. Outsourcing solves that gap by drawing on a team of specialists who collaborate to build modern, engaging experiences.

How LMS Portals Supports Custom SCORM Course Development

LMS Portals provides a full suite of services that help organizations plan, build, and launch high quality SCORM compliant courses. For teams that want reliable production without growing their internal headcount, LMS Portals stands out as a strong partner and a practical solution.

Tailored course development

LMS Portals works closely with your subject matter experts to understand training goals, required outcomes, and the learner experience you want to deliver. From there, they build custom SCORM modules that reflect your brand, your content structure, and your preferred level of interactivity.

Smooth SCORM packaging and compatibility support

SCORM packaging is handled with precision. LMS Portals builds modules that work with your LMS, follow SCORM standards, and track learner progress correctly. This includes testing for compatibility across versions, devices, and browsers.

Fast revision cycles and lifecycle support

Training content changes. LMS Portals manages updates, refreshes, and iterations without slowing your operations. They maintain source files, manage version control, and repackage SCORM modules so that your courses stay current and accurate.

Visual design and multimedia production

LMS Portals brings design skill, storytelling experience, and a strong sense of visual clarity. This ensures your courses not only function well but also feel modern, clean, and easy to follow. The team handles video, graphics, narration, interactive components, and more.

Scalable production

Whether you need a single module or a full training library, LMS Portals can scale production quickly. You get consistent quality across all courses without pushing internal teams past their limits.

Clear communication and project management

LMS Portals operates with a structured development process that keeps projects on schedule. You receive updates, drafts, and progress reports that make collaboration simple and predictable.

When Outsourcing Makes the Most Sense

Outsourcing works best for organizations that:

• Need content fast.

• Want a polished, modern learning experience.

• Lack internal SCORM development skills.

• Face seasonal or unpredictable training demands.

• Want to protect budget and avoid unnecessary fixed costs.

• Have limited internal bandwidth and cannot expand staffing.

• Require large scale content creation or curriculum building.

• Need help converting existing content into SCORM format.

If any of these points describe your situation, outsourcing can streamline your workflow and improve your training output.

When In House Teams Still Play a Valuable Role

Outsourcing does not replace your internal staff. It supports them. Even companies that outsource most course development often maintain an internal training lead or small

L&D group to handle:

• Strategy and learning goals

• SME communication

• Internal approvals

• Content accuracy

• Cultural alignment

• High level planning

• Oversight of outsourced partners

This hybrid model allows organizations to stay aligned with business goals while letting specialists handle the technical and creative heavy lifting.

The Payoff: Faster Delivery and Better Learning

At the heart of the outsourcing advantage is value. You receive stronger courses, faster timelines, and fewer internal headaches. Learners benefit from higher quality experiences. Leaders gain better data and better performance. And the company avoids the financial strain of hiring roles that are not always needed full time.

Organizations that outsource eLearning see greater return on investment because they:

• Reduce production cost

• Improve course quality

• Shorten development time

• Maintain flexibility

• Avoid talent shortages

• Protect internal focus

• Deliver consistent learner experiences

With SCORM demands, multimedia needs, and learner expectations rising, outsourcing simply gives companies more power and stability than an internal team can offer alone.

Final Thoughts

The shift to digital learning is not slowing down. The market is competitive, learners are demanding, and organizations need training that drives real skill growth. Outsourcing eLearning development is one of the clearest ways to meet these demands without burdening internal teams or inflating long term costs.

LMS Portals strengthens this advantage by offering custom SCORM course development that is accurate, scalable, and aligned with business goals. For companies that want to move fast and keep quality high, this partnership adds the power, flexibility, and expertise needed to stay ahead.

If your training goals are ambitious and your internal capacity is limited, outsourcing is not just the better option. It is the smarter one.

About LMS Portals

At LMS Portals, we provide our clients and partners with a mobile-responsive, SaaS-based, multi-tenant learning management system that allows you to launch a dedicated training environment (a portal) for each of your unique audiences.

The system includes built-in, SCORM-compliant rapid course development software that provides a drag and drop engine to enable most anyone to build engaging courses quickly and easily. 

We also offer a complete library of ready-made courses, covering most every aspect of corporate training and employee development.

If you choose to, you can create Learning Paths to deliver courses in a logical progression and add structure to your training program.  The system also supports Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) and provides tools for social learning.

Together, these features make LMS Portals the ideal SaaS-based eLearning platform for our clients and our Reseller partners.

Contact us today to get started or visit our Partner Program pages