The principle advantage to be gained by undergoing the entire development process within your own organization is that you benefit most from the result of your analysis. You also build a core competency in developing and delivering learning objects.
The principle requirement for success for such a venture is buy-in from top management. There must be a commitment and a requirement to achieve a workable system in a modest time frame for a realizable cost. Successfully completing such a system results in the biggest gains in productivity and largest reduction in cost per training hour. Any large organization that has a sincere commitment to providing quality training programs, especially one that aims to increase the percentage of eLearning in their training offerings, should consider creating their own system.
Some of the main advantages and risks of developing your own content reuse system:
Advantage | Risk |
What you design is what you get. It is not necessary to wage an endless battle with a vendor over features or functionality. | You are not purchasing a proven solution. Although the technology is sound, your implementation may fail. |
The system that results will be more extensible and flexible. As the needs of your organization grow and change, your system will accommodate these changes better. | Unless you exercise restraint, your system may outgrow your needs and become a monster that consumes more resources than it returns. |
Your system is entirely within your control. Because you own all the source, you are not at the mercy of a third party. | Your organization needs to be able to provide the development infrastructure to produce a satisfactory system and then to maintain it enterprise-wide for many years. |
Once the system is in place and in use, it is less expensive to maintain (unless you change it) | You can budget expenses better with an outside contract than with an internal development project. |
Because your system is driven entirely by your own needs, you don't need to put up with evolutionary changes created for someone else's benefit, but with you must train your people to use. | When resources are scarce, you may find your development efforts are cut back precisely when you need more support. |