Introduction
With more and more organizations the world over waking up to the e-leaning trend, the breed of e-learning champions is dying a slow death. The scenario has changed considerably over the years, with earlier, managers asking ‘is e-learning right for the organization’, to now, implementers finding an answer to ‘what solution is best for the organization’.

Choices available
There are a few options as far as the implementation of an e-learning solution is concerned. You could invest in a readymade product purchased off the shelf, or purchase a readymade product to make some modifications to it, or entirely build a solution from scratch. Developing the solution in-house can be either done by your own team or be outsourced to a third party.

Buying and developing defined
Purchasing represents buying mass produced products that are available off the shelf. Usually the plug and play type, these products can be implemented in any environment, easily merging with the present infrastructure. These are not designed keeping in mind the needs of a specific group of learners or organizations.

On the other hand, building an e-learning solution means creating a product from scratch. This involves meticulous planning to determine learning objects, content creation, graphics creation and design. Testing the finished product with the help of pilot sessions, to check for any practical glitches in it also comes under the purview of building.

Purchasing verses developing.
Organizations facing a paucity of funds often make the mistake of ruling out a) buying an off the shelf product and b) hiring a third party to build a custom solution. Many of these organizations tend to overlook the hidden costs of developing the e-learning solution in-house. The real cost of building a custom product involves, among other things, time and salary of the whole team, and the possibility of you having to learn a completely new software from zilch. Also, the number of end users who will actually use the product matters a lot in deciding upon whether you buy or build the solution. For example it is useless to create a program for say ten learners using a fleet of workers spending a few hundred man-hours on development of the solution.

Buying and customizing a readymade product to suit your needs is also an option. Modifying the existing product by adding an introduction, supplements, a conclusion or making cosmetic changes to the design and graphics to make it your own is akin to creating simple add-ons instead of completely renovating it. And though this can safely come under the purview of development, it invariably involves a lower number of resources as compared to its complete development. You might also stumble upon a free off the shelf product on web. Tutorials about how to modify simple computer applications are available, for example, adding narrations to power point presentations. Consider the following points before taking the decision of buying, building, or customizing.

Analyze your expectations from the product
Identify the features that you need in the learning solution, and focus on what you expect from the product. Prioritizing your expectations will help since one product would not be able to satisfy all your needs. Fix up the objectives, content for knowledge improvement, skills and behaviors that need to be worked upon by the learning platform. Select a product that has learning objectives in congruence with the needs of your organization.

Availability of workforce
See if there are enough helping hands to implement and support the e-learning solution. Apart form the people needed to run the product, there is also a need for a champion of the cause within the company. If your projected need of people cannot be satisfied by in-house personnel, find out if you can get outside help and the cost of this.

Funds at disposal
The importance of this resource is never underestimated, which, in a way, makes it the most priced one. Compare the costs involved in building your own solution that of getting a readymade product. A careful analysis of the short and long term effects of the options will lead you to the result that building will require a big one time investment but low recurring cost, while buying might incur some recurring costs although the first investment will be comparatively lower.

While opting to build an in-house solution, build it for a minimum of 500 learners for an optimum utilization of resources. On the contrary, if you are buying the product, calculate the costs that will be incurred through the whole tenure that the product will last. Like there could be annual renewal and maintenance costs, or prices for upgrades and add-ons provided by the vendor that might be required. Check out if the supplier will provide for technical support, and if so, how much will it cost? Will the pricing be on a monthly, yearly, flat rate or a pay per request basis? Or is it included in the purchasing price? Will the technical support last for the whole life of the product or will it require renewal?

Examine time constraints
Determine how much time you have on hand to decide, develop and implement the e-learning product. The lack of time or otherwise can affect the decision of buying or building. An abundance of money resource does not mean that you could build a solution easily, if the time available to roll out the solution is too little.

Conclusion
Apart from the above mentioned considerations, try finding your learning needs in the sense that are you covering generic skills or do you want to train for specialized skills. Is your industry too niche to allow a generic off the shelf product? Also, do you have active support from superiors, colleagues and subordinates alike? All these considerations will have an effect on making the final decision.