In-house expertise v Contracted-in help?

When you need very occasional expertise then it makes sense to contract the work out to an expert, but what happens when you find that you need that expertise on a more and more frequent basis?

Examples of this are:

• Images that need a bit of cleaning up or doctoring regularly
• Marketing material that needs to be produced on an ‘as-needed’ basis
• Publications (In-house and external); Web / Intranet / SharePoint updates

The challenge for most people is that you don’t actually need a full-time expert, but the cost of sending stuff out, not to mention the time involved in briefing and revising, is starting to rise to unacceptable levels.

The choice isn’t always cost, of course, but it does play a part.  Another big factor is convenience; if you just need a couple of photos tidying up, you may not want to wait days to get them back.  This is where training one or two of your in-house staff to an acceptable level really makes sense.

When you find that your IT needs outstrip your expertise – and your patience – it’s time to do that Benjamin Franklin thing (list the pros and cons) and see if some bespoke training might be what is needed.