Educational Publishers: Perspectives on Outsourcing
The global publishing market in the English language was approximately $270 b in 2008. This market consists of key segments: STM/Academic (scientific, technical, medical, and humanities), Legal, Educational, Newspapers, Magazines, Directories and others (corporate, financial, B2B, trade, etc.). Educational Publishing refers to publishing for the school (K-12 or ELHI), and college education markets. The global educational publishing industry stood at approximately USD 22 billion in 2008.
The recent economic crisis has had an impact on the education publishing market. The US, for example, experienced reduced education budgets. This in turn severely affected educational publishers. Various states in the US are considering a transition to digital forms of content to save costs and keep up with the developments in technology for better dissemination of knowledge. Publishers are now coupling e-publishing and e-learning to create content that relates to the digital generation. Online teaching and virtual tutoring is a growing market, and publishers such as Pearson have incorporated these to create synergies with their existing offerings.
Sourcing work from vendors has become well-entrenched in the business model of the publishers operating in the Educational publishing segment. Publishers such as Harcourt Education, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Reed Elsevier and Scholastic have been outsourcing (and offshoring) for over a decade. It is of immense interest to understand and analyze buyer sentiments with respect to outsourcing. An insight into buyer sentiment will help us answer a few questions like:
The recent economic crisis has had an impact on the education publishing market. The US, for example, experienced reduced education budgets. This in turn severely affected educational publishers. Various states in the US are considering a transition to digital forms of content to save costs and keep up with the developments in technology for better dissemination of knowledge. Publishers are now coupling e-publishing and e-learning to create content that relates to the digital generation. Online teaching and virtual tutoring is a growing market, and publishers such as Pearson have incorporated these to create synergies with their existing offerings.
Sourcing work from vendors has become well-entrenched in the business model of the publishers operating in the Educational publishing segment. Publishers such as Harcourt Education, Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Reed Elsevier and Scholastic have been outsourcing (and offshoring) for over a decade. It is of immense interest to understand and analyze buyer sentiments with respect to outsourcing. An insight into buyer sentiment will help us answer a few questions like:
- What are the challenges faced by the industry and how has the industry changed in terms of perceived challenges?
- What are the satisfaction levels with outsourced/offshored services?
- What are the areas that still need improvement?
- What is the buyer proclivity to outsource? Will smaller companies outsource more? The following chapters delve deeper into all these aspects.
- How has the industry shaped up in terms of functional areas outsourced? For example, is there more demand for content (implying higher value services) or production (low value high volume services)?
1 FOREWORD
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Who took the survey?
2.2 Respondent break-down by company’s employee strength
2.3 Respondent break-down by company revenues
2.4 Respondent break-down by geography
2.5 Demography of Buyer respondents – Educational publishing
2.5.1 Respondents by geography
2.5.2 Respondents by company size - manpower
2.5.3 Respondents by company size - revenues
3 EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING – BRIEF BACKGROUND
3.1 Outsourcing by Educational publishers
4 UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGES
4.1 What are the challenges faced by Educational publishers?
4.1.1 Publishers experiencing adoption of new technology
4.1.2 Lack of in-house capabilities not a challenge
4.1.3 Does geography impact the perception of “key challenge?”
4.1.4 Does size impact the perception of “key challenge?”
4.1.5 Challenge perception by profile
4.2 Can outsourcing mitigate challenges – which ones?
4.2.1 Do STM publishers think differently from Educational publishers
4.3 Understanding outsourcing sentiment
5 COST SAVINGS BY OUTSOURCING
5.1.1 Cost savings – by geography
5.1.2 Perceptions by profile
5.1.3 Vendor perceptions on cost savings
6 SATISFACTION LEVELS AND EXPECTATIONS
6.1 Are buyers satisfied?
6.1.1 What are the satisfaction levels vis-a-vis STM/Academic publishers
6.1.2 Satisfaction levels by geography
6.2 What are the improvement areas?
6.2.1 Areas requiring improvement – by company size
6.2.2 Areas requiring improvement – by geography
7 WILL OUTSOURCING GROW?
7.1 Proclivity to outsource
7.2 Where will the growth from?
7.2.1 Which publishers (by size) will drive offshore growth?
7.2.2 Which geography will increase outsourcing, which will retard?
7.2.3 Where will increased sourcing come from?
7.3 Preferred sourcing destinations
7.4 Which services will be in demand?
7.5 Where are the opportunities?
8 STM/ACADEMIC VS. EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING
8.1 Variance in challenges faced
8.2 Is there a variance in the expectations from outsourcing?
8.3 What can service providers learn?
9 ANNEXURE
9.1 Sourcing Prism
10 ABOUT VALUENOTES
10.1 Research Publications
10.2 Recent Custom Projects
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1 Who took the survey?
2.2 Respondent break-down by company’s employee strength
2.3 Respondent break-down by company revenues
2.4 Respondent break-down by geography
2.5 Demography of Buyer respondents – Educational publishing
2.5.1 Respondents by geography
2.5.2 Respondents by company size - manpower
2.5.3 Respondents by company size - revenues
3 EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING – BRIEF BACKGROUND
3.1 Outsourcing by Educational publishers
4 UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGES
4.1 What are the challenges faced by Educational publishers?
4.1.1 Publishers experiencing adoption of new technology
4.1.2 Lack of in-house capabilities not a challenge
4.1.3 Does geography impact the perception of “key challenge?”
4.1.4 Does size impact the perception of “key challenge?”
4.1.5 Challenge perception by profile
4.2 Can outsourcing mitigate challenges – which ones?
4.2.1 Do STM publishers think differently from Educational publishers
4.3 Understanding outsourcing sentiment
5 COST SAVINGS BY OUTSOURCING
5.1.1 Cost savings – by geography
5.1.2 Perceptions by profile
5.1.3 Vendor perceptions on cost savings
6 SATISFACTION LEVELS AND EXPECTATIONS
6.1 Are buyers satisfied?
6.1.1 What are the satisfaction levels vis-a-vis STM/Academic publishers
6.1.2 Satisfaction levels by geography
6.2 What are the improvement areas?
6.2.1 Areas requiring improvement – by company size
6.2.2 Areas requiring improvement – by geography
7 WILL OUTSOURCING GROW?
7.1 Proclivity to outsource
7.2 Where will the growth from?
7.2.1 Which publishers (by size) will drive offshore growth?
7.2.2 Which geography will increase outsourcing, which will retard?
7.2.3 Where will increased sourcing come from?
7.3 Preferred sourcing destinations
7.4 Which services will be in demand?
7.5 Where are the opportunities?
8 STM/ACADEMIC VS. EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING
8.1 Variance in challenges faced
8.2 Is there a variance in the expectations from outsourcing?
8.3 What can service providers learn?
9 ANNEXURE
9.1 Sourcing Prism
10 ABOUT VALUENOTES
10.1 Research Publications
10.2 Recent Custom Projects
