Meridian Dental reception
In house vs outsourced slide with five matched rows
An in house versus outsourced slide is decided by cost only when nothing else on it is measured, which is how practices end up outsourcing a function and regretting it within a year. This one belongs to Meridian Dental, a fictional practice, and asks the same five questions of both options.
What is on the slide
- Cost
- Two part time receptionists at $104,000 a year with super and leave loading, against an answering service at $61,200 a year billed per call above 900 a month.
- Hours covered
- 8am to 6pm on weekdays, with 31% of after hours calls reaching voicemail, against 7am to 9pm seven days with those calls answered.
- Quality control
- Controlled in the room, where someone who knows the patients spots a double booking, against a script and a monthly call review.
- Flexibility and risk
- One person on leave means the practice manager answers the phone, against volume doubling for a month with no roster change. Risk concentrated in two people, against a contract with a 30 day termination clause.
When this is the right slide
Five matched icon rows suit an in house versus outsourced slide when the same five questions can be asked of both options and each answer carries a figure rather than an opinion.
What to swap it for
Comparison: Cross Check Rows Four. Swap to the four row cross check layout when only four questions really separate the options, so the fifth row does not have to be invented to fill the grid.
What this slide shows
A title reads In House or Outsourced with a framing line saying this is front desk cover for Meridian Dental, five rows, the same question asked of each. Two columns follow, headed In house and Outsourced, each holding five icon led rows that pair across. Cost: two part time receptionists at $104,000 a year with super and leave loading included, against a dental answering service quoting $61,200 a year billed per call above 900 a month. Hours: covered 8am to 6pm on weekdays so 31% of after hours calls reach voicemail, against 7am to 9pm seven days so those calls are answered. Quality: controlled in the room, where someone who knows the patients spots a double booking early, against a script and a monthly call review. Flexibility: poor, with the practice manager answering the phone for a week when one person is on leave, against call volume doubling for a month with no roster change. Risk: concentrated, with two resignations leaving the desk unstaffed for eleven days in 2026, against a contract whose 30 day termination clause is the only protection.
When this is the right slide
Use it when a function currently done by staff could be bought as a service, and the audience is an owner, a practice manager or a board that has to approve the change. Five rows is the layout and about the right depth for a decision of this size. It is the wrong slide when the two options are not mutually exclusive, which is common: many practices keep a receptionist for the day and outsource the after hours calls, and a two column slide hides the hybrid. It is also wrong when the comparison needs four rows rather than five, since the layout is fixed, and wrong when the decision turns on a single number, where a two panel verdict with one figure a side lands harder.
How to adapt it
First, write the row questions before either column, so the same question is genuinely asked of both. A slide built by listing the advantages of each option separately produces five rows on the left that have no partner on the right. Second, put a figure in every row, including the ones that feel unmeasurable. Quality can be measured by double bookings caught, flexibility by how long a change takes, and risk by days lost. Third, include the hybrid if it exists, either as a third option on a different layout or as a line under this slide. Presenting a real three way decision as a binary is the fastest way to have it reopened a month later.
What makes this slide work
The same five questions are asked of both sides
Cost, hours covered, quality control, flexibility, and where the risk sits. Reading row three across gives a complete answer to one question rather than half an argument, and no row is asked of only one option. That is what makes a two column slide a comparison rather than a case for a conclusion already reached.
The non financial rows are measured too
31% of after hours calls reaching voicemail, a month of doubled call volume absorbed without a roster change, eleven days of an unstaffed desk after two resignations in 2026. Without those figures the slide would be $104,000 against $61,200 and the decision would already be made, which is how a service function gets outsourced on price alone.
The risk row names where risk moves, not whether it goes
In house the risk is concentrated in two people; outsourced it moves to a contract with a 30 day termination clause as the only protection. Neither row says the risk disappears. A slide that shows one column with no risk at all is a slide nobody in an owner meeting will believe.
Questions people ask
What should be compared on an in house versus outsourced slide?
Cost, coverage, quality control, flexibility and where the risk sits, at minimum. Comparing cost alone almost always favours outsourcing, because a salary includes on costs that a per call quote hides until volume rises. Asking all five questions of both options is what makes the slide a decision aid rather than a justification.
How do you put a number on quality or flexibility?
Use a proxy the business already records. Quality can be double bookings caught or complaints per month; flexibility can be how long a roster change takes; risk can be days the desk was unstaffed. This slide uses eleven days lost in 2026 and a month of doubled volume, both of which came from records rather than opinion.
Should the slide include a hybrid option?
If one exists, yes, because most service decisions of this kind end up hybrid. A two column layout cannot hold a third path, so either name the hybrid in a line under the slide or move to a three option layout. Presenting a three way decision as a binary usually means revisiting it within a few months.
What costs are usually missed on the in house side?
Superannuation, leave loading, payroll tax where the threshold is passed, recruitment, training and cover during leave. This slide rolls the first group into the $104,000 figure. On the outsourced side the commonly missed cost is the volume tier, which is why the per call charge above 900 a month is named rather than left in the contract.
When should this be split into two slides?
Split when the cost model needs its own page, which is normal once a board asks for the arithmetic behind both figures. Split also when the decision covers several functions, such as reception and billing, because the answer is often different for each and one slide per function keeps the two decisions separate.
How should this slide be presented out loud?
Read the hours row and the risk row across, then stop, because those are the two an owner has not already thought about. The cost row will be read first by everyone in the room regardless. Spending the spoken time on coverage and risk is what moves a decision that price alone would have settled.
Build your own in about a minute
The button below opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own, generate, then edit anything you like.
Make one like thisOther slide examples
Three options slide with trade off cards
A three option slide only helps a decision when every option is scored against the same criteria, in the same order, with the same level of detail. This one compares three fictional venues for a 420 delegate conference on capacity, cost, and travel with the risk attached.
Competitive landscape slide with four rivals in a table
A competitive landscape slide is judged on whether the rivals get the same treatment as the company presenting it, because an investor reads the row about the presenter first and the rest with suspicion. This one belongs to Lumen Ledger, a fictional bookkeeping tool, and gives all five providers the same four columns.
Pros and cons slide on a balance scale with a verdict
A pros and cons slide that counts points always favours whichever side had more writing time, so each point has to be weighted with a cost, a time or a number. This one belongs to Fathom Data, a fictional consultancy deciding whether to take a Brisbane office, and closes with a verdict rather than a tie.
Want the steps in the builder? Read Add, reorder and restructure slides, then Style text and add callouts, stats and lists. For everything this generator can do, see the slide maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .