Many Higher Education institutions outsource online course development to an online program management (OPM) provider because of a lack of budget, staff, and technology. Current research indicates that OPM providers often do not have instructional design (ID) services tailored to a specific university. This research uses a case study to analyze a business partnership between a research university and an OPM provider. The activity theory framework was used to direct inquiry and analysis. Results show a serious lack of consistency in the ID services provided by the ID firm outsourced by this OPM. The faculty needs and background were not considered by the OPM. The OPM partnership model does not consider tailoring the ID needs to the specific university environment.