Irrespective of the type of business you run, choosing the right learning management system (LMS) is a crucial step that deserves thorough consideration. It can make or break the impact or outcome of the learning initiatives.
However, navigating the vast sea of LMS platforms can be overwhelming, whether you are running a startup or an enterprise seeking robust solutions to upskill your workforce. Some platforms are open source, others are best suited for upskilling and reskilling, while many are designed for specialized training, such as compliance, onboarding, or continuing education.
With numerous options at your disposal, it's important to assess how each LMS aligns with your organization's goals, budget, and future growth. Let's explore further and find out how to choose an LMS for your business!
Why Choosing A Good LMS Is Important?
Not every LMS is the same. Yes, the core of their functionality lies in 'learning' but not all of them can be good for your organization. This is why it is important to select a good LMS.
Here's how selecting the right LMS can benefit your organization:
Improved Employee Performance: A well-structured LMS supports the organization's learning initiatives and provides employees with easy access to learning resources. This helps them acquire new skills, reskill, or upskill, which ultimately, results in improved performance
Improved Knowledge Retention: An LMS that comes with advanced features like gamification, mobile accessibility, and interactive content makes the learning experience more enjoyable. This helps with improved participation rates and knowledge retention
Streamlined Onboarding Process: A reliable LMS platform simplifies the onboarding training process as it helps deliver consistent and comprehensive training to new hires
Helps With Compliance Training: For businesses operating in highly regulated industries, the use of a reliable LMS can help with compliance training, ensuring that employees meet industry regulations
Offers Data-Driven Insights: An LMS helps organizations analyze the success and failure of their training initiatives with its reporting and analytics features
Cost and Time Efficiency: Learning platforms automate administrative tasks like course delivery, grading, and tracking, which reduces burden on human resource (HR) and learning and development (L and D) teams, saving time and money in the long run
How To Choose An LMS (Essential Steps)
Selecting the right learning platform can significantly impact your organization's training initiatives. Therefore, you need to be very thorough and tactful when making your pick.
Here are some important factors to consider when choosing an LMS:
Step 1. Assess Your Business's Needs
The process begins with assessing and evaluating your business's needs. This step is important as it ensures the selected LMS aligns with the organization’s training goals. Furthermore, it helps with resource optimization as well. This means you will be able to select a platform that comes with only those features that are required by your business.
That said, you can assess your organization’s needs by following the steps below:
Define Objectives: Write down the training and learning objectives you aim to achieve through an LMS. List the desired outcome, be it upskilling, reskilling, or onboarding
Identity the Target Audience: The target audience refers to those who will be using the platform. So, determine whether the platform will be used by customers, employees, partners, or all of them. Make sure you have factored in their demographics, learning preferences, and technical proficiency
Do a Content Analysis: Know what type of content is required for training the target audience. Also, review the existing training material. This will help you know what can be updated and reused
Growth and Stability: Consider the future growth plans for your organization and ensure the selected LMS accommodates the expanding training needs and user base
Step 2. Determine The Type Of LMS You Require
The next step is knowing which type of LMS is best for your organization, and for this, you must gain an understanding of these types.
Cloud-Based LMS: Hosted and deployed on the cloud, it is the most common and preferred LMS type as it can be accessed from anywhere if you have an active internet connection
On-Premises LMS: Contrary to the cloud-based LMS, this one's hosted and installed on the organization's local server. It provides full control over customization and data; however, dedicated IT resources are needed for troubleshooting, maintenance, and updates
Managed-Hosting LMS: It is a hybrid model that combines the benefits of cloud-hosting with dedicated management support. The LMS, as per this model, is hosted on the provider's infrastructure but maintained and customized according to the company's requirements
Open-Source LMS: As the name suggests, this type of LMS provides organizations with open-source code. Users with technical knowledge can add, delete, or modify the code and tailor the software to the company's learning needs
Enterprise LMS: It is a feature-rich LMS that caters to large organizations. The platform typically supports complex learning environments, scalability, and integration with other enterprise systems
LMS With Authoring Tools: This LMS type is packed with built-in content creation tools, enabling users to create custom courses without relying on third-party applications
Step 3. Figure Out Your Budget And Pricing Constraints
Once you have determined the type of LMS you need, the next step is sorting your budget. You need to make sure the software falls under your budget bracket while offering the functionality you desire.
Different LMS platforms have distinct pricing plans. Most of them are available on a subscription-based pricing model, and the pricing depends on the number of users. Furthermore, you must also account for ongoing costs associated with the software for maintenance and updates.
A practical tip when budgeting for an LMS is to look beyond the price tag it comes with. Assess the total cost of ownership for many years by factoring in licensing, content, and maintenance expenses. Also, make sure to budget for scalability. The software should be able to accommodate your organization’s future growth.
Most importantly, remember that a carefully selected LMS not only meets the budget criteria but also offers significant value. So, conduct a cost-benefit analysis to find out the ROI of your selected LMS software.
Step 4. Analyze The Features And Determine Their Importance
With so many LMS platforms out there, it's important to find one that supports your business's needs. This means it should have all the features required for your training initiatives.
However, to be able to do this, you must understand most desired LMS features discussed below:
Ease Of Use: An intuitive platform ensures both learners and trainers can use it easily, even if they don't have technical expertise
Reporting: An LMS with strong reporting capabilities makes it easier for managers to gain valuable insights into employee participation and performance by using different metrics. This helps trainers to identify knowledge gaps, provide targeted feedback, and adjust their teaching strategies to improve learning outcomes
Course Authoring Tools: This is a must-have feature if you want to create and upload your own courses on the platform. With a diverse set of course authoring tools, you can incorporate text and multimedia, adding some flavor to your content
Integrations:Strong integration capabilities enhance the functionality of LMS by allowing users to connect it with applications already used in the organization. This eliminates the hassle of running different software simultaneously
Mobile Learning Capability: An LMS with native mobile applications makes the learning material readily available. Moreover, it suits learners with different accessibility needs and learning styles
Security: With cyber security threats becoming quite common, selecting an LMS with cutting-edge security features like data encryption and step verification protects the security and privacy of sensitive user information
Responsive Customer Support: Lack of quick and effective customer support may result in longer downtimes. Therefore, it's imperative to select an LMS that's renowned for responsive and helpful customer support
Gamification: An LMS with gamification features makes the entire learning experience more fun and engaging for learners. This also helps with improving knowledge retention and competency while promoting healthy competition among peers
Additional Features You Can Consider
Apart from the must-have ones, here's a list of additional features that can further enhance the functionality of your LMS:
Custom branding and white labeling
Multilingual support
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Social learning
E-Commerce capabilities
While it's crucial to know about the common LMS features that your organization can benefit from, equally important is to identify ones that are not required. When you select an LMS packed with advanced features, even the ones that you do not need, it may make the platform more cumbersome and expensive than required.
Step 5. Research And Evaluate Potential Vendors
This step entails comparing different LMS providers, i.e. vendors and their products to select the best out of the lot that suits your needs. The goal here is to evaluate potential vendors and create a list of the most promising ones. To do this, the first step is to visit their websites. Focus on various factors, such as product information, pricing details, company information, and support options to evaluate them. Don't forget to take a look at their features.
An even better approach is to make a LMS feature comparison. If the software comes with a free trial, make sure to benefit from this offer. Test its core functionalities and any add-ons that are available in the trial. This will give you a fair bit of idea about the software's usability. Lastly, ask vendors for a demonstration according to your specific use cases. This is the best way to analyze whether the selected software meets your businesses needs or not.
Handy Tips For Selecting The Right LMS
Apart from the must-have ones, here's a list of additional features that can further enhance the functionality of your LMS:
Do your homework and be clear about your requirements. Knowing beforehand what to look for in a good LMS will make the process easy for you
Consider the total cost, not just the one displayed on the vendor's website. Knowing about the implementation and ongoing cost helps you budget better
Select an LMS that can be customized to your business's needs
Identify your content requirements. Decide whether you want to use existing training material or take benefit from the platform's course creation tools
Assess how long it takes to install the platform and get it running on your system
Read reviews. Make sure you have gone through the pros and cons of shortlisted LMS platforms before making the final call
Remember that selecting the right LMS can vastly impact your company's training initiatives and resources spent on them. It also enhances the overall learning experience. So, do your due diligence and follow the steps above to make an informed decision when it comes to selecting an LMS for your business.
Don't rush through the process, take your time, and lastly, trust your research. You can always reach out to us if you want to consult industry experts to make an informed decision.
