LMS Buyer’s Guide

Introduction

With many learning platforms available in the market, how do you narrow the field down with an lms selection checklist for your company’s needs? You could do it alone and rely on the recommendations of your peers on forums and review sites. But an imprecise LMS selection process which leads to wrong LMS selection can cost you a lot of issues related to migration, waste of time and money, contractual obligations. To ensure what you absolutely want while choosing a Learning Management System for your association, it’s crucial that you adopt a selection strategy and this LMS buyers guide will help you to choose the LMS best suited to your organization.

As per a survey, the global learning management market size is presumed to reach USD 38.10 billion in the upcoming years. Several countries across the globe have directed their attention towards the development of the learning ecosystem to offer customized, scalable as well as a self-paced learning environment. There are many factors to consider when choosing a Learning Management System for your business. Considering which features are best for your situation, along with cost, the ability to customize the platform, and the quality of customer support are important things to consider while choosing a learning management system.

1. Healthcare sector

The healthcare industry is among those that are effectively using LMS to improve patient care and stay competitive. A healthcare learning management system (LMS) such as Paradiso LMS helps hospitals effectively track learners progress, training courses as well as guides in improving the learning experience while reducing cost.

2. Educational sector

The transition from the brick-and-mortar program to online learning has enhanced teaching traditional courses with a variety of web-enhancements and have included the roll-out of a complete online program. Choosing a learning management system for schools and universities, can give students a platform to learn at their own speed and collaborate with other learners on the same platform. In this lms selection process, know that this platform is designed to help schools and colleges deliver better outcomes for students and improves teaching experience for faculty.

3. Information Technology

Always in need of new technology, the IT sector and LMS makes a fine pair. Enterprises usually think of integrating the LMS to the IT structure to make it easier while training the staff on the regular updates about the industry. Choosing a learning management system offers a personalized approach that makes learning convenient, and fun. Learners can train conveniently and transform into better employees for the organization.

4. Banking and Finance

The BFSI Industry has been a forerunner in adopting the newer ways of imparting training and having a lms selection checklist is the best goto technique. Choosing a learning management system such as Paradiso LMS helps companies in the banking and finance industry to keep employees up-to-date with current regulations and improve competency management using one centralized, web-based system. The web-based functionality offers consistent training to take place at any time, depending on the convenience of the user and the company. Not only is Paradiso LMS effective, but it is also very secure.

5. Manufacturing sector

Training plays an important role in the manufacturing industry. Choosing a learning management system to manage their staff training is of utmost importance in this sector. So,while choosing a learning management system for the manufacturing industry make sure it offers training for employees for easy, convenient access, onboard hires and educates the staff members. The training includes learning paths as well as mobile learning functionality to provide easy-to-use tools that fit training employees both on the field and in the office.

6. Travel and transportation sector

To make sure that tourism industry employees are abreast of knowledge and skills, training is an ongoing process for the industry. Learning management system such as Paradiso LMS makes sure that the training is imparted in a uniform fashion and is available to the employees as required. Keeping the audience profile and its unique needs in mind, it is possible to create training for the industry and reap the many benefits of the LMS in the travel and transportation sector.

The key is to understand how LMSs differ from each other

Understanding how LMSs differ from each other plays a vital role in evaluating and selecting a learning management system for your business. An organization while choosing a learning management system often considers the amount of money to raise the competency levels of its staff that can ultimately make the company more productive and in turn more profitable. It should also be scalable enough to sustain advancements in the company. Further you need to consider the lms selection criteria, and the third pointer during LMS selection is to ensure that the LMS is user-friendly, flexible, and able to integrate with other systems that help learners with managing their learning.

How much flexibility do you want for your LMS?

The next question to ask yourselves during LMS selection is how much control you want or what kind of customization do you approve with LMS? For some organizations, a pre-configured and simplified setup is sufficient, whereas others might urge for a far greater degree of control over everything from branding, the user interface design, and the form of ongoing support required in their lms selection criteria. There are several other factors to consider in terms of control while choosing a learning management system: User experience - Do you need to customize by role, remember preferences, or personalize learning intelligently based on previous interactions with your LMS? Device independence - Which devices will your learners be using, and how many of these must your LMS support? Cost - How will you ensure you are only paying for features you will actually use while choosing a learning management system? Supporting the whole learning experience - Do you also need to consider an informal, social learning approach? If so, should this be tightly integrated with your LMS or operate alongside existing established systems?

1. CRM

Customer relationship management systems are probably the most common integration and almost all companies make use of them. Paradiso is considered one of the best LMS integrated with Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, and SugarCRM, along with many others. Salesforce LMS LMS SugarCRM LMS Microsoft Dynamics CRM

1. Salesforce LMS
2. LMS SugarCRM
3. LMS Microsoft Dynamics CRM

2. ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning systems like Oracle and SAP are for many organizations the spine of productivity, particularly larger businesses. LMS integration with ERP keeps important data standardized across the platforms. Listed below are few ERP integration that Paradiso supports: SAP ERP Oracle ERP Workday ERP SAGE ERP

1. SAP ERP
2. Oracle ERP
3. Workday ERP
4. SAGE ERP

3. CMS

Content Management Systems(CMS) allows showcasing all your courses with a seamless flow of updated content from the LMS. LMS platforms can integrate with well-known CMSs such as Joomla and Wordpress, Sharepoint. LMS Sharepoint Drupal LMS Wordpress LMS Joomla LMS LMS Dropbox LMS Onedrive

1. LMS Sharepoint
2. Drupal LMS
3. Wordpress LMS
4. Joomla LMS
5. LMS Dropbox
6. LMS Onedrive

4. ECommerce

An eCommerce integrated LMS permits users to complete all their transactions beginning from registration to making the payment through a Single Sign-On (SSO). You don't have to switch between multiple platforms, they get a seamless browsing experience which in turn helps boost your sales. Purchasing eLearning products directly from the LMS is not only time saving, but also more secure than visiting a third-party payment portal. Shopify LMS Woocommerce LMS

1. Shopify LMS
2. Woocommerce LMS

5. Virtual Classroom

Virtual classrooms LMS integration allows educators to make the learning experience more convenient for their learners. Within the virtual classroom educators can post video and audio content as well as images, text files and slides. This means that their learners can opt for frequent access and revisit desired content whenever they feel is required. GOTOWebinar GOTOTraining GOTOMeeting LMS AdobeConnect Webex LMS

1. GOTOWebinar
2. GOTOTraining
3. GOTOMeeting
4. LMS AdobeConnect
5. Webex LMS

6. LMS SAP

With features such as structured programs, automated assignment profiles along with multipart e-signature support, SAP LMS provides a flexible cloud LMS system. SAP Customer Partner SAP LMS

1. SAP Customer Partner
2. SAP LMS

7. LMS HRIS

Integrating HRIS and LMS very easily simplifies every step of succession planning as well as the promotion of employees in respective companies. With this integration of HRIS and LMS, businesses can maintain a team of employees that can get proficient and qualified for promotions by continually progressing people through training phases. LMS HRIS connectors allow training to be assigned, completed, and tracked through the single smart system. This employee information can be set up to automatically update as new training levels are reached. If progress planning is initiated this way, managers can easily identify skills gaps, come up with a list of employees that are eligible for promotion, and view all employee development information in a jiffy.

Although you may know what you need from an LMS right now, you can’t predict the future. This means there are a few other things to consider in the lms selection checklist.

Need for an RFP

When there are many vendors specializing in the learning solution, RFP is one possible solution so that you can compare vendors apples-to-apples and come to a conclusion of how well they fit your business needs, functional and technical requirements along with budget. RFP is a document that your company will have to create and send to potential LMS vendors when you need to launch an eLearning project. This document outlines details on the company, its project, and the expectations regarding the solution you need in the process of lms selection. You need to take out time to craft a Request For Proposal for the LMS that features your lms selection checklist as well as sheds light on your eLearning or training specifications. Listed below are few steps:

• Give the vendors a clear sense of the key features of LMS to have or to improve.
• Provide them with a description of your company and the work your company targets.
• Let them know exactly what you are aiming to achieve by implementing a new eLearning strategy with the LMS, and to notify them of your expectations.
• Be specific about the accessibility, interactivity that you are searching for in the LMS.
• Give them a few scenarios that are relatable to your needs and request that the vendor provide a response for how they would address the challenge.
• Set a milestone for completion of the project that will attract vendors who can actually get the job done.
• Clear indication on the budget constraints or how much you can pay.

These above mentioned steps will help you create successful proposals with clarity and will help you in choosing a learning management system for your business. If vendors consider themselves that they’re capable of meeting your demands, they send proposals to the company; you can then relatively differentiate the offered solutions and can opt for the most desirable one. Download the RFP and get in touch with the lms vendor of your choice.

Evaluate your vendors

While choosing a learning management system, businesses usually skip the most important part which is evaluating your LMS vendors. But where do you even begin? And how much time should you allocate for the vendors in the lms selection process? Once you submit your RFP, LMS consultants will reach out with an LMS checklist that can offer your organization the best ROI.

A Costly Affair?

While dwelling on the aforementioned factors, companies will also have to pay attention to e-learning pricing models while choosing a learning management. Here are the LMS pricing models that you may want to keep in mind.

Negotiating the best deal

The most important point in this LMS buyers guide is to get the best deal. For many organisations when it comes to negotiating a contract is price there is a slight hesitation. You should venture for the best price, and the pricing plan to suit your requirements, but also look beyond this factor to some of the more nuanced points such as user control, renewal requirements and user limits in the process of choosing a learning management system.

Final verdict

At the end of the day, the decision comes down to your workforce composition and business priority. If technical expertise is present in-house then choosing open source LMS makes a lot of sense, containing costs, pushing adaptability, and unlocking new ways to innovate for your e-learning initiatives. On the other hand, without the requisite technical talent, partnering with an open source LMS expert is just an additional option in your lms selection process. Furthermore, having every feature under the sun will not help you in the long run if you don’t have a way of maintaining those features. Understand your requirements and bring the apt LMS such as Paradiso LMS to your business that can reap best results.