Choosing the right Learning Management System for your project is the first step for the success of your corporate training and learning strategy. But before choosing it, it takes dedication and focus to evaluate all the options available in the market, which may seem like a “superhuman” task – amid so much information and options. So, what should we look at to make the best choice?

Looking at this challenge, we separated 07 tips that will make this evaluation process faster, simpler and more intuitive. Let’s check it out?

Study your current and future needs

The first step is to investigate, study and understand what the needs about training and learning management in your company are. This process should also include the employees, because their opinion will help to have a deeper knowledge of the company problems, as the leaders often are unaware of what their teams face every day. That could be done to organize the right approach to solve the issues, for example. Consider all the aspects of your operation and don’t limit yourself to the current scenario – the future is right there, and it needs to be considered. What are the main opportunities and challenges of your market in the medium and long term? What is missing for your team to prepare itself to face the competitors to achieve better results? Structure your questions to get the betters answers for your needs.

Know your team

Each professional in your team has a different background: beliefs, skills, experiences and academic backgrounds. All this knowledge has value and impacts on the manner that your corporate training is managed, so it’s important to establish what your team’s current competencies, key gaps and needs are. Your LMS needs to be planned and set in accordance to this data, as it will promote and deliver specific content and activities to address these issues.

Define your training content and interactions

Contents and activities can be formatted and delivered in a variety of formats: video lessons, interactive videos, animations, illustrations and graphics, text and e-books, webinars and podcasts – there are many options, and each requires different preparation and delivery. Once your project objectives and audiences are defined and known, the time has come to ensure that the LMS is prepared to deliver content and interactions as designed in your training strategy.

Establish the resources and functions required for managing

Once the company can correctly establish what its objectives and strategies are, it is possible to define the structure of features and functionality that will be required for training management and content delivery. The clearer the requirements, the simpler the analysis.

The company can divide its needs into three categories:

  • Functional (administrator permission and control, access, curriculum and activity management),
  • Technical (reporting and data mining, support and integration with other systems),
  • Cost (free technical support, license cost, customization values).

Gather key requirements and identify the best options based on the additional features offered by each vendor, such as pricing, support options, and implementation time, for example.

Flexibility is key

The adaptability and the ease of scheduling changes or new paths are key aspects of a lasting LMS, and it is a natural result of the right structuration. Learning Management Systems need to be flexible, allowing the company to quickly and easily update both its delivery strategies and its activities and content. Such flexibility is critical to meet current and future business needs. Therefore, the investment should be made especially considering the ability of the system to adapt to the future needs of your organization.

Also consider the technical limitations

A common mistake is to evaluate and think only about what the business / customer needs, without considering any technical limitations faced by the LMS provider. Sometimes the platform delivers incredible authoring and management tools and functionality, complete reporting, and simple integrations, but it fails to structure content, or to navigate, and does not have a responsive design. Require the vendor full transparency about any limitations and if any are already being addressed, make sure it is ready and running before closing your project.

Meet the supplier

Assessing the vendor qualifications and its historical background are prerequisites to any engagement: look for its current and past clients to get an idea of how the vendor operates and the quality of its service and support. Another way to know in detail the supplier’s operation is through demonstrations and technical visits that demonstrate how the provider organizes and manages its service delivery, its knowledge of the market and the level of engagement it has with its customers’ business, for example.

Choosing an LMS it is not an easy task: it requires a lot of market research, a lot of internal studies and smart strategic thinking. While this process is not as simple or fast, it gives the company greater chances of success by basing decision making through proven assessment and selection practices that will later prove essential to the successful design of the Learning Management System and will make all the difference in the results of your corporate training strategy.