Is your organization considering adopting a new learning management system (LMS)? There are many factors to consider when choosing an external LMS, from your operations and efficiency needs to the functions it can provide and even how much it will cost.
So, how can you choose an ideal LMS vendor?
Below, we’ll break down ten important questions to ask—along with follow-ups and how/why to approach them—as you compare LMS platforms to find the right learning management system for you.
For a deeper dive, check out our ebook on the 10 questions to ask before buying an LMS.
Understanding Your Needs
First and foremost, you’ll need to understand what you’re looking for in your learning management system. Whether you’re shopping for an LMS for the first time or looking to replace an existing one, you’ll need to think about your current pain points and technology needs.
To that effect, make sure you have answers for the following.
1: What Are Your Specific Learning and Training Needs?
This question is for internal stakeholders and representative populations (i.e., focus groups) of customers, partners, and other external parties. It identifies the specific types of programs you need (i.e., customer training) and the type and scope of problems you need to solve, such as expanding user bases and gaps in adequate online training materials.
These issues are why most organizations shouldn’t build their own learning solutions.
2: What Are Your Goals for Implementing an LMS?
Beyond general needs, you should also have specific issues that an LMS will help you resolve. Understanding these issues can inform specific criteria for choosing your LMS.
For example, you might implement an LMS to:
- Enhance external personnel skills at a partner organization
- Engage clients in collaborative learning to enhance onboarding processes
- Drive product adoption and customer retention with high-quality training
Knowing what you need will help you determine the LMS vendor that delivers the best offerings for you.
Vendor Capabilities
Determining what LMS vendors bring to the table is the next most important part of an LMS buying strategy. Get at it by asking these questions.
3: What Features and Functionalities Does the LMS Offer?
This closely relates to question #2, but it reconciles what you’re after with what’s on offer. Not all learning management software delivers the same features; some focus primarily on content creation and management, whereas others prioritize engagement.
For instance, features like gamification boost interactivity, which may (or may not) be one of your priorities.
4: Is the LMS Customizable and Flexible?
This is potentially harder to determine up-front, but you should ask the LMS about its flexibility and study all available customer and expert reviews to confirm what it says. You’ll want a platform that enables dynamic updates and adjustments to online training courses and all other program elements as your organization grows.
In fact, customization and scalability are among the top reasons companies switch LMS providers. Keep that in mind as you shop around for your first (or next) one. Another consideration is whether your target provider offers a traditional or headless LMS solution (or if they offer hybrid solutions).
Technical Considerations
Another important part of evaluating external LMS systems is determining whether they’ll meet your niche technical needs. Consider these questions to narrow down the search.
5: Are There Technical and Compatibility Requirements?
Integrating an online learning experience effectively means ensuring that learning materials and key data points, such as learner progress, mesh with other key operational systems. Most top learning management systems will work with common sales, project management, and other enterprise software.
The best solutions will also be flexible and adaptable to any CRM you use, both now and in the future—whether it’s one of the top SaaS CRM solutions or a newcomer. Thought Industries’ LMS solutions are designed to integrate across a wide variety of tech stacks, including a dedicated Salesforce integration package.
6: How Much Security Assurance Can the LMS Provide?
On the one hand, working with a provider certified by one or more security authorities ensures the safety of learners using your program.
On the other hand, quality LMS providers can also help you meet regulatory needs.
For example, companies that do business in Europe or collect data from or about EU residents need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across all business functions—including training. Working with a GDPR-certified provider can help you navigate these and other regulatory concerns continuously.
Support and Training
You’ll want to nail down exactly what kind of support the LMS provides for hands-on guidance for learners, administrators, and other individuals impacted. To that end, be sure to ask these questions.
7: What Kind of Customer Support Is Available?
Ask about whether the learning platform features some or all of the following:
- Multiple channels for contact (i.e., phone, email, live chat, etc.)
- Availability during business hours across multiple time zones
- Resources for self-guided learning (i.e., video or text guides)
Keeping educators and learners supported and engaged requires dedicated support, which the best enterprise LMS solutions offer in spades.
8: What Training and Onboarding Does the LMS Vendor Provide?
You’ll want to ask the LMS provider about the initial setup process and assistance throughout implementation and management. That includes support for administrators and managers and resources for continuous learning, such as certificate programs that create “power users” across your systems.
Customer and partner engagement is more effective the earlier it starts and the sooner you can establish connections and expectations.
Cost and Value
Finally, when comparing options on the LMS market, it’s important to understand how much solutions will cost and what you get for the price you pay.
You should ask the following.
9: What Is the Pricing Structure?
Most LMS models are priced according to usage, along with the suite of features that are made available. Other important factors that can impact LMS pricing include:
- Data migration and integration requirements
- Onboarding, management, and support needed
- Translation, localization, and engagement packages
- The amount and kind of administrative accounts/features
- The total number of monthly or annual active users
It’s important to note that acutely accurate pricing information may not be available upfront. In most cases, a vendor’s ultimate pricing is highly context-dependent.
10: What Is the Vendor’s Track Record and Reputation?
You need to make sure that the LMS provider you use has a history of delivering quality service at scale, ideally to businesses in a similar position to yours. You can check reviews and testimonials, but these should be triangulated against reputable, objective experts’ picks, like the eLearning Industry list of top LMS providers.
That said, Thought Industries was named the #1 LMS of 2023 by the Craig Weiss Group, a well-respected authority in the educational space for over a decade.
Find Your Perfect LMS Vendor Today
Ultimately, finding the right LMS vendor means understanding your own needs, what potential vendors offer, whether they meet specific technical requirements, how their support packages compare, and their price points.
Thought Industries delivers a robust, dynamic, and flexible LMS platform to supercharge enterprise learning programs. We know what it takes to engage learners most effectively, utilize learning data, and leverage learning to power your business.
Book a demo to see what we can do first-hand.
