How to Buy an LMS

I just got another RFI last week. It was the shortest I’d seen in a long time. It’s only three pages with a list of 50 features to discuss. It came by FAX. That probably explains why it’s so short. Can we do everything on the list. You bet. I’ve been told by a “marketing consultant” that there are over 200 LMS’ available in the United States today. I’ve also heard from another consultant that there are over 75 “viable” LMS’. In either case I’m also pretty sure that every one of the viable LMS’ will be able to do everything that is asked on this RFI. So, what will this prospect do after receiving replies to this RFI? Well, the prices will be different so that will become a big differentiator in vendors. Also, someone on the buying side may have a previous relationship with someone on the selling side, so there may be what is referred to as a “fit” between the two organizations, and the sale will be made.

Will my company respond to the RFI? Sure. It’s short. It’s from an organization that is price-qualified. It’s our job to respond to requests like this. Will we be awarded the contract? Who knows. It will probably come down to price and “fit.”

Will the organization who sent out the RFI get the LMS they need? It’s a good question. All I know from the RFI is that they want an LMS which has a certain feature list. I don’t know why they want an LMS. I don’t know their business goals. I don’t know their organizational structure. I don’t know who is going to test the system or sign off on the system. I’m not even sure who is going to use the system except for two big groups: learners and administrators. I do know that in every system we’ve put together there have been more than two groups.

If I were going to buy an LMS instead of selling one, I would approach the buying process differently. What would I do? Consider the following steps. Most of them are just good business practice. The devil is in the details.

Do Some Systems Analysis

Back in the old days when people built automated systems on mainframe platforms to streamline existing manual processes they started with something called systems analysis. The systems analysis process many times started with the recognition of a business need. We can save time and money if we automate this process. We can better serve our customers. It will give us a competitive edge. So, if you want to automate the administration and tracking of training what are your business reasons.

Some of the first adopters of learning systems really adopted systems to deliver online courses. By moving courses out of the classroom to self-study or webinar systems they saved so much on travel and per diem expenses that the systems paid for themselves in months not years. The ROI was terrific.

Lately (the last five years), other business needs have surfaced. Talent management is a reason to automate. There is a need to insure our intellectual capital survives the retirement of the baby boom generation, or we will be more competitive if we closely monitor and grow our new-hires into experienced professionals.

If you understand your business reasons for wanting to automate learning management (and have reasons), then you can start to do a thorough systems analysis. This, however, is not as simple as “We’re going to do talent management, so I better go find a talent management system.” How are you going to implement talent management? Do you have employees groups in mind with clear learning goals and objectives. You have to plug those into the system. The system doesn’t generate them for you (well, not unless they’re pretty simple-minded). Do you have resources to identify key knowledge, people or documents where that knowledge resides, and lots of time to do the research.

So, once you have business needs systems analysis can begin. A big part of that analysis is going to be identifying all the individuals and groups who are going to want input (courses, tests, ability to register learners) to the system and output (reports) from the system.

Get Buy-In from All the Stakeholders

I am always amazed that the “owners” of the LMS forget there are sales, marketing, production, distribution, service, and other departments that can and will benefit from the LMS. Part of the systems analysis is locating these customers of the LMS and getting their buy-in upfront as to their requirements.

Once the initial buy-in is there then these stakeholders become the reviewers who continue to buy-in at each stage of acquisition and implementation. The point to keep in mind is that if they are not engaged upfront, and if they don’t participate throughout the process, the stakeholders will surface two weeks before your go-live date and permit you to start over.

One other thing to keep in mind, even if you’re buying a vendor-hosted LMS, your IT department will be involved. If you want single sign-on you’ll need them. You will want to share data with your ERP or HR system. IT is always a stakeholder.

Develop a Realistic Implementation Plan

The implementation plan really began the day you decided to start planning for an LMS. The plan includes your system analysis, sign-off (at various stages) by stakeholders, vendor identification, building the prototype, testing, and a phased implementation. This takes a long time.

Vendors think a short sales cycle is six months, so use that to gauge how long you’ll be working before you even get a vendor selected and begin prototyping.

Actual system installation will depend on the complexity of the system, integration with your internal systems, and the extent of cataloging content required to get started. Obviously, the less complex the system the less time required to implement it. However, even a simple system requires testing by users at all levels before implementation, and during testing opportunities for improvement are usually found. Plan on a minimum of three months to get a simple system ready to test. Plan on a minimum of one year for a complex system with highly specialized functionality/logic.  

Put together a realistic implementation plan along with your systems analysis. Get sign off from your stakeholders. Now, you’re ready to talk to vendors.

Buy a System, Don’t Buy a Feature Set

If you’ve done all the homework we’ve talked about here, you have something every specific to talk to a vendor about. This is the kind of RFI I’d like to receive. The systems analysis will include a lot of detail (more detail than is given here).

• It will list the communities of learners who are going to use the system (probably your departments, dealer or store levels) and hierarchies within each group. Do you want to segregate learners by departments, location, other criteria? Then the learner data table is going to need to contain this information. Your vendor will need to know how to get it.
• The analysis will identify communities of administrators who want input and output (reports) from the system and what the output will look like (rows and columns). Again there will be a number of hierarchies in this group. Do store managers need to see reports on their employees training completion segregated from all other store managers. Good to know that when setting up the system. Do you award sales or service people who complete various levels of training? This can be organized and tracked in the LMS if you plan upfront.
• The analysis should include types of courses to be tracked and hosted, and your expectations for administering them in the system. The need to integrate webinar software (apis) needs to be recognized.

The systems analysis and RFI can include lots of other criteria: expectations for localization, expectations for usage, etc., etc.

This won’t look like a feature list. It will be a flow chart with a lot of backup.

Another part of the RFI is the implementation plan. It will provide the vendor with a realistic timeframe for implementation, and identify the testing to be done for your sign-off on the system.

The vendor can then come back with a clear statement of work that identifies the effort in time and money that will meet your requirements.

The un-stated fact behind all of this is that you’re not sending out a list and determining which vendor accomplishes 75% of what you want to do, which 85%, and which 95%. You are sending out a well-thought through list of requirements and the vendor is customizing the system you actually need to meet your business goals.

With at least 75 viable vendors in the LMS market in the US today, and with price being the major buying criteria, you should be able to get the system you want at a reasonable price. You just have to do the work upfront and be prepared to follow through.