Sourcing an LMS Supplier

Hello everyone,

Further to my recent post, I have finally managed to get in front of the directors who have agreed I can look into getting an LMS system, Hoorah!

Being completely new to this process, I wondered if there was any advice you could give?

What should I be looking for?

What questions should I ask providers?

What challenges / pitfalls might I come across, and how should I overcome them?

As a bit of background, I work for a public sector company, where L&D is very new - my team was only formed in June of last year, and prior to that, there hasn't really been any sort of development other than on the job training for new starters. We have approx. 550 staff, 50% of whom are office based. The other 50% are warehouse based, and do not have any access to a PC, so mobile access is something we'd be looking for.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Emma

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Replies

  • Hi Emma

    I procured and implemented our first LMS last year.  We have launched the first phases but there is still so much we want/can do.  It has been a massive learning curve for me as I had never done it before, and was trying to balance it with my day job!  I can recommend the book LMS Success by Katrina Baker (I bought mine from Amazon).  It helped me work through some areas I hadn't considered. 

    Having launched it I can say the product we bought is great (yes I am biased) and fits the majority of the needs we had. 

    Happy to chat about my experiences with you direct, just PM me.

    Rosie 

  • HI Emma,

    Great news on getting some interest on this from the senior team. Great too that you're thinking of these questions.And spot on on posting it on here too. Looks like you've already got a great mentor with Julie.

    I'm thinking that a good place for you to start your thinking might be on the purpose of your new LMS. What's it setting out to achieve? Why will it exist? If you were to describe it in a few short words, how would you describe it?

    This starting with WHY helps shape purpose and uncover the answers to some of the questions you've raised. No doubt, there will be more questions, but 'what's the purpose' I always think is a great question to include in the mix early on.

    So what is the purpose of your LMS? How would you describe it to people in you organisation in one or two short sentences?

    • Thanks Ady - great advice. I've actually just been chatting with our head of IT and projects around the same thing, and he was really keen to be involved and provide support, whoop! I'm going to pull together a business case (which I have just learnt how to do properly on the L&D Management course module!) setting out exactly what I want it to do.

      I guess the purpose is that I want to be able to track development across the business, so we can help and support, as well as track ROI. I want it to be social, so people can share what they've learnt with others, and mobile, so people can access it from wherever they are - which would be a big bonus for our warehouse staff who have no access to a PC. The ultimate purpose really is to achieve a learning culture, this would be a big step towards that, although we have a long way to go.

      That's certainly not a list of all the things I want it to do though - I'm going to pull together a 'wish list' as well!

      • Really pleased to hear that already your programme with us is paying dividends. I love the story you're building up too. These are exciting times for you.

        You've some great purpose behind you too. Clearly you've spent time thinking of how your new online venture will support growing a learning culture. Have you thought too about how this will line up and benefit the business overall? What's in it for them is some useful thinking to do too. Think of your senior team. What's important to them? Employee engagement, retention, better service, more productivity or something else? How does the learning culture you're building with your new product support those areas? Talk about this stuff too and I think you'll be playing music to their ears!

        The other thing that's caught my eye is the support of your head of IT. Awesome news! What a great partner to have when it comes to a learning tech project. Brilliant. I'm wondering who else you can partner up with in your business too? For me, a good choice in the past has also been to involve marketing. They're great at helping you design, figure out the message, perhaps help you with the internal comms and more too. Maybe, they'll even start to think about how they can use your new online space to support their work.

        This is great stuff Emma and I'm loving this conversation. Keep in touch.

        • Thanks Ady - I like your thinking, I've already touched base with HR and our marketing and communications teams to sell the benefits to them - they were definitely interested and I plan to follow up with gathering some requirements from them.

          I shall be considering the benefits to the business when doing the business report, and linking those benefits to the organisation strategy I'm hoping will be a winning combo - I shall keep you posted with how I'm getting on!

          Thanks

          Emma

  • Hi Emma I work for public sector and we have just completed a tender process to source a new LMS provider (we have an LMS already).  We have to follow Council processes for procurement and we are happy with the outcome.  There are various factors to consider from what you want the LMS to do (basic catalogue function, storage of learning history to performance appraisals, talent management, and more) to data migration, elearning content etc.  Happy to have a chat this week, if you want to contact me julie.wardrop@liverpool.gov.uk.

    Julie

    • Thank you so much Julie, I shall email you separately.

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