LMS ROI: Getting the best value from your learning management system

How to maximise your LMS ROI to get the best value from a learning management system.

When you invest in an LMS, that’s precisely what it is: an investment.

You’re investing in improving the quality of learning you’re able to offer and in cutting the administration costs associated with delivering that learning.

How easily you’re able to place a value on those improvements will depend on the nature of your organisation and the training you’re delivering, but it might include things like:

• Increased productivity or improved performance among your learners.
• Fewer working hours lost by using online learning instead of bringing all learners to a training centre.
• Less time (and money) spent on admin by using automated enrolments, completions, certifications and reporting.
• Increased sign-ups, enrolments or engagement with learning.
• Less time spent on course creation.
• Delivering online training when face-to-face training is impractical or impossible.

So, those are some of the areas in which you might see value from your investment in an LMS. But how can you get the best value and the highest return on that investment? Let’s look at maximising your LMS ROI.

 

Invest in the technology you need

The question ‘how much does an LMS cost?’ lends itself to some well-known string-related rhetoric. It depends what you need from the platform and what you want to get out of it.

Investing in an LMS is no different than investing in property, cars, fashion or shares insomuch as there are considerations that go beyond the initial purchase price. The £30 t-shirt that lasts for years is ultimately a better value investment than the £10 one that shrinks after the first wash.

Similarly, a £5,000 LMS that isn’t tailored to your requirements isn’t going to offer the same long-term value to your organisation as a £15,000 LMS that’s customised exactly to the way you do things.

 

Calculate potential savings

Following on from that example, if you know the £15,000 investment for a fit-for-purpose LMS will be a difficult sell to your bosses, build the business case for it.

How many hours do your team currently spend arranging and logging training? And how long is spent tracking, chasing and reminding people who haven’t completed training? Think of the time that goes into promoting, handling sign-ups and managing attendance for seminars or training sessions. What about monitoring completions, preparing certifications and sending them to learners? Or preparing reports for your boss, department heads and auditors?

You’ll know the time drains that are specific to your organisation better than us, but they all contribute to the cost of not having an effective LMS in place. And remember, these are just initial savings (they don’t even take into account the additional value an LMS will bring through better learning and alternative use of all that time saved on administration).

 

Get buy-in from your team

The easiest way to get the best value from your LMS is to ensure that each member of your team is using it to get the best value in their role. That means ensuring everybody is onboard from the outset. Learn more about taking your colleagues with you on the journey towards a successful LMS launch.

 

Train your team

It’s essential that everybody knows how they can use the array of features available in a new LMS to make their life easier. That’s why we’d always suggest arranging LMS training for your team. This not only ensures all users are getting the best value from the LMS, it also saves time that would otherwise be spent answering questions on an individual basis.

 

Integrate with other systems

Don’t make your LMS a standalone system; make it an integral part of the systems your learners use every day. Incorporate single sign-on, so logging into another platform automatically logs them into the LMS. Connect to Google Apps, Microsoft Office, HR platforms and other internal systems to make learning part of your organisation’s regular workflow.

 

Use mobile and offline training

Give your learners more flexibility and the opportunity to train at a time that suits them by making your LMS available on all devices and without an internet connection. Not only does this make learning more convenient and more engaging, it also allows your team to use natural lulls in their work (when the shopfloor is quiet or their 11am meeting doesn’t show until 11.25am) to progress their training.

 

Talk to us about maximising your LMS ROI

Use the form below to arrange a chat about your organisation and how it can maximise its return on investment in an LMS.

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