Is It Time To Split Up With Your Current LMS?

Nearly one third of all buyers divorce their Learning Management System (LMS). Why?

According to a recent user research study conducted by Capterra, the reasons 31% of buyers switch their LMS Solution have to do with:

• A lack of features needed or desired
• Poor customer support
• Usability
• The inability of the LMS provider to scale with organizational growth

Though these may be good enough reasons to give LMS buyers cold feet, there are other important determining factors that should be considered before an organization should pull the plug on their current LMS.

Here are 4 key signs that it is time to switch to another LMS:

1. Low User Participation Rates

Low adoption of an LMS usually stems from a confusing User Interface (UI). If the system is too difficult for users to navigate, they won’t complete their training curriculum. This poses a challenge for organizations to determine ROI for their investment in building and providing training.

However, I like to caution LMS buyers to make sure that this is truly an LMS issue before they think about switching. Reason being, the problem can also stem from a lack of relevant, engaging content. To discern whether or not this is indeed an LMS issue, I recommend for the organization to take inventory of their content and to make sure that it is current, informative and appealing.

If the low participation in training relates to the content and not the LMS, putting outdated, irrelevant content on a new LMS is not going to result in higher rates of adoption.

2. Missed Financial Gains

Do you have the ability to utilize your LMS as a for-revenue opportunity?

If not, you may consider switching to an LMS that incorporates the ability to sell your training courses with an e-commerce plugin. That way, you can realize a return on investment for your system as well as expand your revenue-generating potential.

3. Failure to Support a Specific Business Need

Most LMS’s are initially put into place to support internal employee training, but as an organization matures and expands the LMS is expected to grow with the business to accommodate new business needs.

The challenge is, many LMS’s are not designed to support external training for customers, partners or distributors. Therefore, the LMS fails to reach the audiences the company is looking to reach in order to support future growth.

4. Inadequate Reporting

No matter how relevant and informative the training is for your users, if you can not get meaningful data from your LMS’s reporting dashboard that can show the effectiveness of your training program to support high-level business planning, then it isn’t likely you’ll be able to determine ROI for the system.

And if you can’t show ROI by the numbers, then it is likely the training initiative will be cut by upper management—even if it is making a tangible difference in the workplace.