Learning Light offer expert help choosing an LMS that would be the best fit in meeting the unique requirements of your organisation. With so many learning management systems on the market, and with online training technology changing and improving all the time, selecting the right LMS for your current and future needs can be tricky.
We’ve been helping HR and training leaders to make the best elearning decisions for over 10 years, saving them time and money in the LMS procurement process.
Choosing the right LMS for your organisation
Using Learning Light’s independent, impartial approach to selecting an LMS is all about getting the best learning management system that meets your organisation’s needs and budget. Over the last decade in elearning consultancy, we’ve developed a 5-step process to help you get it right.
Step 1: Requirements gathering workshop
This workshop brings your key stakeholders together in order to gather the organisation’s requirements and to directly assess your current and future needs.
Understanding the organisation’s requirements is key to our process, as it enables us to select the most appropriate and useful LMS. We are particularly keen to focus on the needs of learners, as it is the learners who will be using the LMS! We assess learner levels and learning requirements, learning cultures, and seek to understand how learners, administrators and managers wish to engage with elearning. We want to ensure that all members of the organisation will not only benefit from, but enjoy using, their LMS.
As experts in the elearning and LMS markets, we provide our clients with an overview of the current themes in the market, such as Open Source, SaaS, mobile learning and adaptive learning. We use this insight to help the client understand how an LMS can address their needs, and for us to better understand the client’s needs.
As well as sharing insight into where the elearning and learning technologies industry currently is, we provide insight in to where the industry is going. Outlining features such as Learning Record Stores, Tin Can (xAPI), and more can help a client to understand what may be available in the future, and we consider their opinions on these future features to help us choose an LMS that will continue to be beneficial to the client.
We use a series of tools to help capture the organisation’s requirements as well as to provide an exposition of the LMS market. The toolset we use to align the client’s requirements with available LMS features is a series of approaches including Balanced Strategic Scorecards. These tools help us illustrate and capture the available options, and enable us to provide an objective view of Return on Investment and LMS feature rankings.
We also keep sight of technical requirements such as IT infrastructure and any requirements for integrations with other systems, as we realise that meeting these requirements is an essential part of any technology project.
At the end of this process, the Learning Light team will produce a comprehensive report outlining the requirements and how Learning Light can help as your procurement partners.
Step 2: Beginning the LMS procurement process
Once we have used our toolset to evaluate your requirements and found how to meet these requirements using current LMS features, we can begin to scour the market for the learning management systems that best suit your needs.
As a procurement partner, Learning Light can ensure that your requirements are met, as you will be an informed procurer buying a solution on your terms with defined requirements.
Our Request For Proposal process begins with Long-Listing a series of potential LMS vendors that will meet your needs. We act on your behalf so those annoying calls from over-enthusiastic sales professionals don’t interrupt your day job.
From our long list we will offer a pre-selected list of LMS vendors that we believe are the best fit for you. We always strive to select the LMS that is most suited to your needs.
We do not partner with vendors or take commissions from vendors for recommendations.
Therefore, you can be assured that our support is 100% independent and based on our knowledge of the market.
We keep you in control of the process using our expertise and commercial knowledge in the market to ensure you get the best fit and best price. We know what to expect from LMS features – such as what makes a good mobile learning package, as opposed to a simple add-on – and we know how much an LMS should cost, relative to its features. This insight ensures that we provide you with a short list of LMSs that not only fit your needs, but also fit your budget.
Step 3: Building the RFP
Our RFP is designed to ensure that LMS vendors reply to your questions and your needs, not what suppliers want to tell you. It will cover the boilerplate of the procurement process quickly and effectively, and allow prices to be captured in comparable formats and pricing models deconstructed to ensure transparency.
Our RFP builds the “Learner Journeys”, the “Administrator Journeys” and the “Management Journeys” and any other use cases you require to ensure that the LMS vendor is aware of your needs. We take the needs you requirements you have given us and communicate it to LMS vendors in a language they understand so that you get what you need, rather than what a vendor wants to sell you.
Step 4: Selecting the learning management system
Once we have worked together to design a perfect Request For Proposal, LMS vendors can submit their proposals for us to evaluate.
We again refer to your requirements and make sure that the proposals fit those requirements. We also use our experience of the market to evaluate how effective the offers will be in meeting your needs. As we have good working relationships with many vendors, we can often negotiate offers that will bring better value.
Once adequate proposals have been submitted, the proposals will be packaged for comparison and submitted to you, and you will be put in contact with the vendors. They can then offer you a product demonstration. These demonstrations will show you what you are getting from an LMS in a way that is presented on your terms, so you can get a feel of which LMS suits you. During these conversations, we can always be present, helping you to evaluate the LMS offerings and translating any confusing terminology.
Step 5: Contracting and negotiation for the LMS
We will work with you to negotiate your preferred terms of contract. As we have conducted many LMS procurement exercises, we know how this process works and what both clients and vendors want to see in their contracts.
The most important point for many organisations when it comes to negotiating a contract is price. We can certainly help you get the best price, and the best pricing plan to suit your needs, but we also look beyond this factor to some of the more nuanced points such as renewal requirements, user control and user limits.
The best deal… – how come?
We have excellent working relationships with many LMS vendors who value our objective, structured approach and appreciate that opportunities which come from Learning Light have been robustly qualified and developed. We really do get attention and competition for your business from the vendor community working with Learning Light.
Saving you time & money – and delivering you success
Save time on the process by letting us do the complex work for you, complete the process in a structured and managed way, and get the best deal possible. Saving time means saving money, and having the process managed for you saves both time and effort. By having Learning Light manage your procurement, you can be sure that your learning needs will be met both now and in the future, the process will not cause you a headache, and you will get the best deal possible.
Services and Prices
Our typical price for an exercise aligned to the size of your learning requirement would be £2500 to £3000. We offer a fixed price quote.
Already down the road of the procurement, but want some guidance?
Learning Light is happy to undertake a review of the current procurement LMS you are planning. We can offer some guidance on what you have got and where you have arrived at.
We will examine what you are looking for, and what the needs of your organisation are.
We will then look over LMS and give our views on the products you have chosen or are considering, and how these products will work for you in the context your needs.
For a procurement review we charge £1000
Just want a demonstration and some ideas?
Learning Light is happy to make introductions and provide pointers to vendors who may be able to help after a free telephone based consultation.
We would provide a report summarising your plans as we understand them and recommend a number of vendors which meet your needs.
We will then select the best vendors for you and brief the vendors of your actual needs to make sure the demonstrations are really relevant to your needs and any constraints (budgetary or otherwise) you are operating in.
The cost of this service is £600.
License our procurement template and evaluation approach
We have built a comprehensive template to capture LMS requirements and cover off much of the boiler plate needed (SLA etc….). We can license this unique temple to you and vendors can complete the form which allows you to undertake objective evaluations across differing vendors, putting you in control of the procurement.
For the supply of the template, evaluation matrix, a review prior to circulation and a review of the up to 3 supplier’s submissions by Learning Light we charge £1600.00
Can We Help You?
Interested in our expert help and advice in choosing the best LMS for your organisation? Get in touch for an initial, no-obligations chat about your needs.
