13 Features of a Learning Management System that are Essential for Training Companies

Transcription

1 13 Features of a Learning Management System that are Essential for Training Companies

2 Technology is making it easier for training companies (those who sell training as their product) to increase their reach and to sell courses to a range of customers, from local small businesses to multinational corporations. Companies who develop OSHA training, for example, are no longer limited by geography or by instructor schedules. Similarly, companies that sell financial ethics training can reach customers of all sizes from coast to coast. The new world is not without its challenges, though. Managing a large number of diverse customers, many of whom likely have custom requirements, can be demanding logistically and technically. Further, with the increased reach, companies are exposed to intense competition. Similarly, it is becoming increasingly easy for customers to switch to a different training provider at a moment s notice. One way to gain control is to package your training with a Learning Management System instead of selling the courses by themselves, either directly or through a content marketplace. The right LMS can help you more easily create and manage the content and also make your offering more valuable to your customers while making it harder for them to go somewhere else. If and when you decide to look for an LMS, here are 13 features you should consider in finding one that will best support you in selling your training. 1: Look for an LMS that is flexible enough to allow you customize it to your business and to your customers. As you deal with your customers, it is likely that they will want to customize the look and feel and even the functionality of the LMS. Some may want you to add features, to change the user interface, or even to hide the LMS behind a web portal. By choosing an LMS that is customizable, you will be able to adapt to meet your customers needs and to make yourself more valuable to them. 2: Find an LMS that you can integrate with your own internal systems as well as with your customers systems. Integrating your LMS with your own systems can make your life easier. For example, an LMS that can share data with your CRM platform can make it easier for you to run your business by eliminating the need to enter information in two places. Similarly, if you can integrate with your customers systems for example their HR systems you can make yourself more valuable to them and thus make yourself harder to displace. 3: Make sure to look for an LMS that supports multiple options for single sign-on protocols, such as LDAP and SAML. By supporting single sign-on, you will make it easier for your end customers to access the system and thus increase usage and minimize support costs.

3 4: Make sure the application is easy to use both for the administrator and for the people who are taking the training. Similar to the single sign-on capabilities, an intuitive user interface that allows users to easily find and take the training they need will lead to your customers taking more courses and will require less in support effort/costs. 5: Find a system that supports ecommerce. If you intend to sell courses to individual users, it makes sense to find a system that can handle financial transactions. If the system is going to handle credit card information, make sure that it is certified for Personal Credit Information (PCI). Alternately, look for an LMS that integrates with existing payment applications, such as PayPal and Upay. Also, look for a system that supports charging different prices to different customers and that allows you to set discounts. environment they want while only having to administer a single system. 7: Look for a system that allows you to create your own look and feel and to brand the system. Such a system will allow you to put your own brand front and center. It will also give you the ability to create custom branded environments for each of your customers. 8: A system with a powerful, intuitive reporting feature is a must. Historically, many companies have been frustrated with the way their LMS handled reporting. Some provide too little information. Others take an engineering degree to work with. Make sure the systems you consider provide reports that show the information you need. Systems that allow you to customize reports are even better. Finally, consider who will need to see reports on which users. You want to be sure that a manager, for example, can see who in his or her department has completed their annual training. But, you don t want him or her to necessarily have access to people who are in a different department. 6: Think about how the system will work if you want to provide unique environments to different customers. If you want to have different environments for your different clients for example you want each of your major clients to have access to different courses and to have different data in the user profiles then it makes sense to find a system that supports extended enterprise features. That way, you can give each customer the

4 9: Make sure the LMS you choose can accept 3 rd -party SCORM content. SCORM is a portability standard that allows you to take content from one source and run it somewhere else. Choosing a system that can accept SCORM content will allow you to offer content from multiple providers and will enable you to reuse that content if and when you decide to move to a new LMS in the future. At the same time, it is nice to find an LMS that will allow you to create content within the platform as well, in order to be able to easily customize courses for individual customers by adding unique documents, videos, or quizzes. 10: Look for a system that tracks and automates annual or quarterly training. Your customers employees can be on drastically different annual training cycles. Someone who is hired in February and takes sexual harassment training as part of his or her onboarding process is going to need to take the training in February every year. Someone hired in the Summer will be on a completely different cycle. By finding a system that can track and automate the training cycle for individual employees, you will save yourself and your customers a significant amount of administrative overhead. 11: Don t forget that you might need multiple languages. As we suggested at the beginning of this paper, technology should help you extend your reach and sell to a larger set of customers across larger geographies. If you are not able to support users whose primary language is something other than English, it will limit where you can sell and potentially even prevent you from selling your training to local companies who have diverse workforces. 12: Think about your mobile users. More and more, people are depending on tablets and phones as much as they do on their laptops. If your end users are likely to want access to your training when they are commuting, waiting in line, or standing in front of a piece of equipment, it makes sense to find an LMS that has good support for mobile devices. 13: Consider the quality of support you will receive in addition to the quality of the LMS. While it is essential to find an LMS that gives you the features and flexibility you need, it is also important to find an LMS provider who provides excellent service. A provider who is able to customize the platform, customize the hosting environment, and willing to give you the time you need to be successful can make your implementation and on-going deployment smoother and can help you provide excellent service to your own customers. Depending on the specific nature of your training business and the customers you serve, some of these features may be more or less relevant. In general, though, a modern LMS should address these issues. Finding the right system for your business will expand your reach, increase your value to your customers, and simplify the deployment and support of your courses.

5 About efrontpro and DHx Software DHx Software is a Phoenix-based company with a commitment to customer service and an array of services to help our customers thrive. In addition to implementing and supporting efrontpro for our customers, we offer a number of related services, including: customizing the efrontpro platform; integrating efrontpro with external systems such as HRIS and CRM platforms; developing custom courses; designing and managing custom hosting environments; and helping our customers administer the platform. efrontpro is a powerful, yet intuitive, platform for developing and delivering training. The system dates back to 2003 and has been successfully used by over 1 million users across thousands of companies, including Schneider Electric, Fujitsu, and Honeywell. Key features of efrontpro include: Branching: efrontpro allows for the creation of different sections of the system for different end customers, all with the ability to customize the look and feel, the URL, pricing, content, etc. It s even possible to have different branches support different languages. ecommerce: efrontpro is integrated with a number of leading ecommerce systems, including Stripe, upay, and PayPal. efront customers are able to easily take payment without having to deal with any personal credit information. Multiple Content Formats: efrontpro allows for the creation of courses with a variety of content that may already exist, including Word documents, PDFs, videos, and complete SCORM courses. Robust reporting: efrontpro features an intuitive reporting function that simplifies the ability to administer the platform and training progress. Single Sign On: efrontpro comes integrated with common single sign on protocols enabling easy access to large customer bases with minimal administrative effort. Customization: efrontpro is an easily customizable platform, enabling training companies to tune the platform to precisely the functionality they need. It is also easy to integrate efrontpro with other applications, including HR systems and CRM platforms. Multiple Language Support: efrontpro supports 22 different languages, including English, Spanish, German, French, and Chines. Flexible Hosting Options: efrontpro is available in a number of hosting options, including SAAS, on-premise, and dedicated cloud environments, giving you the flexibility to design your own environment, including performance, reliability, and security settings. Contact Us If you would like to arrange a demo of efrontpro to see how it can address your own training needs, reach out to us at info@dhxsoftware.com.