Mistakes Companies make when purchasing LMS platforms/software: Discuss/rant

Hello you amazing community of learning and LMS experts!!

I’m doing a bit of research on that ole 20/20 vision thing – All the things you’ve experienced that could have been done better, or mistakes that are commonly made or more to the point avoided – When companies look into buying / choosing an LMS.

I’ve been working with LMS software/ platforms for the last 10 years with more face-palm stories than good ones – and I’m interested to hear what you all think, any tips you think people should know!

Here is a basic list I’ve put together to start off with (please feel free to add / elaborate)

1. Scope your functionality properly.  Do you or will you need:
   • Custom branding
   • Gamification (and what does that mean to you?)
   • Social (and how do you define that?)
   • Integration with other systems
   • Functionality –Scorm/TinCan or other eLearning applications
   • Reporting (and what level of detail you want)
   • A payment gateway
   • Support (and does it need to be available in the same time zone as you?)

2.     Using expert recommendations vs. the top results in Google

• Make sure you factor in the cost of this expert opinion, this is an amazing investment in future proofing (i.e. not starting again from scratch in 2 years)

3.     Budgeting for your LMS

• Take account that most LMS platforms will have on-going costs
• Set up and customization can be expensive,
• Expect a compromise between a price you can afford and the functionality you need

4.     Going to Market with a tender

• Take your top picks and ask them to tender
• Healthy competition between LMS software providers can get you a better deal
• This is a great way to set the terms of a working relationship from the get go

5.   In house technical Team or Software partner support

• As alluded to in point 1.g
• An internal resource can be cheaper than paying a partner for any change or custom development to a system
• Admin team training or experience with a system / super users

6.  Take into consideration the size of your company and your future growth

1. a. Large companies and Industry standard vs. Scalability
2. b. Consider Multi-Tenancy not multiple LMS instances (or just use hierarchical users/teachers/manager groups the way is supposed to work!)
3. c. Small companies, using less traditional software/ sites can be more effective
4. d. Individuals – Self hosted course ware platforms vs subscription course ware platforms (there’s hundreds) depends on your budget for overheads and projected student numbers.

7.  WHAT HAVE I MISSED?