Even though incorporating learning management systems sound cost-efficient, there are several costs associated with their implementation that can involuntarily affect your eLearning budget. From having to hire SMEs to develop content, to paying techies to cover installation costs, and licensing or subscription fees, you can expect several unpleasant surprises along the way if your planning isn’t fool proof. On that note, here are the top 5 costs you should consider before you zero in on an LMS:
1. Identify your objectives
You should have clarity with respect to the purpose you seek to achieve from your LMS. Therefore, before you finalize a learning management platform, sit down with your eLearning team, IT people, and accountants, to ascertain the needs of your learners, potential scalability problems, if any, and review pricing concerns. Based on this, implement an LMS that aligns with your organization’s goals and achieves your organizational learning purpose. Researching and planning early on can help cut down costs in the long run.
2. Evaluate your team’s skills
If your eLearning team lacks the skills required or experience to use corporate learning management systems effectively, you may end up incurring costs in providing them training or support. This would result in your LMS not getting used to its full potential. Therefore, before implementing a learning management system, it is imperative that you evaluate your team’s ability to leverage an LMS and its features to their benefit.
3. Content consultant vs in-house content manager
Content development can prove to be a costly investment in LMS corporate training if you plan on hiring a niche consultant or contractor. Skilled experts charge usually higher fees to trade-off job security, so the cost of hiring a subject consultant even for a short duration is significantly higher than working with in-house content development teams. It is wise to assess your in-house team for subject experts before investing on a corporate learning management system. This could help you cut down implementation costs.
4. Per-usage fee structure
Large-scale businesses usually invest in an LMS that is backed by a hands-on backend development team to accommodate the potential requirements of a larger staff. However, if you are a startup or a boutique firm with upto 15 employees, it is advisable to opt for corporate learning management systems that charge you on a per-usage basis. You can state your requirements beforehand and provide necessary information to create user profiles. As your staff increases in size, you can shift to a custom LMS that supports scalability.
5. Installation costs
LMS implementation usually doesn’t include installation fees, nor do you need a skilled personnel to manually set it up. However, if the system does require manual handling, you would have to spend thousands on technicians to install individual devices. The costs will be higher if your existing servers and devices are not compatible with your new LMS.
These were five cost-related components to be taken into consideration while finalizing a corporate learning management system for your specific organizational needs. Hope you would have found them useful enough to contemplate on the next time you plan to buy an LMS.
G-Cube is among the fastest-growing learning-tech organization in the entire Asia-Pacific region with 80+ awards in the last 6 years, and a noteworthy experience of 20+ years in the said domain. Our LMS (Learning Management System) Suite is highly compatible to the current eLearning needs of varied industries. For any queries, please do write to us.