Evaluating Affordability When Dealing with LMS Vendors

Investing in a Learning Management System is a long-term investment that shapes the future of workforce training at your company. Hence, it is very crucial to consider all the factors while evaluating LMS vendors. One of the most important factors to consider is affordability. Addressing affordability concerns of your workforce training program helps you create the best platform with limited resources.

Here is a simple four-point checklist that you can stick to while evaluating LMS vendors to create an affordable LMS platform:

Make a Short and Accurate list of Training Needs

A word of caution, keeping the list of training needs short doesn’t mean you need to cut down on them. You just need to prioritize them to see which ones resonate with your organizational needs for 1-3 years. This will help you create affordable eLearning solutions for your organization. But when you’re just taking the training needs of 1-3 years into account, you need the list to be as accurate as it can be.

But how to ensure that the list of training needs is short and accurate. Start by identifying the pain points in your workforce training. Transform those pain points into training needs by determining the features that will solve them. Finalize your list of features and evaluate LMS vendors’ capabilities on the basis of it.

Keep the Scope of your Solution Aligned with Your Resources

Knowing what you need is the first step of the way to ensure affordability. The second step is to know what you want, and further knowing what you can get. Determining the scope of your solutions that aligns with the resources is crucial in eliminating the affordability concerns of workforce training. 

Depending on your scope, your solutions can vary widely in terms of utility. You can create a solution that just offers training administration, manages training delivery, and tracks course development and completion. On the other hand, you can create a platform with more extensive capabilities like content libraries, course development, real-time module flexibility, eLearning localization, etc. So, determine the scope of your solution and work closely with your LMS vendor to create an affordable eLearning solution.

Additional Features

Apart from the functionalities that reflect your short-term training needs, you also need to consider some additional features. Incorporating these features in your LMS will ensure seamless implementation, seamless onboarding, and monitoring capabilities. Some additional features to discuss with your LMS vendor are:

• Startup/Setup
• ERPs and HRM Software
• Extensive Content-format Capabilities
• Mobile Integration
• Cloud-based Solution
• Maintenance and Support
• Analytics
  

Evaluating the Costs

You might have to deal with the repercussions of hitting the limit with your budget midway if you don’t take additional costs into account. So, discuss the additional costs with your LMS vendors to ensure that you don’t miscalculate. The initial implementation and annual licensing are generally the major components of the cost for most LMS platforms. Upgrades or add-ons like content licensing or custom content creation will come with additional fees. Make sure that you evaluate the pricing models carefully. The most common ones are per learner/per month, per learner/per use fee, and a flat-fee per course.

To sum up, buying an LMS is a long-term investment. Hence, evaluating your choices while creating an LMS platform for your company with the lens of affordability is crucial to the success of your workforce training program.

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.