Session Title: Why I Hate My LMS

 

Session Number: 440

 

Room: Fiesta 4

 

Day and Timeslot: Monday - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

 

Formats: Discussion

 

Session Description: There are lots of reasons to love your Learning Management System. There are also lots of reasons why some people hate their LMS. A large percentage of organizations are now considering leaving their current LMS for a new one or a different approach. This is a facilitated discussion about why organizations lose affection for their LMS.

 

  • Technology reasons for LMS frustration
  • Service reasons for losing LMS affection
  • Alternatives to dumping your LMS

 

Led by:

 

Debbe Ball - Holcim

 

 

 

Debbe Ball is the Program Manager, Learning Infrastructure Development for Holcim (US) and St. Lawrence Cement, Canada, group companies for Holcim Ltd, a Swiss owned cement manufacturer with over 90,000 employees worldwide.  Debbe and her team are tasked with setting policy, strategy, processes, and implementation planning in areas of learning infrastructure, e-learning design tools and external learning design partners.  Her work experience includes organization development, change management, and learning design and delivery.  Debbe has over twenty years of experience, working in for-profit and governmental organizations in the US and Europe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes from our conversation:

 

First, thank you all so much for the great discussion!  I think we all learned something about what some of the real issues around why there is such a love/hate relationship with your LMS(s).

 

Having a mixed group of both customers, vendors and third party neutrals in the room made our discussion so much more rich than anticipated! Thanks again for a great hour!

 

We focused on the following areas during our discussion:

1.  Technology

2.  Services

3.  Vendor/Customer Disconnect

3.  Lessons learned 

 

The intent of this conversation was not to bemoan LMS vendors or systems, but rather to discuss challenges and frustrations from both sides of the table.  Listed below are the bullet points we mentioned during our time together.  As this is a dialogue process, please feel free to add your input or additional insight to this wiki.

 

Technology (from the customer perspective)

 

  • flexibility within the system is a challenge
  • Configuration, or lack of, ability to configure as desired
  • Implementation length
  • Cost of implementation
  • Lack of strategic support from the vendor
  • Usability, or lack of
  • Integration point challenges
  • Data migration
  • Reporting
  • Lack of simple entry point
  • Scalability
     

Services (from the customer perspective)

 

  • Tier 1 support knowledge
  • Bug fixes -- who really is responsible?
  • Response time to calls ('just return my call')
  • Turnaround time on requests/questions/fixes
  • Sales people's system knowledge, or lack of
  • End user training
  • Cross domain issues (who has responsibility -- customer service or implementation/project team?)
  • Navigating matrix
  • Cross platform knowledge
  • Partnership should be strategic

 

Vendor/Customer Disconnect (from the vendor's perspective)

 

  • Undefined goals on the customer side
  • Boilerplate RFPs (do you really understand what you need or want in an LMS?)
  • Understanding, or lack of, current business processes vs. what you want in the future
  • Unspoken expectations (miscommunication)
  • Terminology disconnects
  • Understanding the difference between bugs vs. enhancements (what is a problem (bug) vs. what you would like (enhancement))
  • Understanding the impact that customization can have today and in the future (cost, upgrade time, integrations)
  • Rigidity in expectations
  • Ongoing communication with the right people

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

 

  • Reduce big bang implementation (consider a pilot to reduce liability, enhance change management)
  • Change management is critical to implementation success (build it into project plan to ensure all project phases and stakeholders are considered)
  • First and foremost, business priorities are key to success (what are the business drivers for selecting an LMS?)
  • Second, partnering with IT is essential to success
  • Selection team should consist of representation from all stakeholders (business, IT, procurement, etc.)
  • LMS should be transparent to the end user
  • Develop use case scenarios during evaluation activities (and make sure the vendors follow your scripts to ensure the system can really do what you need it to do)
  • Due diligence from both sides of the process (this is a major business decision, do all your research upfront to minimize surprises)
  • Partner with your LMS provider, if possible, to define requirements ( this ensures success in selection and implementation)

 

 

Overall, the common themes we discovered to not be system related, but rather a lack of ongoing, and the right, communication taking place.  We as the customer must ensure we really understand what our business needs are, what we truly need a system to be able to do, and ensure we work with our potential vendors to find the right system for our needs. By fully understanding what our business needs are, today and in the future, we can communicate those (via the RFP) in a much more concise and clear manner, minimizing the disconnect we have experienced in the past with our LMS vendors.  If possible, we must be much more open throughout the process, sharing as much as possible about our needs, business drivers, and organizations, to foster that strategic partnership we so desire.

 

The vendors must continue to (or begin to) work in a more consultative sales manner, thinking of our potential business as a strategic partnership, not only a sale.  Using this approach should provide the vendor with a much clearer understanding of what we, as the customer, truly need, and possibly even force us to better identify our needs.

 

My take away from this is that the system isn't typically the issue.  There are many solutions out there that each offer something unique.  It is both of our responsibilities (customer and vendor) to ensure we understand what we need in a system.  Perhaps then we will have a subsequent session at Learning 2008 or 2009 called "Why I Love my LMS Provider".

 

Thanks again for a great conversation.  Add your thoughts in the comments section.  Look me up at a future Consortium event, or contact me via the Learning Consortium.

 

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