Take an Educated Approach to Developing an LMS Strategy

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Your Challenge

  • Organizations with departmentalized and siloed learning management systems have little visibility into the breadth and effectiveness of their training programs.
  • Administering, tracking, and reporting training are often conducted manually, creating a cumbersome process for HR.
  • In most cases, organizations treat their learning management systems as just another point solution in their HR landscape and fail to integrate learning into the talent lifecycle. 

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Right-size your LMS solution. Avoid under-investing or overbuying from the start. LMSs come in all shapes and sizes; don’t buy functions you don’t need. Identify your LMS use case from the start to focus your strategy and filter your needs. 
  • A disjointed and departmentalized approach to learning will inevitably fail. Ensure your LMS strategy is holistic through the necessary convergence of people, process, technology, and content. 

Impact and Result

  • Take a step back and create a business model that considers the learning needs of HR, IT, and the business. Strive for a holistic strategy and avoid compartmentalized efforts.
  • Understand your use case. Identify your organization’s goals and L&D objectives to choose the LMS use case that is most aligned with your learning needs.
  • Identify your solution alternatives across people, processes, technology, and content. Create a comprehensive roadmap, prioritizing initiatives and identifying dependencies.
  • Devise a plan for implementation. Effectively communicate changes and put mechanisms in place to ensure effective LMS governance.  

Contributors

  • Alec Ballantyne, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)
  • Leah Craig, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)
  • Jim Tom, Cathy Chae, Public Health Ontario (PHO)
  • Matt Whitehead, Online Learning Enterprises
  • Lyndsay Massey-Groe, Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games
  • Lynn DiBonaventura, Teleflex Medical Canada
  • Nigel Fortlage, GHY International, CIO Association of Canada (Manitoba Chapter)
  • Vivian Yap, Ontario College of Teachers
  • Four additional contributors who wished to remain anonymous

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See how all the steps you need to take come together, with tools and advice to help with each task on your list.

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Get to Action

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create an LMS strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

  1. Visualize the project

    Understand your current learning challenges as well as benefits and opportunities for LMS, then align your corporate objectives and L&D objectives with your LMS strategy.

  2. Right-size the solution

    Assess the current state and choose appropriate solutions across the four pillars of learning: content, people, technology, and process.

  3. Finalize the strategy

    Prioritize initiatives, create an actionable roadmap, and appropriately govern to the strategy.

Guided Implementation icon Guided Implementation

This guided implementation is a six call advisory process.

    Guided Implementation #1 - Visualize the project

  • Call #1: Establish a vision for your LMS strategy project.

  • Call #2: Structure the project. Identify your project team and create a project charter.

    • Guided Implementation #2 - Right-size the solution

  • Call #1: Solicit LMS requirements from the right people in your organization.

  • Call #2: Use your findings to provide insight into your solution.

    • Guided Implementation #3 - Finalize the strategy

  • Call #1: Prioritize roadmap initiatives. Identify dependencies between people, process, technology, and content tasks.

  • Call #2: Create a governance plan and consider strategies for communicating changes and selling the strategy to the business.

Schedule Your First Call

Onsite Workshop

Module 1: Visualize the Project

The Purpose

  • Understand the importance of creating an LMS strategy before selecting a software solution.
  • Develop an LMS business model that identifies the drivers for LMS, as well as the project barriers and enablers.
  • Complete a project charter to gain buy-in, build a project team, and track project success.  

Key Benefits Achieved

  • A go/no-go decision on the project appropriateness
  • An understanding of the different project drivers
  • Project stakeholders identified
  • Project team created with defined roles and responsibilities
  • Finalized project charter to gain buy-in 

Activities: Outputs:
1.1 Identify LMS needs, barriers, and enablers.
  • Completed LMS business model
1.2 Align organizational goals and L&D goals with LMS objectives.
  • Strategy alignment between HR and the business
1.3 Decide on your LMS use case.
  • LMS use cases
1.4 Identify the right stakeholders for your project team.
  • Defined project roles and responsibilities

Module 2: Right-Size the Solution

The Purpose

  • Understand your current learning environment.
  • Elicit requirements from HR, IT, and the business.
  • Effectively assess solution alternatives to create a right-sized solution. 

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Requirements to strengthen the business case and inform the LMS strategy
  • A right-sized solution  

Activities: Outputs:
2.1 Take inventory of learning applications and their purpose.
  • Learning application inventory
2.2 Map the current LMS process.
  • Current-state process map
2.3 Conduct a learning content inventory audit.
  • Learning content inventory
2.4 Elicit requirements from learners, administrators, the L&D team, and management.
  • High-level LMS requirements
2.5 Create an LMS content strategy.
  • A content strategy
2.6 Analyze the results from the LMS Learner Survey.
  • Specific end-user needs and requirements
2.7 Determine KPIs and guiding principles for your LMS solution.
  • LMS KPIs and guiding principles
2.8 Determine LMS integration points.
  • LMS integration map

Module 3: Finalize the Strategy

The Purpose

  • Brainstorm and prioritize short-term and long-term LMS tasks.
  • Apply the appropriate amount of governance to the LMS strategy.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • LMS next steps
  • LMS governance considerations 

Activities: Outputs:
3.1 Brainstorm solution initiatives, prioritize initiatives, and identify dependencies.
  • Completed LMS roadmap
3.2 Create a communication plan to promote transparency.
  • Completed communication plan
3.3 Build a governance plan to ensure the necessary controls are in place prior to strategy execution.
  • Governance plan

Workshop Icon Book Your Workshop

Onsite Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn’t enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our Project Workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully.

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