I’ve been collecting extended enterprise case studies from the global LMS community for almost two years.  I’m surprised by how few vendors take the time to tell their customers’ extended enterprise learning stories.  I really have to scour vendor sites and comb through an agonizing amount of employee LMS stories to find the gems I’m looking for.    A page full of client logos isn’t the same thing nor is a testimonial sentence on the website.  Many vendors try to pull off  "blinded" case studies where they talk all the great things they have achieved for an unnamed client.  I won’t even read these as I have no idea if they are fiction. I want facts.  Buyers want facts.  Together we are seeking extended enterprise stories with real clients experiencing a demonstrable return on investment.  Personally, I think case studies are the best possible sales tool because they help buyers self-educate as well as illustrate vendor credibility with similar clients solving identical business challenges.  So kudos to the 15 vendors I’ve identified who are doing a good job telling stories.  It means they are doing a great job with their clients or their clients wouldn’t be willing to be a public reference. Channel, Partner and Supplier Learning How do you get your external sales channel to look, act and perform the same or better than your internal sales team? Best-in-class organizations train and certify their sales and distribution channel using a learning management system (LMS) and proprietary online content.  These organizations have proven that educating their channel provides a measurable return on investment and more importantly a significant competitive advantage.  As a result, these organizations treat channel learning as an ongoing mission critical initiative. Proving the worth of channel learning is simple though.  Use your LMS  to provide channel learning completion reports and compare with channel performance business reports. Here are the most common business metrics positively impacted by channel learning: Channel partner sales, cross sales and up sales Sale of premium "certification" content Cost per training interaction Time to market with new products Time to proficiency for new channel partners and partner employees Cost of customer support Increase in customer satisfaction Who are the best Channel LMS is in the world?  Here are Talented Learning’s Top 10. Top 15 Channel, Partner, Franchise LMS Case Studies No wonder channel learning is such a big business.  In alphabetical order, here are  15 LMS case studies of world class organizations using an LMS to train and certify channel partners, suppliers and franchises and achieving a measurable result.  Do you have extended enterprise case studies that should be on this list, please reach out to Talented@TalentedLearning.com.   #1:  Affiliated Distributors LMS Vendor:  BlueVolt Affiliated Distributors (AD) is the largest wholesale buying and marketing group in North America, comprised of over 530 independent distributor companies with over 3,000 locations.  Using the BlueVolt LMS, AD has created an ecosystem of manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of all types.  Product manufacturers host weekly live product roll-out educational webcasts that reach hundreds of channel suppliers in one session that requires no trainer travel costs.   Manufacturing suppliers have increased their reach, reduced their product launch time from 3-6 months to one day and have experienced an exponential reduction in training costs. #2:  Autodesk LMS Vendor:  Docebo Autodesk is a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software and services.  The Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI) program certifies instructors who can train users and organizations to help them obtain the greatest return on their Autodesk software investment.  The Docebo LMS supports targeted certification curriculum and even the ability for learners to upload video of themselves teaching to obtain a practical exam grade.  Autodesk lowered cost, improved consistency and expanded their global reach. #3:  Azlan, Hewlett-Packard LMS Vendor:  Growth Engineering Azlan, Europe’s largest value added reseller of networking products launched a "HP Sales Excellence" program for its distribution network. combing sales and product content for resellers.  Using Growth Engineering’s gamified LMS they encouraged competition to facilitate content completion among resellers.  Active learners in the portal outperform inactive users by 75% in year over year sales comparisons.  #4:  Bluebeam Software LMS Vendor:  Mindflash Bluebeam Software develops and sells software for PDF creation, editing and collaboration with significant market share in the architecture, engineering and construction industries.  Instead of using time intensive webinars to reach their audiences, Bluebeam wanted to get its resellers excited about selling so they launched a highly interactive, 3-tiered certification program on the Mindflash LMS.  The average reseller doubled sales as a result of completing the base tier certification.  Those resellers that completed all tiers averaged a 400% increase in sales. Register for the  Talented Learning LMS Vendor Awards Ceremony Webinar to find out who the best LMS vendors are in 10 categories. #5:  Chrysler Group LMS Vendor:  Latitude Learning Chrysler Group has approximately 6,000 dealerships in the US, Canada and over ninety other countries worldwide. Training and certification programs help establish consistent levels of performance throughout its large dealership network by allowing technicians to stay current with various certifications while training dealership personnel and selected suppliers in new product-related content, service and repair techniques and financing protocol.  Deployed on the Latitude Learning LMS, Chrysler achieved a significant decrease in training administrative costs as well as increased the the consistency of the Chrysler experience. #6:  Hewlett Packard LMS Vendor:  LogicBay HP uses LogicBay, a role-based, SaaS Web application, to streamline and manage all communications and content management between Product Development, Marketing and Sales within the Workstation Product Group. This reduced frustration among the functional teams, but most importantly increased responsiveness to the consumer with accurate information delivered on-time. In the channel, results showed that those sales reps who used the site and went through the associated sales development program outsold those who did not by 3X. #7:  Jiffy Lube LMS Vendor:  Blackboard Jiffy Lube earned this distinction for training on new services, customer service skills and leadership that resulted in a 900 percent increase in the number of stores at 100 percent certification, a reduction in turnover and a 93 percent franchisee approval rating. Jiffy Lube has experienced eight consecutive years of increased average revenue per customer and improved customer service scores. #8:  LPL Financial LMS Vendor:  SumTotal Systems LPL Financial is one of the nation’s leading financial services companies and the largest independent broker/dealer. LPL Financial offers industry-leading technology, training, service and unbiased research to more than 12,000 independent financial advisers nationwide.  Using SumTotal Systems LMS to reach its external  agent audience,  LPL increased the knowledge of agents, boosted agent retention, increased course completions by 30% and reduced their overall training expenditures by $75,000/quarter. #9:  Mace Business School LMS Vendor:  accessplanit Mace Business School provides learning and support services to key businesses in the Mace supply chain.   Its aim is to work closely with suppliers, offering a range of accredited management training courses, to maintain standards and compliance and improve performance within the supply chain for Mace clients.  Mace achieved a 30% reduction in admin resources, increased their client base by 200% and reduced reporting time by 50%. #10:  Massage Envy Spa LMS Vendor:  eLogic Learning Massage Envy Spa through its franchises is the leading provider of therapeutic massage in the United States. To guarantee a consistently excellent experience for customers in any franchise location, Massage Envy Spa provides world-class online training to all franchise employees.  Using the eLogic Learning eSSential LMS, Massage Envy Spa has increased their ability to support franchises, decreased time to ramp up new franchises and has  positively contributed to long-term success and growth of the organization. #11:  Medline University LMS Vendor: KMI Learning The nation’s largest privately held medical distribution company, Medline Industries, uses a KMI LMS and online education to educate medical professionals (partners) about Medline products and services.  In four years, they increased their registration reach from 15,000 users to almost 400,000! #12:  Real Mex Restaurants LMS Vendor:  Litmos Real Mex Restaurants is the largest operator of full service Mexican restaurants in the nation, operating over 120 restaurants and eight brands including Chevys Fresh Mex, El Torito and Acapulco across the country.  To maintain a high quality, consistent experience in each restaurant, Real Mex needed to ensure flawless execution of its strategy and develop a fully embraced learning culture throughout franchise network.  Deploying a franchise LMS reduced their travel and training materials costs by 60% and dramatically increased the availability of learning. #13:  Siemens LMS Vendor:  Expertus Siemens is a global powerhouse in electronics and environmental engineering.  They holistically provide training and certification to 8000 employees, 400 distributors/dealers and 2500 customers from the same ExpertusOne LMS system.  Siemens enjoys increased channel readiness, increased use and satisfaction with the LMS and an overall decrease in training administrative costs. #14:  TGI Friday’s LMS Vendor:  Cornerstone TGI Friday’s inspires franchises and their employees with anytime mobile access to all learning in a self directed training, on-the-job support format.  Managers have mobile access to observation checklists to confirm their employees skills and abilities.  Friday’s has seen and measured increased guest satisfaction, increased average spend per franchise location and a decrease in guest complaints when franchise and employee owned locations are properly trained. #15: Yum! Brands LMS Vendor:  Saba Software Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company, is the umbrella organization for well-known quick-service restaurants including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Its 40,000 restaurants around the world are staffed by more than 1.5 million associates. Learn how YUM! uses Saba to deploy learning, training and virtual classroom to its associates around the globe reducing turnover by 20% and increasing customer satisfaction by 2% globally. Thanks for reading!   Need Some Help Writing LMS Case Studies? We got you.  All you need is willing clients and we will do all the rest.  Check out our case study service here. The post 15 LMS Vendors - 15 Channel LMS Case Studies appeared first on Talented Learning.

Five years ago, only large, rich associations could afford the substantial investment of purchasing and deploying an LMS and online content.  With the advent of the cloud and software-as-a-service business model, association LMS solutions are no longer cost prohibitive or complex. As a result, associations of all sizes are adopting learning technology at an alarming rate and some of the most exciting LMS advancements are happening in the association LMS space.  In my review of almost a hundred LMS solutions in the last couple of years, I’ve found 20 LMS vendors who focus on association solutions. An association LMS is special kind of LMS.  Association LMS systems are similar to employee LMSs but have richer features sets to attract voluntary learners and members, build a community, integrate with an AMS and sell complex continuing education.  Many employee LMS vendors think and say that they are also good for associations but they are wrong. Register for the "Top 10 Features of Association LMS Webinar" to learn what LMS features associations really need to drive content revenue. World’s Best Association LMS Case Studies Below are links to 12 diverse association LMS case studies from 12 different LMS vendors.  If you read through these studies, you will find that these associations are enjoying the following measurable benefits from using an association LMS: Increased revenue generation from sale of content and professional development Global expansion of organization into areas impossible to reach previously Increased perceived value for the membership Economies of scale of creating great content and getting to use over and over Manage continuing education for the members’ entire career  In alphabetical order… Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) LMS Vendor:  Digitec Interactive Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) has been making life more comfortable for contractors and their customers through the professional growth and success of its members.  Using Digital Interactive Knowledge Direct LMS, the ACCA supports eCommerce, blended learning and annual meetings to educate and certify a target audience of 300,000 workers nationally. American Cancer Society LMS Vendor:  Totara and Kineo US For more than 100 years American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked to save lives and create a world with less cancer. At the core of achieving ACS’s mission are more than 3 million volunteers.  Via Totara and Kineo they provide consistent, easy to use, effective blended learning to volunteers who range from high schoolers to retirees. American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) Blue Sky Broadcast American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is a global clinical organization dedicated to helping chest medicine professionals optimize every clinical decision they make.   CHEST has an annual 5-day event every year with over 900 presentations.  They decided to record each presentation and make available to professionals worldwide who can not attend the live event.  Within two weeks of the event, they rolled out the content to 3200 professionals. Association of Clinical Research Professionals LMS Vendor:  WebCourseworks The Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP), a global association with more than 18,000 members in over 70 countries.  ACRP provides comprehensive professional development and content services to its members on key clinical research competency areas via their CourseStage LMS.  In an effort to attract more learners, ACRP created a program of gamified mobile content to compliment their traditional catalog. Big Brothers and Big Sisters LMS Vendor:  Expertus As the nation’s largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, Big Brothers and Big Sisters’ mission is to provide children facing adversity with strong enduring, professionally supported one-to-one that change their lives for the better, forever.  Big Brothers and Big Sisters uses Expertus to connect disparate learning audiences, link hundreds of thousands of users and improved training readiness by 84%. International Parking Institute (IPI) LMS Vendor:  Docebo Founded in 1962, IPI’s purpose is advancing the parking profession through leadership, education, professional development and connections.  International Parking Institute utilizes Docebo to train, certify, measure and report on learning for parking professionals from member organizations in every industry globally. National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) LMS Vendor:  Peach New Media NACUBO, like many associations, is no stranger to challenges that come with fluctuations in the economy and the impact that can have on their members.   NACUBO recognized a shift in their members’ needs and budgets and pivoted to an LMS and online learning that is tightly integrated with their NetForum AMS. National Education Association (NEA) LMS Vendor:  WBT Systems The National Education Association (NEA) represents some 3 million public school educators, at all levels, across the United States. The National Education Association (NEA) launched the NEA Academy on WBT Systems TopClass LMS and offers approximately 500 online courses, the greater majority of which are provided by third party training suppliers. New Jersey State Bar Association LMS Vendor:  Classroom 24/7 The New Jersey State Bar Association’s division, the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, is a premier provider of the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs to attorneys licensed to practice in New Jersey. In 2010, New Jersey became a mandatory CLE state requiring all New Jersey attorneys to complete 24 hours of CLE education every two years. The New Jersey State Bar Association uses Classroom 24/7 to market and sell the CLE content to a broad audience statewide. The Institute of Food Technologists LMS Vendor:  Naylor The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) exists to advance the science of food. Composed of more than 18,000 members from virtually every discipline related to food science and technology, and from more than 100 countries around the world. IFT increased revenue by 130% by providing online synchronous and asynchronous courses, web meetings, webinars, and interactive eLearning solutions for its members around the world. UNISON LMS Vendor:  tessello UNISON is the 2nd largest trade union in the UK with almost 1.3 million members and 1200 dispersed staff and volunteers. UNISON created an online organizing to connect their staff and activists, all powered by the tessello LMS. Using the cutting edge xAPI (Tin Can) in tessello, UNISON allows staff and activists to share content, experiences, and knowledge, while also providing a place to find support from within the community. Thanks for reading! Do You Have an Association LMS Case Study? We’d love to hear about it.  Please send them along to John@TalentedLearning.com and we’ll get it on the list!  Be sure to see our full compilation of LMS Extended Enterprise Case Studies.  If you need help creating LMS case studies, we can do it for you. Are You Shopping for an LMS for Your Association? Are you shopping for a new or replacement LMS for your association?  Talented Learning can help.  We are LMS selection consultants and can help you define your requirements and get to the right solution quickly and cost effectively.  Please fill out the form below to contact us for a complimentary consultation call. First Name* Last Name* Title* Email* Company* Tell us about your LMS woes Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.   The post World’s Best Association LMS Case Studies appeared first on Talented Learning.

There are over 80,000 professional associations in the U.S. alone.  Each of these organizations is involved in providing education opportunities as a member benefit or incremental revenue stream.  Historically, the association content medium was live presentations at annual trade shows or physical books, but over the last five years, due to the emergence of the cloud and SaaS business model, virtual classrooms, online learning and mobile learning ecommerce has exploded. The foundation of the association training business is the Learning Management System (LMS).  Not a traditional employee LMS, but an association LMS.  The two are very different and associations waste a lot of time evaluating the former.  Employee LMSs are geared towards compliance and HR issues, but association LMSs are about making money. Associations’ training for business focus requires enhanced LMS professional services and functionality to attract and engage learners, sell content, manage complex continuing education and uniquely integrate into the association technological and business process ecosystem.  Register for our upcoming "Top 10 Features of Association LMS Webinar" to learn more about the LMS features associations really need to drive content revenue.   Top 10 Association LMS Solutions in the World We’ve reviewed 100 LMSs in the last two years and at least 20 LMSs focus on association learning.  We think they are all good but somebody needs to win.  In additional to outstanding functional capabilities, to be on this list an LMS vendor needs to make the majority of revenue from associations and have great client case studies on their website.  In alphabetical order, here are our picks for the Top 10 Associations LMS Solutions in the World.  (If you want to know who the Top 3 are, register for the Talented Learning LMS Vendor Awards Webinar on 11/13! ) Blue Sky Broadcast — Blue Sky Broadcast is a pure association LMS that provides LMS combined with event services.  Associations need great content and an optimal source are member subject matter experts that present sessions at association tradeshows.  Blue Sky provides heavy-duty services to capture educational content from live or virtual settings, then manage, sell and deliver that content to a global audience through the learning platform. Classroom 24/7 —  Relative newcomers, Classroom 24/7 brings a new definition of  the LMS acronym — a learning marketing system.  Love it.  These guys are serious about the business of associations.  They  offer an assessment service to evaluate an association’s content assets, staff capability, market viability of their content and creates an action plan to take them from 0 to 100 with their modern, powerful continuing education, ecommerce enabled  LMS. Digitec Interactive —  Digitec has been providing professional and trade associations and nonprofits technology for 25 years.  They just released a complete SaaS, mobile responsive rewrite of their application in the cloud that enables associations of all sizes to get in the LMS game. Digitec has a strong production and content development arm that can produce gamified mobile content, simulations, video and more. EthosCE—  EthosCE rocks the healthcare association world.  If you are a healthcare association managing CME or CPE and want deep and proven experience and expertise to guide you, EthoseCE is perfect.  90% or more of their clients are in healthcare resulting in healthcare specific capabilities and workflow you just don’t find anywhere else including mobile support for doctors’ ground rounds, vouchers and PARS and CE Monitor integrations. Peach New Media — Freestone, Peach New Media’s LMS, is a pure, full-feature association LMS that offers specialized solutions for CLE, CPE and CME.  They have an integrated webcast tool that has cool (and audit defensible) "checkpoint" features to ensure learners are actually earning their CE credit and learner engagement features such as integrated Twitter conversations, view materials, take notes, polls and surveys.  They also have strong AMS integrations with their own NetForum AMS and virtually every other AMS for single sign-on, catalog, ecommerce and reporting established workflows. tessello — Out of the U.K, tessello is marching to the beat of their own drummer.  Employing xAPI, they focus on the 70:20:10 model of learning which asserts that 90% of learning is informal and social and only 10% is formal.  Their LMS enables learners to document experiential learning experiences and engage in meaningful social learning experiences.  These types of features enable associations to support the evolving performance improvement requirements of the ACCME and AICPA documenting on-the-job performance for credits. TOPYX -The TOPYX (pronounced topix) LMS has a unique business model in the industry.  They offer annual flat rate price ranging from $22,500-$50,000/year (based on optional functional and support options) for unlimited learners, admins and bandwidth making them an economical choice for many associations.  Their LMS is full featured with xAPI, mobile and social features and there are no implementation fees. WBT Systems — Dublin based WBT Systems has been around a long time supporting associations and they are the association feature powerhouse.  Designed to support the most complex association deployments, WBT is modern with a mobile response LMS, sophisticated ecommerce, AMS integration, accreditation body integration, complex CE management, dozens of language localizations and integrated social/gamified features.  When associations are really serious, have complex requirements and even a tiny % of failure is not an option, WBT Systems rises to the top. WebCourseworks — Associations and nonprofits have unique needs and WebCourseworks tailors custom solutions to meet them.  With LMS, course development and managed services, they provide holistic solutions to grow non-dues association revenue.  Their user-centric LMS has powerful association features to manage complex continuing education, AMS integration and social learning. YM Learning — Your Membership AMS acquired the Digital Ignite LMS in early 2015 and integrated them into the YM suite of products and services providing a broad association solution that helps grow membership and revenue.  The LMS is fully mobile responsive, engaging and easy for learners to learn.  Social, global and highly scalable, YM Learning is designed to manage and sell continuing education in the medical, legal, finance and most any other industry.  Advanced psychometric reporting and reporting analytics in general is a strength of the solution. Other Posts in the Talented Learning Top 10 Series There are 600 LMS vendors in the world and the majority provide specialist solutions based on industry, region and business application of the LMS.  Serious LMS buyers prefer specialist vs. generalist LMS solutions.  At Talented Learning, we have been studying the LMS market full-time for two years and have been grouping, rating and stack ranking the LMS vendors by their target market solution.  Our top 10 lists are exactly that — the top 10 LMS solutions in each target market.    Register for the Talented Learning LMS Vendor Awards Webinar on 11/13 and we will reveal who is 1st, 2nd and 3rd in ten different categories. Top 10 LMS Demonstrators in the World Top 10 Channel LMS Solutions in the World   Are You Shopping for an LMS for Your Association? Are you shopping for a new or replacement LMS for your association?  Talented Learning can help.  We are LMS selection consultants and can help you define your requirements and get to the right solution quickly and cost effectively.  Please fill out the form below to contact us for a complimentary consultation call. First Name* Last Name* Title* Email* Company* Tell us about your LMS woes Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.   The post Top 10 Association LMS Solutions in the World appeared first on Talented Learning.

Last week, Workday announced a second half 2016 release of Workday Learning - their homegrown learning management system (LMS) that will be fully integrated into their enterprise suite of finance and HR products.    This is big news.  Change is in the air. Workday, founded by ex-PeopleSoft execs in 2005, disrupted the enterprise software industry when they built a pure cloud, affordable, easy to deploy and use, multitenant solution to compete with Oracle, SAP and the rest.  Just like Facebook or eBay all of Workday’s customers are on the exact same version of the application.  This ensures that every dollar Workday invests in research, customer support and professional services directly benefits every one of their 900 plus customers. Conversely, even though they are trying to get to all customers on their cloud, SAP and Oracle have legacy applications and customers they need to support and that dilutes their focus and limits the effectiveness of their investment.  Workday’s focused cloud approach allows them to build their own solution from the ground up faster and better than cobbling together acquired vendor solutions which is the strategy of most of their competitors. I’m a research analyst that studies the global learning technology market.  I’ve personally reviewed 100 LMS solutions over the last couple of years and before that I sold high-end learning and performance management systems for 13 years.   I’ve read the publicly available information about the Workday Learning announcement, sounded vendors and buyers alike and here are my thoughts:   The Return of HR/Talent LMS Value I heard a story recently how Oracle went into a major new account opportunity and pitched for 2 days straight and the LMS portion of the pitch was five minutes at the end of day two.  To say that learning is not a core competency of the enterprise software providers is an understatement.  Typically the enterprise HR and finance buying decision happens at the highest levels of an organization and the LMS is just thrown in for free or near-free with a new enterprise software purchase although efforts are continually made to sell the LMS at regular price to existing customers. The HR/talent suite LMSs are the old school LMSs that were acquired over the last five years by the large HR and ERP providers.  They were born before the cloud, are admin heavy, tough to install, terrible to use, mobile as a boulder and as social as a hermit.  Organizations typically are not buying HR/Talent LMSs if learning is their primary decision and focus.  The big HR players appear to see little or no value in LMS. Workday recognized this trend and strategically held off acquiring or building an LMS in lieu of prioritizing other HR components (payroll, expense, recruiting, etc.) to catch up to the market leaders.  For LMS, instead of a having nothing, Workday chose to identify quality LMS partners, primarily Saba and Cornerstone, to provide that piece of the solution if LMS was important to the opportunity. At first I thought this strategy was shortsighted and left a plateful on the table.  Upon reflection, it wasn’t a bad strategic decision.  Workday has had years to watch Saba and Cornerstone, two extremely powerful and popular LMS choices in the world, up close.  They have observed the LMS sales process, implementation, Workday integration, and their customers’ reaction to it all.  They became LMS experts without having to incur any costs to do so. Workday’s customers never get a free LMS, but always have to pay top dollar for their integrated partner LMS solution.  The LMS has value, lots of it, in a Workday solution and they don’t even have their own - yet. The enterprise software, HR, training and LMS industries are officially on notice.   Better Mousetrap Workday asserts in their recent blog post that they spent 120 hours with 16 customers interviewing and brainstorming to identify learning pain points. They discovered what everybody already knows - organizations and learners are disenchanted with old school LMSs. Workday is looking to change the game by building their own LMS targeting the millennials and the new way they learn.  They claim to be designing a fully integrated LMS capable of managing any type of learning from formal to informal, large to micro while providing an engaging, modern, mobile, social and contextual learning experience - or as we say in the business - a NextGen LMS. The LMS bar is low in the HR/Talent LMS market so Workday has the opportunity to knock it out of the park by just following the blue print of the standalone LMS specialists and make a usable LMS that looks and acts more like Facebook and less like a database. If Workday does indeed succeed in building their LMS as they intend, they will be one of the only HR/Talent LMSs able to compete in standalone LMS opportunities.  This is going to cause heartburn with the current tier 1 standalone LMSs and HR/Talent providers in general.   When Partnerships Sour Saba and Cornerstone are the scorned lovers here.  They have been great partners, enjoyed the easy sales and have been living it up remora style on the Workday shark.  No more, I’m afraid.  Going forward they won’t get invited to the larger Workday sale and they have to compete with Workday on other LMS opportunities. No matter what Workday says about being a good partner, I’ve seen this movie before and you can’t change the ending.  Years ago, SumTotal partnered with SuccessFactors, learned how to sell Talent and then bought a talent company to compete with SuccessFactors.  Skillsoft, once a partner to all LMS companies, went ahead and bought SumTotal and introduced an LMS competitor into all their partners’ backyard.  Workday has 900+ clients with some significant unknown portion having partner LMSs that they are dissatisfied with yet paying a premium for.  Seems like fertile hunting grounds to a recovering LMS sales guy like me…   Missed Opportunities In all I have read about Workday Learning, one thing struck me - not a single syllable about supporting extended enterprise learning with their LMS.   Of course their DNA is HR and finance and they have precious little experience in non-employee learning, but with their client base they have a huge opportunity to turn their LMS into a channel, partner and customer facing solution and triple down on the size and value of their LMS sales.  (Workday, that tip is for free.) Employee LMSs are about cost savings, compliance and automation - extended enterprise LMSs are about making money.   Conclusion The HR/Talent LMS providers devalued the LMS market when they acquired the former tier-1 LMS providers and halfheartedly integrated them into their broader suites.  Employee LMSs became a commodity and certainly not a competitive differentiator when included in enterprise software sales opportunities.  The losers were all learning and training professionals as well as the employee learners. Workday has taken the first step to change all that.  With Workday Learning an incremental competitive advantage will once again tilt the playing field.  Other enterprise software providers will need to figure out what to do with their antediluvian LMSs, will decide it is too difficult to build a NextGen LMS themselves and another round of LMS acquisitions will kick off in the industry.  History will repeat itself with delicious, predictable irony.  Fun times ahead. My thoughts anyway.   Thanks for reading!     The post Workday Announces New LMS — My Thoughts appeared first on Talented Learning.

    If you ask any sales professional in the world what Salesforce.com does, they would know even if they do not use it.  If you any ask most HR and training professionals what Salesforce does, you will get vacant stares and the occasional "Use the Salesforce, Luke" quip.  HR/Training and sales pros live in two different worlds (in a galaxy far, far, away). So what could Salesforce possibly have in common with a learning management system (LMS)?  As it turns out, a lot if you have an extended enterprise LMS.   What is Salesforce.com? Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software solution. Salesforce can do a wide variety of things but at its core it manages all sales operational activities and data about your prospects and customers.  It is the sales person’s and a sales organization’s daily tool and crutch.  As a sales individual, it keeps track of your territory, target accounts, contacts, sales opportunities and documents all marketing and sales interactions within those elements.  Sales leaders and company executives get macro rolled up sales performance reporting, make forecasts, manage pipelines and run their sales business real-time.   Salesforce even keeps managing the prospect after conversion to a customer documenting everything they do, buy or say.   What is an Extended Enterprise LMS? A learning management system is online software that brings learners and content together and keeps track of it all.  There are LMSs for employee, academic and extended enterprise audiences.   Corporations in most industries use an extended enterprise LMS to train and certify external channel partners, prospects and customers.  An organization’s extended enterprise LMS users are often the same organizations and individuals being tracked and managed in Salesforce and therein lies the opportunity.   Salesforce.com + LMS (If You Don’t Read Anything Else - Read This) Bring Salesforce and an LMS together and you have the most measurable training platform in history.  With shared common audiences, user experiences and most importantly data, organizations have an unprecedented view into the value of training.  Have partners sold more or less after being certified?  Do customers renew at a higher rate or buy complimentary products when trained vs. untrained?  An integrated Salesforce and LMS solution can answer all these questions and many more turning learning into a strategic, measurable tool and competitive differentiator in any industry.  Oh yeah.   Salesforce.com and LMS Integration Points LMSs can be integrated with Salesforce via custom web services or via an app that LMS vendors list on the Salesforce App Exchange.  Typical integration points in both approaches include: Single sign-on Contacts, users, accounts Courses, course offerings Training assignments and course recommendations Progress, completion and certification status Sales leads, opportunities, sales   Use Case Examples of the Salesforce LMS Integration Prospect or customer actions that are documented in Salesforce or the LMS are called "triggers" and they can then cause actions in the other system.  The sky is the limit on what workflow triggers can kick off.  Here are some use case examples I’ve seen recently: Prospects Learning — When a prospect visits a tradeshow booth, downloads a whitepaper, signs up for a blog, gets a demo, registers for a webinar, is sent an email, opens that email, clicks on any link, goes to your website, pages they visit are all being tracked inside Salesforce.  Each one of these triggers can be shared with the LMS to drive training recommendations, assignments, promotions and more. Customer Learning — Salesforce knows who each of your customers are, what they purchased, when they purchased, renewal dates and any interactions with customer support. Sharing those profile triggers with the LMS can provide custom training plans and recommendations for customer learners.  Well trained customers renew at a higher rate and spend more over time. Channel Certification — With specialized apps you can create Partner Certification Programs that support a tiered channel relationship structure and launch unique training programs that drive partner entitlements. For example, after completing training to achieve a "Gold Certification," partners are automatically paid a 30% vs. 20% commission. Sales Staff Learning - Whether it is your channel partners’ sales staff or your own, they are already in Salesforce and it’s the perfect place to push them onboarding and ongoing product training. A new tab is deployed in Salesforce application that shows the training plan for reps to accelerate through new hire sales training and then meter lead flow based on ongoing training performance and certification completion.   Who Are the LMS Vendors Embracing Salesforce? In the last couple of years I reviewed 100 LMSs and so far I’ve found 12 LMS vendors who have integrated with Salesforce, have apps or are building Salesforce apps with a wide diversity of sophistication including NetExam, Cornerstone, Expertus, Blackboard, Docebo, Litmos, eLogic Learning, Skilljar, Paradiso, LogicBay,Saba, ViewCentral  and BlueVolt.   Conclusion Salesforce has been a wild market success because it provides measurable marketing and sales data that allows organizations to make smart business choices.  LMSs have done the same for training data.  Integrating sales and training workflows and data elevates training from a cost to profit center because you can definitively prove the effectiveness of training and the impact on the business.  Progressive LMS vendors are automating the integration providing a business tool that is a lethal competitive advantage.  Knowledge is power.   Thanks for reading!   Are You Shopping for an LMS? With 600 vendors out there, it can be quite a challenge!  If you would like to schedule a complimentary consultation call with John Leh, fill out the form below. First Name* Last Name* Title* Email* Company* Tell us about your LMS woes Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.   The post Salesforce.com + LMS = Measurable Training Bliss appeared first on Talented Learning.

  Selling online learning content is a huge and rapidly growing business in 2015.  Corporations, associations, universities, training companies, public institutions and individual subject matter experts are all creating and selling content on every conceivable topic. The content providers are in fierce competition with each other for learners resulting in significant industry innovation in marketing tactics, content design, user engagement and learning technology.  Plenty of reasons are driving the demand for the content, but I believe the two biggest factors are 1) Closing the gap between the world’s educational system and the skills actually needed by employers and 2) Ongoing professional continuing education.  The business of selling content, not to your own employees, but to others is called extended enterprise learning. There are two main business models for selling learning content: Business to Consumer (B2C) — Sell content to individual learners directly Business to Business (B2B) — Sell content in bulk to organization for their learners To sell online content in either model, you need an extended enterprise LMS with ecommerce capability.  Over the last 20 months I have conducted in-depth reviews of 102 LMS solutions and have found 85 that promote some level of ecommerce but there is a wide diversity of capabilities.  The biggest difference is primarily due to whether the LMS is designed to sell to individuals, organizations, both or neither. For this post, I’ve consolidated and organized all the ecommerce features I have found in the industry to illustrate what is out there for either business model.  If you are shopping for an ecommerce LMS, it is really important to find one that specializes in your ecommerce business model. B2C LMS eCommerce Features Selling to individual consumer learners is typically the first level of ecommerce support that LMS vendors develop because the features are very similar to the ecommerce features that exist to sell anything from books, laptops to tractor parts with existing ecommerce platforms.  Typical features in B2C LMS ecommerce include: Basic Features Deep-linking directly to content from anywhere outside the LMS Browse catalog of content before logging in or creating an account Sell any type of learning of any media uniquely or in a bundle Product reviews and ratings Coupons, promotions discounts Credit card, PayPal or Stripe payment types Add to cart, checkout and integration with payment gateways for credit card authorization Immediate access to purchased content Emailed receipts, notifications Fiscal reporting, sales analysis, reconciliation reporting Advanced Features User specific content recommendations Dynamic grouping of users based on actions recorded in LMS Sell physical product, manage shipping rules, fulfillment and inventory management Recurring and automated billing Language localizations and multi-currency support Manage unlimited tax rules including global VAT LMS PCI compliant (vs. only payment gateway) Most LMSs develop the above features natively but several integrate with pure ecommerce engines like Shopify or Magento to provide the above.  The integration approach provides for rich pure commerce functionality but mandates the administration and maintenance of two applications resulting in higher costs. Who are the best ecommerce LMS vendors?  Register for our LMS Awards Webinar to find out! B2B LMS eCommerce Features Selling content in bulk to organizations for their employees is tougher than it looks.   For example, if a hospital buys 100 seats of a continuing medical education course, how do they get their doctors to find the LMS, the course and consume it?  Just that learner provisioning piece alone causes administrative nightmares if an LMS hasn’t developed work flow to support. To further complicate matters, the actual "commerce" transaction can happen in an external system and passed to the LMS via API integration or the organizational purchase can happen directly in the LMS .  B2B eCommerce features include: Basic Features Client domains and branding Bulk purchase of content Credit account - organizations are invoiced after content is consumed Prepaid debit account - organizations prepay for content and account depletes as content is consumed Tokens (Registration codes, enrollment keys, vouchers)—Purchased in bulk and distributed to the user for one-time use, timed use, per course or per organization access to LMS and content. Bulk purchase discounts Purchase order support Subscriptions - timed access to content Advanced Features CRM, ERP or AMS Integration to create accounts, users and content assignment when organizations purchase in 3rd party system Tight integration into existing corporate order fulfillment, ecommerce, taxation and data warehouse ecosystem Delegated client level administration and reporting 3rd party content sponsorship, ads and promotions Bill me later ala Amazon, electronic invoice or paper invoice Conclusion Like never before, content providers of all types have the tools and technology to run a first class ecommerce business.  Innovation and competition is rampant. At first blush when reviewing LMS vendor websites, it appears that they all have the same ecommerce features and to an extent they do.  The big ecommerce differentiator is if the LMS is geared towards selling to individuals, organizations or both however there are many other factors to consider if you want to sell content.  My best recommendation is to fully develop your business model, LMS use case scenarios and resulting requirements before engaging LMS vendors so you can find the best qualified options to drive your extended enterprise business.   Thanks for reading!   Do You Need Help Finding an eCommerce LMS? There are 600 LMSs and thousands of potential features.  It’s confusing but not for us here at Talented Learning.  We’ve figured out the LMS industry and can help find the perfect solution based on your business.  Fill out the form below to schedule a complimentary consulting conversation with John Leh to discuss your LMS needs. First Name* Last Name* Title* Email* Company* Tell us about your LMS woes Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. The post LMS eCommerce: B2C and B2B Feature Sets appeared first on Talented Learning.

By Gauri Reyes, frequent contributor to the Daily Mindflash blog Often, we think of corporate online training as synonymous with employee development. Certainly, internal training is critical, especially in such learning areas as on-boarding, product training, leadership development, and closing. But, companies are also creatively using online training to put external groups "in the know", particularly partners/resellers/vendors and customers. A host of benefits can be reaped by consciously providing customer training, consumer education and community building opportunities through online training. Meet your customers where they are increasingly congregating—in the cloud—and consider the following focus areas for educating your customers. Leveraging Innovation Ideas Your customers can be an objective source of inspiration for innovation ideas. Consider creating training modules which are, in effect, focus group vehicles. Introduce your customers to the product ideas you are considering through online training, and leverage embedded surveys, quizzes, social media, and mobile enablement technologies to have conversations with your customers. Or, create idea-generation contests and challenges that are communicated via online training modules. An advantage of using online training as a vehicle for customer communication is that your LMS’ built-in reporting capabilities allow you to gather advanced customer data analytics that you may be unable to collect easily via other methods. Data such as attendance, completion rates and quiz/survey results, for example, can be used to segment your customers. You can then reach out to relevant target audiences through additional training-based conversations or other communication methods, as needed. Community-Building Online training programs can help increase collaboration, build communities, and improve relationships. For example, if you’re in the construction business, consider providing online training courses that teach people the basics of successfully engaging contractors. If you sell artisan yarn, consider providing courses that teach people to knit or crochet. Offer certifications or continuing education credits for courses in industries where credentials are valued. Of course, judicious use of social and mobile tools integrated with your training courses is required for online community building. Communities thrive when they are related to work of interest to the customer. And your business thrives when what you sell enhances the communities that your customers choose to inhabit. Increasing Product Knowledge Free your customers from being buried under product manuals and technical documentation. Sure, manuals are important, especially as product complexity increases. But, if customers can get useful overviews and quick start tips first—potentially through short, engaging online training—they can then delve into the manuals as needed. Targeted direction on where to look for direction can go a long way towards saving your customers time and frustration, increasing customer loyalty and retention, and reducing support instances. Reducing Support Issues Speaking of reducing support instances, an accepted premise is that customers with good product knowledge submit fewer support tickets. Is that true? Leveraging the built-in reporting capabilities of your LMS allows you to validate that premise. If trained customers are still having issues, perhaps your training itself is insufficient. Or perhaps you have an organizational or a product issue. In the case of insufficient training, map training content to top support issues, and mine data on quiz scores, learner engagement, course completion rates, etc. In the case or organizational or product issues, investigate product bugs, workflow, inter-department touch points, customer support practices, etc. With regards to support, leveraging your LMS’s built-in reporting capabilities allows you to identify people who truly need extra help. Proactive customer outreach can reduce time to close support issues, retain customers who might otherwise abandon you for your competitors, increase customer loyalty, and identify opportunities to cross-sell products and services. Spreading the Brand Excellent customer training programs can convey a message of customer-focus, human-centeredness, and a premium on knowledge. By using video, infographics, games, contests and other engaging content vehicles, you can "train" your customers on your company’s history, mission, values, and culture. By providing interactive training in a case study format, you can help your customers determine how to leverage best practices. Make sure that you apply a blended learning philosophy for your best brand champions where you meet on site for live training as well as mix Also, consider partnering with other businesses to create content that helps your customers increase their productivity, similar to the partnership between Khan Academy and Bank of America to help people develop better money habits. To Charge or Not to Charge? There are clear benefits to providing online training to your customers. But should you charge for training? The answer, as in so many other areas of life, is, "It depends." It depends on your industry, what you charge for your products and services, whether customers need training to successfully use your products, and a host of other considerations. Online training can be a value-added option to set you apart from your competitors. If you can convince the customer of the value of your training (through success stats, exciting and engaging training programs, need, or ROI) it may make sense to charge for your training. On the other hand, if you sell multi-million dollar technology solutions, perhaps free, robust online training access can help you to make the sale. Or, if you’ve historically had a high number of support issues, you may choose to provide free online training until you are able to change customer perception. Regardless of your decision to charge or not, take advantage of the opportunities afforded by training your customers well. Start small, test, get feedback, and determine if educating your customers can be a part of your business growth strategy. How have you used online training programs—from a module or two to full-blown online universities—to engage your customers, increase loyalty and retention, and grow your business?   The post 5 Reasons to Put Your Customers "In the Know" appeared first on Talented Learning.

Learning management systems didn’t die.  They evolved, and today we recognize them.   Quick LMS History Corporate LMSs were invented almost 30 years ago to manage and report on the training and compliance of their employees and contractors.  They were expensive to purchase, implement, maintain, host, upgrade and replace.  Much of the investment was upfront and only the largest companies or companies with the most compliance risk exposure could afford an LMS. Every LMS tried to be all things to all types of customers in all industries.  The field of competitors for the first 15 years or so was limited to an evolving 12-15 viable yet dismally average, bloated solutions. The LMS market started changing after the dot com bust in 2001.  LMS companies (and many software companies) were top heavy, poorly run organizations and the strong gobbled up the weak.  A steady flurry of acquisitions disrupted customers’ lives but never the market as a whole.  Innovation was stagnant and most vendor effort was invested in stealing customers from one another. Starting around 2010, the market began changing again.  LMS and performance management companies started merging and then the big HR/talent players acquired them.   SAP acquired SuccessFactors who had acquired Plateau.  Oracle acquired Taleo who had acquired Learn.com and the list goes on.  LMS innovation was stifled yet again and innumerable customers became lost in the bureaucracy of behemoth software companies.   Cloud to the Rescue To save the day the cloud was invented and with it the significant fiscal barriers of entry for new LMS providers were removed.  The cloud enables new LMS vendors to create and support one product that all customers use providing economies of scale in research, customer support and required investment capital.  Over the last five years, new LMS companies have poured into the marketplace filling an obvious need of customer service and targeted business solutions.  The cloud LMSs provide learning management to the masses. Cloud LMS solutions are easy-to-use, modern, mobile, social and incredibly affordable.   Now small businesses and even individuals can easily and rapidly get going.  Many cloud LMSs have "free trials" that provide instant access to their solution directly from their website providing the opportunity to test out use cases. The LMS industry in 2015 now has hundreds and hundreds of viable vendor solutions. The good news is there is an LMS for every need, industry and budget.  The bad news is there is an LMS for every need, industry and budget.  It costs at least$1500 for an organization to qualify a LMS vendor and even figuring out where to start the process makes calculus seem easy. Our Research and  Process We founded Talented Learning, an independent learning technology research firm, to figure it all out for buyers and sellers.  Our mission is to map the LMS world.  We’ve spent the last two years going LMS vendor by LMS vendor and identifying who they are, what they do, who they sell to and why they are unique. We read the publicly available information, converse with executives, receive briefings, get deep product demonstrations, test drive their applications and even interview their customers.  We solicit in-depth survey responses from vendors that highlight hundreds of business, technical and functional data points.  In the last 20 months, we have reviewed 103 LMSs. We also have the advantage of running LMS selection processes for dozens of buyers, and have broad access to vendor data, stories and experiences.  Prior to co-founding Talented Learning, I sold LMSs for 13 years and generated over $50,000,000 in revenue.   All of this experience and research was factored into our Talented Learning 2015 LMS Vendor Award rankings and market categorization. We didn’t take this task lightly.  Here are the best of the LMS best.   The 2015 Talented Learning LMS Vendor Award Winners    Types of LMSs in 2015 Before releasing any rankings or awards, we first needed to determine what types of LMSs existed in the marketplace so that the awards were relevant and helpful to LMS buyers. We discovered that the LMS marketplace is made up of 4 broad types of LMS including corporate, academic, continuing education and association LMSs.  All four groups share some functionality but contain special functionality and experience not required in the other areas. The corporate LMS market is further fractured into LMSs that focus on employee compliance, talent management, channel (partner, dealer or franchise) and customers learning applications.  Some corporate LMSs can do it all (all-purpose corporate LMSs) but many focus on just employee or external applications. The hottest area of innovation in all groups are the ecommerce features and functions to support sale of content to their audiences - also called extended enterprise learning.  Corporations are selling content and certifications to their channel partners and customers.  Academic institutions are selling college courses to remote global audiences.  Associations are selling content to their members and continuing education training providers are selling content to anyone.  Continuing education, associations and universities are all selling their content to corporations. And without further ado, here are the best of the best LMS vendors in the world in 11 categories.   BEST ALL-PURPOSE CORPORATE LMS All LMS vendors in this category are capable and focused on supporting all aspects of the learning inside and outside an organization.  Vendors are able to be used for any combination of employees, channel, dealers, partners, customers and prospects.  All-purpose corporate LMSs have considerable administrative configuration, domain and audience segmentation, globalization, ecommerce, ILT management, online learning management, reporting and integration capabilities.  eLogic Learning Expertus Cornerstone    Honorable Mentions Blackboard IMC Docebo SumTotal Litmos Saba SwissTeach WBT Systems   BEST CHANNEL & PARTNER LMS If an organization educates and certifies their external sales channel, they will experience increased sales, new streams of revenue and increased customer satisfaction.  Every time.  All LMS vendors on this list actively promote channel learning on their website with product offerings, case studies, webinars, and client testimonials. The nominated solutions have varying degrees of sophistication in core channel functionality including domain segmentation, e-commerce, social learning, globalization, broad content support, mobile readiness and ease of use. Channel & partner LMSs have strong integration and shared workflow capabilities with dealer management, incentive management, ecommerce, order fulfillment, CRM and ERPs.  The vendors in this list (and every list range) from self-service free trial LMSs to heavy-duty solution providers.  NetExam YM Learning LogicBay   Honorable Mentions BlueVolt ViewCentral Docebo Expertus eLogic Learning Saba Software SchoolKeep TalentLMS   BEST CUSTOMER LMS Most LMS vendors will say they are good for customers, but true customer LMSs are unique.   Customer LMSs could be called "Learning Marketing Systems" because there is a deep level capability that typically resides in marketing - not training departments. Customer LMSs have to be super easy to use for customers and resemble Facebook more than a database. Integration with CRM software like Salesforce.com or a Dynamics allows any customer activity such as purchase, renewal, attending a webinar, downloading a paper to trigger the push of intelligent recommendations of learning events.  Trained customers buy more over time and are more satisfied and customer LMSs make it happen.  Here are the top customer LMSs in the world: KMI Learning Latitude Learning Learndot   Honorable Mentions Accord LMS Expertus eLogic Learning Skilljar Litmos NetExam Totara YM Learning   BEST EMPLOYEE COMPLIANCE LMS You can’t get away from where LMSs started.  Employee and contractor compliance is a big problem for many organizations.  Federal and state and local jurisdictions enact training, safety and harassment regulations and then audit for compliance.  Non-compliance results in penalties and fines.  The more jurisdictions an organization does business within, the bigger the compliance management challenges they have. Industries such as pharmaceutical, biomedical, manufacturers, transportation, energy, financial, retail and many others are all required to deliver mandatory compliance training and be ready to prove it to auditors at any time.  Compliance LMSs are admin focused and have skills, competencies, audit trails, electronic signatures, strong ILT management, facility and resource management, broad content support and powerhouse reporting.  Our choices for the world’s best compliance LMS are:  Cornerstone IMC AG RISC   Honorable Mentions Absorb LMS Gyrus eLogic Learning NetDimensions Saba SumTotal WBT Systems   BEST TALENT LMS The talent LMSs used to be the tier one LMSs before they got acquired by the big HR software companies.  Talent LMSs are integrated into broader HR and talent suites of products including recruiting, succession, goals, performance, time,  payroll and provide a higher level of value - to progressive organizations - than stand alone employee compliance LMSs.  Talent LMSs support all flavors of employee use cases including career development, leadership development and on-boarding where the most productive workflows will tap into performance management, succession and other areas of talent management.  Data is shared from the talent and learning modules that effect content recommendations, skill and competency acquisition, succession planning and performance reviews. With increased complexity of workflow comes more administrative burden, time to implement and cost but also a higher return on investment. The world’s best talent LMS solution are: Saba Cornerstone SumTotal   Honorable Mentions CD2 Learning Infor Knoitall LearnShare Together JAZZ (a Skylab Italia Solution) SuccessFactors SurePeople   BEST ACADEMIC LMS The academic LMS market is very distinct from the others.  K-12, vocational school and higher education institutions still need a special system to manage students, classes, teachers and the interactions between them.  What is interesting is the technique and functionality required to train students by providing instructors the tools to assemble content, video record their sessions, introduce assignments, readings, homework, formal online learning, massive open online courses and social learning has been morphing into corporate, association and continuing education LMSs types.  At the same time, the development of ecommerce capabilities to attract non-captured student learners globally and sell content has been the big recent innovation in academic LMSs learned from the other types of LMSs.  Our choices for the best academic LMS are: Canvas Blackboard Moodle   Honorable Mentions accessplanit Desire2Learn EthosCE JoomlaLMS Paradiso SchoolKeep Sakai   BEST CONTINUING EDUCATION LMS Continuing education LMSs are targeting training companies of all types.  Countless for profit training companies create, deliver and manage accredited content for certain industries and regions in a CE LMS.  Whether they’re traditional training companies with instructors, brick and mortar facilities or whether they are new school training companies focused purely on ecommerce and online content. The products in this group look like Amazon or Best Buy and they have deep B2B and B2C e-commerce capability and a strategic ability to dynamically group users for target marketing and promotions. Traditional training management, CRM integration, virtual classrooms (integrated or native), ecommerce, sales tax management, complex CEU management, accreditation body integration are just some of the advanced feature sets available and required to be on this list. There are quite a few organizations that we think are really good in this category. Administrate YM Learning eLogic Learning   Honorable Mentions Peach New Media LearnUpon WBT Systems Firmwater SkyPrep NetExam CommPartners SmarterU Yardstick   ASSOCIATION LMS The association LMS space is extremely unique with explosive growth and innovation.  With the cloud LMSs, any association of any size or wealth can now have an association LMS.  The selling of accredited content to members and managing all their other learning activities is called non-dues revenue and it is big business.  Many association vendors entered the LMS space by being event planners for associations’ annual trade shows.  Association tradeshows are loaded with education sessions that needed to be managed and recorded and these vendors started growing LMSs to fit that exact need. Many corporate LMS providers have tried to capitalize on associations, but their employee focused nomenclature and mission makes much of their capabilities unneeded and an equal amount missing.  Association LMSs have tight integration with association management systems, B2B and B2C ecommerce, globalization, audience segmentation, mobile responsiveness, usable social learning, virtual classrooms, webcasting tools, podcasts, event management and are designed with ease of use in mind for all types of users.  This list was the most difficult to rank because there is so many great companies and we ended up with a four-way tie for 2nd place. The best association LMS vendors in the world are: 1.  WBT Systems 2.  Blue Sky Broadcast, CommPartners, WebCourseworks, YM Learning   Honorable Mentions Classroom 24/7 Digitec Interactive EthosCE Peach New Media  tessello TOPYX   BEST LMS THOUGHT LEADERS Part of the Talented Learning research process is to follow all LMS vendors on social media.  We monitor and read all their posts, content, interviews, research papers and case studies they promote.  We attend their webinars.   As LMS learning technology bloggers ourselves, we appreciate the work and dedication it takes to crank out good content. Some vendors are silent, some just promote their own products but a select few are trying to define the industry and move it forward for all. They give buyers tools and knowledge to buy better and smarter - even if it means they might buy another system. And so, here are who we think are the top 10 LMS thought leaders across the world…  Expertus Saba Totara   Honorable Mentions SpongeUK Administrate BizLibrary Growth Engineering Mindflash Peach New Media WebCourseworks Docebo Brightwave tessello   BEST LMS DEMONSTRATOR Being an LMS demonstrator is tough.  They are the hero when they win and the zero when they lose.  They are expected to deliver an impactful demonstration every time and do it better than the other 10 organizations the buyer is evaluating.  LMS demonstrators are in hot demand in the industry.  We can place a good demonstrator yesterday.  Demonstrators not only have to understand learning, the LMS and business objectives, but demo in a humorous, engaging way that is tailored to the audience.  Here are the best we’ve met:  Linda Bowers, WBT Systems Gary Underhill, YM Learning Joe Majors, Saba Software   Honorable Mentions Caleb Johnson, Expertus Caoimhín Gillespie, LearnUpon Kelley Shirazi Lunceford, Bluevolt Ezra Wolfe, EthosCE Meg Stevenson, tessello Sean McCarthy, SumTotal Tamer Ali, YM Learning   LMS SALES STAR Last but not least… A LMS sales job is increasingly difficult especially with the recent explosion in competition.  There are so many self-inflicted mistakes salespeople make time and again in the sales process.  In our role as analysts and LMS buyer consultants, we get to meet a ton of LMS sales people from around the world and see them sell in action. The best LMS salespeople listen more than they sell, solve problems, are super responsive, excellent writers, better presenters and can navigate a long winding sales cycle.  We don’t know if the following salespeople are the best in the world, but they are the best we have encountered. Ben Wagner, SchoolKeep Erin Pravane, Peach New Media Joe Yates, eLogic Learning   Honorable Mentions Tom Bronikowski , Expertus Travis Hudelson, Saba Kelley Shirazi Lunceford, BlueVolt Dan Medakovic, Blatant Absorb LMS Tim McDonnell, SumTotal Systems Jocelyn Fielding, Blue Sky Broadcast Meg Stevenson, tessello Caleb Johnson, Expertus Jim Lynch, Accord LMS   Access the 2015 LMS Awards Ceremony Recorded Webinar? Do you want to learn more about these vendors, LMS categories and market trends?  Tune into our webinar recording of our recent 2015 Talented Learning LMS Vendor Awards Ceremony by filling out the form below. First Name* Last Name* Email Address* Congratulations to all named winners -you deserve the recognition! The LMS market is thriving, morphing, evolving and expanding into all areas of selling content.  This is great news for everyone including buyers, sellers and anyone involved in creating content. Thanks for reading! The post 2015 Talented Learning LMS Vendor Award Recipients appeared first on Talented Learning.

  At Talented Learning, an independent learning tech market research and consulting firm, we recently compiled an obnoxious 85 question survey detailing over 450 points of LMS business, market and functional data.  We collected statistically significant hard data about the global LMS market providing us unparalleled and unique insight into what LMS buyers are buying today. Most other analysts’ surveys and resulting data are the output of sending out a blast email request to 100,000 HR professions and drawing conclusions from the few hundred responses from those who have too much time on their hands and dated LMS expertise. We took the much tougher path and went to the LMS vendors one by one to get the best, most accurate and timely data.  Seventy LMS vendors of all types have graciously filled it out so far.  Vendors are out on the front lines winning and losing every day.  They always know what is selling and what is not.  When vendors lose two or three sales opportunities because of the same lacking feature, it magically shows up on their product roadmap.  The functionality that exists in the collective LMS community illustrates what buyers are buying. Our survey was designed to allow us to measure and report on the popularity and scope of every LMS feature we have identified in our intensive LMS research. With the survey data we can now look at any feature or feature set and filter by LMS vendor type, vendor, business use of LMS, industry, hosting model, licensing model, region, language and many others.  To say that analyzing this survey data has further brought out the mad, mad scientist in me is an understatement. The 2015 Mobile LMS Today, let’s discuss what we learned about the 2015 mobile LMS capabilities and buyer preferences. Somewhat of a surprise on the high side, 90.8% of LMS vendors say that mobile delivery is a "critical" requirement for their LMS buyers.  How to accomplish mobile delivery has been the big question we wanted to answer though.  Over the last few years, I’ve read and written chronicles of conjecture about what mobile strategy is winning in the LMS industry — mobile responsiveness or mobile apps.  According to the data, the answer is both with the most progressive LMS vendors being fully mobile responsive for all users and also providing mobile apps that provide incremental capabilities.   Mobile Responsive Design A mobile responsive LMS "senses" the user device and automatically optimizes the text, graphics and menus to display perfectly without zooming, scrolling or downloads on any modern browser.   With a mobile responsive strategy a vendor can develop one LMS that clients can use on all devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. This approach is simple for vendors, buyers and knocks most technical challenges  out of the equation.  Learners have 100% of the functionality accessing the LMS from a mobile device, but not a smidge more.  Here are some key stats from the survey: My assessment:  Full mobile responsive design is the first goal of most vendors.  New vendors entering the LMS market start with 100% mobile responsive for every type of LMS users.  Older vendors that were born before the mobile age are retrofitting first the learner then the admin interfaces to be responsive.  The most progressive vendors are fully mobile responsive for all users while providing apps that provide incremental capabilities not available in the core LMS.   Mobile LMS Apps At first, most LMS mobile apps replicate varying portions of the vendor’s core LMS functionality in a mobile friendly interface.  Vendors typically start with learner, then manager and finally administrator functionality.  Over time, the mobile functionality expands into the innovative and cool mobile only features. Touch, swiping, offline content, location awareness, phone, camera and texting can be incorporated into various aspects of the learning process and automatically recorded in the core LMS.  On the downside, apps need to be downloaded and periodically updated by every individual who wants to use them adding a substantial technical challenge and support cost for buying organizations to deploy.  Vendors also have incremental costs to develop and maintain a "second" LMS. Here are some key statistics about the types of mobile apps available:   My Assessment:  Mobile apps are not as popular as responsive design in the industry.  A full 20% more vendors employ a responsive design vs. app for end users.  Due to the additional costs and technical challenges, if mobile apps are not providing incremental features to the core LMS, they are an unnecessary headache. However, the mobile only features are really cool, innovative and have some great application in the training world. Cool Mobile App Features Here are some mobile LMS features that are only available via apps that exist today in the industry: Receive and send text (SMS) notifications, registration approvals, private messages Switch devices without disrupting content, bookmarks or progress tracking Download SCORM and other content to device for offline use — and sync results back to LMS On-the-job training or observation checklists Informal learning tracking (xAPI) Scan and QR codes for content access Mobile codes for facility access or ability to start a vehicle/piece of machinery based on active certification "Presence Sensing" for live seminar/class attendance check in and check out In class polling, evaluations and teacher analytics Mobile drag and drop content creation/assembly/authoring Augmented reality of app use (via phone, Google Glass, tablet) to recognize products or equipment and assist user by launching relevant performance support, social or formal learning   Conclusion Five years ago, LMS vendors like most software companies, struggled with mobile and what to do.  New vendors went right to mobile responsive and older vendors dabbled in apps because retrofitting mobile responsive is difficult and expensive.  In 2015, LMS vendors have it figured out and use varying combinations of responsive and mobile apps.  Mobile responsive is practical.  Mobile apps are innovative.  The best strategy is a fully mobile responsive LMS with apps as a bonus.  That’s where the data says it is going. Thanks for reading!   You Like this Type of Data and Analysis? We got more where this came from.  We are in the final stages of consolidating our research of the last two years with the survey data to release our first, comprehensive LMS industry report in the new year.  In the report we will define: Corporate LMS Overview Employee and Extended Enterprise Industry Trends 20 Feature Sets Definitions Case Studies Galore Over 50 charts and graphics Comparison Matrices License and Pricing Guide Dozens of LMS Vendor Profiles Want us to notify you when we publish the report?  Fill out the form below: First Name* Last Name* Email Address* Company The post Mobile LMS: The Facts appeared first on Talented Learning.

As 2015 draws to a close, it makes sense to look back and reflect on highlights from the past year. It’s especially appropriate for our team at Talented Learning, because the New Year also marks our second anniversary and a chance to reflect on how far we have come and how far we have to go.   Our Content Starts with Conversations We founded Talented Learning to be a fresh, independent, accurate and practical voice in the learning technology industry.  We wanted to determine why there are so many LMS vendors in the world so we could help LMS buyers make better, wiser choices.  At first in 2014, we blogged about what we knew.  Now, we blog about what we learn from conversations. We uniquely research both the supply and demand side of the LMS equation to formulate an analysis of what is actually going on in the market.  So far, we have conducted in-depth reviews of over 100 LMS vendors, and we’ve developed executive communication channels with almost every one of those companies.  We also speak with vendors’ customers, so we can learn about how they are using the LMS, for what purpose and with what gain.  Finally, we consult with LMS buyers to define what they really need and match them with the right vendor for their goals and requirements. As lead analyst at Talented Learning, I personally speak to 2-3 vendors, LMS buyers or practicing professionals every single day.  With each conversation, I learn something new and I use this blog to organize my thoughts and share them openly with the world. So, before highlighting some of our most popular content, I want to say thank you for your interest in Talented Learning. Every time you read or share one of our posts or attend one of our webinars, you’re trusting us with your time and attention. We’ll do our best to continue honoring that trust by providing information and advice that helps you make better business decisions about learning technology. We published over 40 articles this year.  Here is a quick guide to our "greatest hits" of 2015:   #10  Talented Learning LMS Reviews LMS reviews are the backbone of our site.  Collectively, they attract the most attention and traffic.  We think it is because we have a unique approach.  We don’t aim to find holes or gaps based on arbitrary standards.  Rather, we use the opportunity to understand what makes a vendor great, and why.  We learn about who is buying their LMS and what problems their solution solves.  To learn about some interesting advancements, read our reviews of Tesselo, Digital Ignite (now YM Learning), RISC, TalentLMS and Gyrus.   #9  Intro to Continuing Education and the Admin Nightmare In the U.S., delivering and consuming continuing education is a $47 billion dollar business.  However, most learning management systems are terrible at managing the complexities of continuing education.  Why the disconnect?  In this first installment of a 3-part series, we dig into the technical and logistic challenges that exist in the medical, financial and healthcare industries when managing continuing education.  If you sell or manage CEUs of any flavor, this post is for you!   #8  LinkedIn Outfoxes Many with Lynda.com Acquisition In our top LMS prediction of 2015, we claimed that this would be the year of extended enterprise learning.  Truthfully, we were not thinking this big by a country mile.  LinkedIn now sells learning content and certifications to 400 million captured users, generating tens of millions in revenue and it is disrupting the markets for workforce development, MOOCs and LMS software. To learn how LinkedIn created the world’s largest extended enterprise learning site by acquiring Lynda.com, read this post.   #7  Top 10 LMS Demonstrators in the World We’ve received a ton of fantastic feedback about this fun post!  I’m sure it’s because we struck a nerve.  Most of us have had to sit through way too many underwhelming LMS demonstrations.  When you experience a good one, you know it.  Vendors can’t sell software without great product demos and demonstrators who can breathe life into software are worth their weight in gold.  In my career I’ve delivered or attended well over 2000 LMS demos.  In this post, I recognize the best demonstrators I have seen and explain why.   #6  Buying an LMS?  101 Acronyms You Should Know In an article I wrote about conducting better LMS demonstrations, I advised LMS vendors to drop insider jargon and acronyms from their vocabulary when speaking with potential customers.  If LMS buyers can’t understand you, it’s tough to win their business.  However, I concluded that it will take too long to teach 600+ LMS vendors the new anti-acronym trick and the easiest path would be to create a living, non-techie dictionary that decodes common acronyms for LMS buyers.  What I didn’t know is that I would find over 100 LMS acronyms without even trying!  How many do you know?   #5  Workday Announces New LMS:  My Thoughts HR/Talent LMS providers devalued the LMS market when they acquired former tier-1 LMS providers and halfheartedly integrated them into their broader suites.  Employee LMSs quickly became regarded as a commodity, not a competitive differentiator, when included in enterprise software sales opportunities.  It was a losing proposition for learning and training professionals as well as the workforce learners they serve.  But this year we saw Workday take the first step to change all that by announcing the 2016 release of a home-grown, NextGen LMS.  Using available public info and some intuition I outline the impact this move is likely to have on the learning technology industry going forward.   #4  Ten Ways to Drive Profit with an Extended Enterprise LMS Extended enterprise learning is the hottest area of LMS innovation this year. Smart companies are leveraging it as a business weapon. They use it to build communities of customers, partners and resellers and provide learning interventions that measurably change behavior within those communities.  That change results in more sales of primary products and/or content and leads to happier, more loyal customers.  In this post, we outline the best ways we have found to gain and sustain competitive advantage by training your non-employees.   #3  2015 Talented Learning LMS Vendor Awards Everybody loves awards!  This post attracted a year’s-worth of traffic in only one month.  We’re not surprised because over 60 LMS vendors are featured for their excellence in 11 product, marketing and sales-related categories. We also include a rationale for each award, an overview of today’s LMS market landscape and a link to the award webcast replay.  If you want to know who is shaping the LMS market in 2015 and why they’re ahead of the pack, this is a must-read.   #2  Dispatch from the Front Lines I’ve seen a lot on the LMS front - more than most.  Educated as an economist and then an instructional technologist, I spent 13 years selling LMS software. Along the way, I became obsessed with studying the LMS sales cycle and understanding how to maximize effectiveness in every step to improve my odds of winning.  My obsession led to 100 new clients, several hundred losses and over $50 million in revenue.  Now, as an LMS selection consultant, I see countless sales efforts -good, bad and horrendous.  In this funny (and slightly corny) post, I report on some LMS sales war stories I’ve recently encountered.   #1  Top 10 LMS Predictions for 2015 Hands-down we’ve received more interest in the LMS predictions we published last January than any other post this year. I still stand by this technology trend forecast so you may find it useful as a benchmark for learning innovation in your organization. Are you looking for an updated forecast as we move into 2016? Glad you asked. We’ll be posting more LMS predictions at the start of the New Year. So stay tuned.   And as always… Thanks for reading!   Coming Soon: The Talented Learning LMS Insights Report Our team is in the final stages of consolidating two years of research and survey data to release our first, comprehensive LMS industry report.  This analysis includes: Corporate LMS Overview Employee and Extended Enterprise Insights Learning Technology Industry Trends 20 Modern LMS Feature Sets Defined Case Studies Galore 50+ Charts and Graphics Comparison Grids Licensing and Pricing Guide Dozens of LMS Vendor Profiles Do you want us to notify you when the report is available? Submit the form below: First Name* Last Name* Email Address* Company   The post Talented Learning: Greatest Hits of 2015 appeared first on Talented Learning.