How to Buy Enterprise LMS and LCMS Solutions

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How to Buy Enterprise LMS and LCMS Solutions

• Bryan Chapman
• Chief Learning Strategist
• Chapman Alliance
• bryan_at_chapmanalliance.com

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Learning Technology Infrastructure
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2 Million Solution

• Large Finance Company
• 25,000 Learners
• Scope Creep
• Should have paid about 500,000

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Who you should consider for your committee

• Yourself (who are you? champion!)
• Training Representative(s)
• Global
• Line of Business
• Human Resources
• IT
• Other Champions
• Consultants
• Others?

What about the size of the group?
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20 Questions to isolate learning infrastructure
needs

• Hosted vs. Locally Installed?
• 80 of e-learning content?
• Off-the-Shelf content?
• Multiple-Languages?
• Basic vs. Advanced Classroom Management?
• Skill-Gap Analysis/ Competency Management?
• Regulatory and Compliance Tracking?
• Knowledge Management?
• Performance/HCM?
• Level of Reporting?

• Collaboration?
• Virtual Classroom?
• ERP Connectivity?
• E-Commerce?
• Systems Requirements? (Database, Server,
  Restrictions?
• Offline Learners?
• Multiple Portals Single Implementation?
• Specific Use Case Needs?
• Buy in from all Stakeholders?
• Budget/Pricing Sensitivity?

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How to Create the Ideal RFP
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How to Create the Ideal RFP
Many people view an RFP as simply a legal
document that describes the desired contractual
and working relationship between supplier and
consumer to secure a bid for a given training
project. It is designed to protect consumers from
bad deals and vendors that might fall into
bankruptcy but an RFP is much more than that.
Chapman, B. How to Create the Ideal RFP. Training
Magazine. Volume 41 (1). pp. 40-43
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How to Create the Ideal RFP
An RFP represents a critical point in the
process that literally requires you to document
your training needs using completely unambiguous
narrative text, so that every member of your
strategy team, other stakeholders and potential
vendors will understand exactly what you are
trying to accomplish.
Chapman, B. How to Create the Ideal RFP. Training
Magazine. Volume 41 (1). pp. 40-43
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Vendor pre-qualification checklist
Sample
The Solution must   1.    be a fully hosted
solution including off site hosting for the
LCMS/LMS, hosting for course content and learner
performance data, vendor-supplied hardware, and
support staff 2.    be a full featured,
multi-author, content-management environment in
which staff can create, store, reuse, manage and
deliver e-learning courseware from a single,
central remote content repository 3.    be able
to support content development from 6 different
geographic locations including development sites
in Texas, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and
Eastern Canada while allowing e-learning courses
to be deployed to approximately 7500 learners
across all 6 locations as well 4.    have
built-in content creation tools suitable for
novice development of e-learning courses
including a wide variety of interactive test
question types and simultaneously allow for
interactive content from 3rd party authoring
tools such as Dreamweaver and Flash also,
support streaming media 5.    allow trainers and
subject matter experts to work initially in
Microsoft Word and PowerPoint as a method of
content development (templates/utilities/forms
for converting Word/PowerPoint to
e-learning) 6.    .allow each training
department to reuse content by modifying it for
their own needs (customization) without
duplicating content
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Use Cases

• Learner Perspective
• Training Administrator/Registrar Perspective
• Course Developer/Curriculum Manager Perspective
• HR Perspective
• IT Prespective
• Others?

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Use Case for Evaluation Purposes
Sample
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RFP - trends

• More requests for internal development of
  e-learning content
• Desire to include Novice in instructional
  development Process
• More sophisticated requests for business system
  integration
• Departmental solutions vs. full enterprise wide
  solutions, still in the majority
• Huge emphasis on financial viability of the
  vendor.
• Single source solutions

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LMS Top RFP requests

• Standards-based, e-learning launching and
  tracking capability
• Open model for interoperability with 3rd party
  e-learning content
• Freeform, ad hoc, customizable reports
• Strong Classroom management capabilities with
  full resource/instructor management
• Experience and planned-process for ERP/CRM (plus
  other business systems) integration
• Pre-integrated content development and/or content
  management capabilities
• Extended Performance Management functionality,
  such as competency management, regulatory
  compliance tracking, 360 degree evaluation, OJT
  tracking, etc.
• Quick, efficient implementation
• Reasonable price
• Financial Viability of the LMS Vendor

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LCMS Top RFP requests

• Novice Friendly, Rapid Development content
  authoring and/or content assembly tools
• Well defined model for importing Microsoft
  documents PowerPoint and Word
• Supports a wide variety of popular 3rd party
  content authoring tools like Flash, Authorware,
  Dreamweaver, Lectora, Trainersoft, etc.
• Strong adherence to standards and specifications
  (SCORM and AICC)
• Tested Interoperability with 3rd party LMS
• Well-defined model for reusing and re-purposing
  learning objects to create multiple, derivative
  versions of the same course, for different
  learners.
• Adaptive Learning through Dynamic pretesting
• Support multiple output types (most requested
  print documentation, also PALM, PocketPC and
  Just-in-time help)
• Revision Control, Archiving and File Management
• Workflow Management

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Definition

• LCMS (èl-see-em-ess)
• A multi-user environment where learning
  developers can create, store, reuse, manage, and
  deliver digital learning content from a central
  object repository.
• Acronym for Learning Content Management System.

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Anatomy of an LCMS
Content Creation Interfaces
Content Assembly Interface (course hierarchy)
Database Storage
Publish Learning (add navigation controls, etc.)
Output Formats
D E L I V E R Y E N G I N E
M I D D L E W A R E
Assemble at runtime
Microsoft Word
e-Learning
Pre-compile
Learning Object Repository
PowerPoint
CD-ROM
Output Type?
Built-in Authoring Utilities (Browser-Based
or Locally Installed Application)
Print-based
C\Media
Flash (and other 3rd party Authoring tools)
PALM (and other mobile devices)
HTML Editor Embedded or external
EPSS
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Cisco (20,000 field sales)
Content Collection occurs before ADDIE (Knowledge
Repository)
Learning Content
E-learning Courses
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When you should consider an LCMS

• 80 hours of seat time per year
• 10 or more content contributors
• Need to rebrand content
• Automatic navigation controls Common e-learning
  player
• Support multiple output types (print-based, EPSS,
  PocketPC, etc.)
• LMS in place, but cant keep pace with content
  needs

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Scope Understanding Costs
LMS Average Licensing Costs Locally Installed
N52
Source LMS KnowlegeBase In Depth Profiles of 52
Learning Management Systems, With Custom
Comparison Across 200 Features, published by
brandon-hall.com.
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Scope Understanding Costs
LMS Average Licensing Costs Hosted
N52
Source LMS KnowlegeBase In Depth Profiles of 52
Learning Management Systems, With Custom
Comparison Across 200 Features, published by
brandon-hall.com.
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Questions???

• Bryan Chapman
• Chief Learning Strategist
• Chapman Alliance
• bryan_at_chapmanalliance.com