With more than 20 vendors in today's LMS market, the process of selecting the right provider can be daunting. Our strategic advisors have helped dozens of companies make these important decisions.

Barb Arth, a senior advisor at Bersin & Associates, recently completed such an engagement for a leading global aircraft manufacturer. Using our LMS research and tools, Arth helped the company complete an extensive evaluation of leading LMS providers in under eight weeks. The analysis also laid the groundwork to meet a highly aggressive implementation schedule.

Arth offers four tips for companies considering an LMS purchase:
1. Create a dedicated project team for the effort which includes all stakeholder representatives, including business leaders, IT, and L&D.

2. Make sure you have a clear definition of your organization's learning strategy and critical business priorities. This company's expansion plans, a recent acquisition, and a strategy highly dependent on informal learning were factors which greatly influenced selection.

3. Forget the demos and rely on use scenarios to put systems through their paces. Well-constructed scenarios will give you a clear representation of what you'll actually get - and provide you a standard set of quantitative and qualitative assessments for all vendors.

4. Be committed to documenting detailed product requirements. Yes, it's painful and time-consuming. But skimping on this step - or putting it off until after you make a decision - is inviting implementation trouble.