Over the course of its nearly 30-year lifespan, the learning management system has evolved into a product that isn’t just a one-size-fits-all solution. Today’s user has over a thousand options, with varying applications, deployments and features.

The use case is a handy way to appraise how well an LMS will meet your needs and to understand how features are developed and utilised. Most vendors will focus on a certain industry or function for their LMS such as training, compliance or professional development.

Consider these 3 popular uses for the LMS.

• Employee Training: The most common use for the LMS is to deliver internal employee training and professional development. Organisations adopt eLearning through an LMS because it allows organisations to facilitate and monitor self-paced learning, is easy to access and builds a technologically familiar environment.
• Third-Party Training: In Australia, registered training organisations (RTOs) are industry-accredited assessors and providers of training, usually offering and bestowing certain qualifications. An LMS makes facilitating this much easier thanks to automated learning pathways.
• Commoditised Content Providers: These providers offer content or courses as part of a paid service – usually as a B2C transaction. An LMS provides a central portal for a provider’s clients to browse, purchase and engage with content through eCommerce integrations.

In addition to considering your use case, you should also consider the price tag, what your IT team is capable of, what your workforce looks like and, most of all, your goal for implementation.

Deployment refers to how an LMS is hosted and essentially who is responsible for maintaining, updating and upgrading the software. There are 3 key types to consider:



At the end of the day, the factors that decide your choice are unique to your organisation. That said, there are five key points of consideration that will ultimately help you pick what is worth your time and money.

• Content compatibility vs capabilities: Most online solutions require content to be in the form of SCORM or xAPI (formerly TinCan). This leaves organisations with two options – convert current resources or build them from scratch. Keep in mind not all LMSs come with in-built authoring tools, nor will vendors necessarily help create content.
• Interoperability vs workload: One of the best features of the LMS is integrations with internal and external systems. However, some may charge additional fees depending on your vendor. Installing and maintaining them is a lengthy and nuanced process.
• Budget vs projected number of users: Some suppliers will only charge per active user, so you only pay for what is being used. Others charge regardless of usage. The more accurately you can predict your user numbers and how they will change, the easier it will be to choose an affordable pricing model.
• Personalised analytics vs big data: Whatever the case, you likely want an LMS with user-friendly reporting and analytic capabilities. Reporting features aren’t standardised, so what you seek may be very different to what a vendor is offering.
• Development vs vendor timeline: The innovation of a supplier directly speaks to the long-term viability of their LMS. A cloud-based system will often see you get first-hand access to pilot new features as they roll out. But development isn’t always guaranteed. Some vendors won’t reveal or don’t even have plans for new features or functionalities.

No vendor can prescribe a bespoke solution for you. Thinking about an LMS holistically allows you to understand some of the trade-offs you might make to choose a solution that’s right for you.

For a more in-depth look at weighting up your LMS options, have a read of the full article.