Implementing an LMS can sometimes come with hidden costs. If you have purchased an LMS that is just not for your organization, there will be instances where you lose money. Sometimes there can be even some unfortunate events like glitches in the LMS that will eat up some of your corporate budgets. Meanwhile, a good LMS like Adobe Captivate Prime can help you create courses that make a difference in a more cost and time-efficient way.
Purchasing an LMS is already a big enough investment and naturally, you wouldn’t want to spend more money on the hidden costs. So, here are some ways to avoid the hidden costs of LMS implementation;
Identify your objectives
When you don’t have a plan, there are chances that you might feel a little directionless while purchasing an LMS for the first time. You might even end up investing in unnecessary features while missing out on the essential ones. You can lose your money on this hidden cost of implementing an LMS.
Before purchasing a new LMS, it is important to understand why you are purchasing it. Start with identifying your eLearning goals and objectives. These objectives will give you direction while choosing the best LMS for your organization.
So make a list of the objectives that are an immediate priority to you and focus on them rather than calculating what you ‘might’ need in the future.
Understand the skills of your employees
There is no point in investing in a learning management system if your team isn’t prepared to operate it. By not using the LMS in proper ways, you miss out on the opportunity of making the most out of it all. If your L&D team doesn’t have the necessary skills to utilize an LMS to its fullest potential, you might end up investing in an LMS and also pay for outsourced training material at the end of the day. Thus, losing a lot of money. So it is important to assess the skillsets of your team and make sure that the new system that has been implemented will be used to the fullest.
Discuss with your vendor
While purchasing an LMS, holding a prior discussion is considered as one of the best practices. Your vendor knows the LMS inside and out. And if they are a good vendor, they must be transparent enough to answer all your questions and doubts about their LMS so that you as a customer can an informed choice.
Make a list of your goals and objectives, discuss with your vendor how their LMS can fulfill each objective on the list.
Evaluate support services
To run an LMS effectively, good support service is necessary. Many people just assume that LMSs come with free, in-built support. But in reality, many vendors charge more for support. This support fee can come to you as a hidden cost. In some cases, you even need to hire experts to update your LMS.
Discuss with your vendor about the support policies and ensure that you already know all the types of hidden costs that you can encounter.
Assign roles at the early stage itself
Even when you have an L&D team with all the necessary skills to utilize an LMS, it still might take some time to get acquainted with the new technology. Thus, to give the team members enough time to settle with the LMS, it is a good practice to assign the appropriate roles early within the implementation procedure. When you do so, all the employees in the team get some time to figure things out about the LMS and their responsibility. This can increase your team’s productivity, after all.
Test run the LMS you are implementing
While purchasing a new LMS, make sure to test the system multiple times. Testing your LMS will help you assess every feature and tool that your LMS offers. You can also find possible glitches and issues in the systems that can make a mistake and cost you money otherwise. When you test the LMS you ensure that you have time to fix any issues that are in the LMS rather than having to encounter unhappy learners. Testing also helps you set a more realistic roll-out schedule for the implementation of your LMS.
Conclusion
Buying the wrong LMS for your organization wouldn’t just affect the way you train your employees but it will cost you money along with the already wasted resources on the purchase of the system. You can easily avoid such situations with some good practices of research, testing, and assessments. Avoid having to go through buyer’s remorse and take advantage of the free demos and trials to make sure that the LMS is fit for you.