The Next Step of the LMS Implementation

THE NEXT STEP OF THE LMS IMPLEMENTATION

Time and time again, customers hire a consultant for an implementation and soon after the SOW expires, they want to take care of things in house to save money;  nevertheless, as an Consultant you know this can turn into a mess, without any type of outside support.

Someone reading this blog, might say, normally when a customer signs a SOW for an LMS, it includes a learning bundle for training and they can report issues to the Vendor.  This might work for some customers.  If you are a customer that needs more one on one/face to face support, then you probably want to hire on a Technology Consultant for “The Next Step” of rolling out your LMS.

Often after an implementation is live in Production, many companies conquer their next phases.  Companies often roll out the new system to other Regions or Departments within the company.  When this is done, there are always new training involved and new issues.

In the “next phase” a customer will begin to add more or new and revise existing items.  This sometimes can affect issues from human error, resulting in accurate reporting.  When the reporting is wrong, it causes an Admin to take time away from their day to day & hope they can find resolution.  Also in the “Next Phase” there could be request for “automatic” processes.  If not set up correctly, it will affect employees not being assigned training.

At the end of the day, all of this will be additional time to the Admin’s day to day job.  A Technical Consultant, who has implemented the LMS, can help reduce cost and time by supporting a customer’s LMS team.  They are the SME and have the connections if further assistance is needed.

A Technical Consultant can support the customer with doing live webinars.  They can train the Managers and the end users.  They understand working in retail/warehouse/hospital/bank, etc., assisting the customer is priority, so they can create a weekly/monthly/quarterly schedule of trainings to help them navigate through the system.  This will give the customer lots of opportunities to pick training and save on cost of travel.

Lastly a Technical Consultant could provide a customer with open forums on a monthly basis for Managers and Admins.   At these open forums, it is an opportunity for a Manager or Admin to ask any question related to the system or express a wish list. 

Remember implementing a new LMS is never a straightforward process.  There are certainly no quick fixes.  The key is to communicate a vision and to guide an organization to strategic planning early in the project.  Those who have successfully implemented strategic plans often have great results.  Those that don’t will probably need that extra assistance from the outside.

The goal is to keep a company prospering.  There's so much to learn, and so many things can go wrong.  If a customer can do it on their own, that is great;  nevertheless, at the end of the day, the customer must weigh the, “Cost”, “Effort” and “Risk”.  If one outweighs the other, then the customer has a decision to make.   Always remember, implementing an LMS is not a destination but a journey.