by Brian Clark | capability, change, crm, learning and development, learning management systems, LMS, Uncategorized
There is no doubt accounting firms are under pressure for both fees and service delivery. This can be considered disruption. There are a few reasons for this pressure and it will only intensify. Here are some reasons:
* Businesses are questioning the amount of fees they pay annually for compliance services against the perceived value they receive from these services.
* Accounting firms are facing a technology tidal wave that will shift much of the compliance work to ‘bots’ that deliver higher accuracy and cost a fraction of a qualified accountant.
* The complex operating environment facing companies is encouraging them to seek outside expertise to remain competitive and sustainable; unfortunately they rarely look at their accountants to provide such services.
These disruptive changes are compelling proactive firms to focus on developing other capabilities to maintain and grow revenue. The most common focus is on building revenue from advisory services. One would normally think accounting firms are well positioned to delivery advisory services. They may be well positioned, but many lack the competencies needed to uncover opportunities, scope advisory projects and execute the delivery phase for a successful result.
We were engaged to help a firm build an advisory capability without increasing the headcount. Our project including a number of phases that included strategic planning, business model development, behavioural competency assessment, training and coaching. Our process included a small digital transformation with the inclusion of work to improve use of the incumbent information management system, CRM and the introduction of a learning management system, (LMS).
We implemented a learning management system to support our transition strategy as well as sustain competency development across the firm. Below are some of the key outcomes we have achieved thus far with the LMS.
* Communities of practice to foster sharing of ideas, best practices and content.
* Learning linked to performance reviews and career planning.
* Tracking learning and participation in communities of practice.
* Self-publishing content using standard tools like PowerPoint, Sway, audio and video.
* Team publishing by practice teams to share with teams in other locations and colleagues.
Our ongoing strategic focus for the LMS includes:
* Eliminate knowledge drain.
* Replicate the learning across the organisation at lower cost.
* Develop individual learning pathways for advisors based on subject matter expertise and market sector focus.
by Kathleen Bosworth | learning management systems, LMS
Recently, a client asked me about the “lessons learned” from previous LMS implementations with other clients. As a project manager for a hundred or more LMS implementations, I have identified some common issues with previous implementations that clients consistently encounter on the pathway to a successful LMS implementation. Even with our internal processes to proactively avert these client issues, sometimes they can have a significant impact on project success.
If you are implementing an LMS in the near future, it may be worthwhile to find measures to deal with these issues to ensure a smoother and successful implementation:
- Leaving the IT components as late as possible will put your LMS implementation at risk.
An LMS is a system, after all, and therefore will require involvement from internal IT resources.
- Typically, the IT tasks involve creating domain names (usually sub-domains of an existing client domain) or an email address to be utilised for the LMS from address.
- It usually means the purchase of an SSL certificate.
- It may even involve activities associated with authentication methods (e.g., single sign-on). These items are quite technical and can be daunting.
It is human nature to put off items we do not understand. Most LMS project implementations are managed by learning and development teams who may need more information on these IT matters.
With a recent LMS implementation, the client PM had set a go live deadline, but had issues in getting their IT department to understand the importance of having an SSL certificate for the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). Finally, the client IT department purchased the SSL but did not have the network ports configured correctly to allow the LMS server to make a connection. It took several days at the last minute and in a rush to sort out the SSL and correct network port configuration by the client IT department.
Imagine Friday afternoon before a go live on Monday (that had been advertised to the whole company) – high anxiety moment in the best of times. Finally, the client network port were finally configured correctly to be able to use the SSL certificate for LDAP. As the vendor company, we had to make a decision as to whether there was enough time on that Friday afternoon to install the SSL for LDAP so that the client could go live on Monday. The client project manager left work on Friday not knowing whether we were going to be able install the SSL after business hours so that they could go live on Monday. It was a close call.
Recommendation:
- Have IT stakeholder involvement in the project from the beginning.
- Have a clear list of tasks that your IT department needs to complete
- Make sure your IT department commits to the timelines and are accountable
A client IT team is crucial for a successful LMS implementation.
- Clients sometimes have only a general idea of the business processes and learning workflows, but are not prepared for the detailed understanding required for an LMS implementation.
People usually choose to implement a learning management system to solve issues regarding learning, competency and reporting requirements; among other reasons. A learning management system by its very nature requires business processes and learning workflows to be systemised. If client business processes and learning workflows are not documented, how can the learning and/or competencies be put into a learning management system?
Sometimes clients start an LMS implementation coming from a mixed-up world of spreadsheets and inconsistent processes or workflows. When clients do not have documented business process or learning workflows, it is the most common cause of a project cost and timeline blowout.
A recent client with multiple divisions and only using spreadsheets embarked on an LMS implementation. There was an exhaustive exploration of LMS functionality during the procurement process. The client team had a general idea of their internal business processes and learning workflows without much documentation. After a significant amount of time trying to map previously stated requirements from the procurement process, it became clear that documenting specific business processes and learning workflows in a detailed manner was required.
Recommendation:
- Do your homework prior to beginning an implementation by documenting business processes and learning workflows
- In businesses with multiple divisions, decide whether internal business processes or learning workflows are to be harmonised or operate independently
- Know your data – where it is coming from, who owns it and what you are going to do with it.
Do not expect an LMS implementation will sort out the lack of internal learning workflows documentation; that is a separate piece of work that should be undertaken prior to the commencement of the implementation or add additional time during the implementation for this work. Being prepared will minimise risks associated project implementation costs and timelines.
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, learning management systems, LMS
This list is only a simple primer to help you cross check your Learning Management System selection process. We have developed a very detailed requirement analysis for undertaking a selection process for companies researching a new or replacement LMS.
Features are usually front of mind. It is easy to go for the LMS with the most features, however these features may not map to your requirements. Features that are poorly designed and lack usability will only bring frustration to your administrators and users. Be clear on the features and functions you require and then test them out with scenarios. I recommend you ask the potential LMS vendors about their product development roadmap. When you review the roadmap you will be able to identify current gaps (if any) as well as where the vendor is focusing their development resources.
Customer support has a great deal of variability in the LMS world. Most of the larger enterprise vendors have documented service level agreements as part of their licensing documents. There are some enterprise vendors that will also negotiate service level agreements and this may incur additional costs. On the other end of the spectrum are vendors that offer a standard level of customer support and more lengthy response and escalation times. The main point here is to ensure you will get the support level that makes sense for your business and its requirements.
Integration with your existing and future information systems may not be on your initial selection criteria, however it should be. Whether you wish to integrate as part of the initial roll-out or later on, you do not want to be restricted in the future when you need to share data with your payroll, HRIS, CRM or other type of platform. You may also want to integrate using LDAP, SAML, Active Directory etc. These integrations may make populating and keeping your users up to date much easier.
Pricing models in the LMS market are highly variable. For the most part they are based on user numbers but there are vendors that throw other variables in the mix such as number of administrators, number of courses, enrolments etc. You may discover at some point in the future that these extra variables may be restrictive from a cost point of view. If you need to scale your system, it is best to be very clear on what costs are going to be incurred.
Mobile friendly learning management systems are the norm now. A web based LMS should be accessible by learners using mobile phones and tablet devices. The differences here tend to be based on solutions that use apps or those that have an online portal or a responsive design. You want to make sure the user interface for the mobile user is still easy to navigate.
If you are considering your first LMS or seeking a replacement, we can help you out with our research and selection services. We have comprehensive documentation on system requirements, workflows and business case models. We have assisted a wide range of clients in a number of industries select and implement the right Learning Management solution.
- Mining
- Construction
- Banking and Finance
- Energy
- Healthcare
- Government
- Aviation
by Brian Clark | learning management systems, LMS
It is difficult to undertake a selection process for a software system that is as feature rich as an enterprise learning management system, (LMS). If you are an organisation that can get by with one of the many less capable LMS available you do not have as much at risk. Even with a fully considered and scoped out business requirements document, there are still some blind spots that can throw a spanner in an otherwise well planned LMS procurement process.
This is a list of the most common issues that often get discovered after an LMS has been implemented. In some cases these issues were not forecast or anticipated and in others the vendor committed them to a development roadmap that has not been met.
- Your users, contractors, temporary personnel and employees need to upload files as proof of skills or competence. You want to make this a self service capability but file uploads and validity periods are not included in your LMS. This is a real problem when you have large contracting workforces who arrive at work with various credentials to undertake work. You do not want to devote your precious L & D and administration resources to uploading files if you can avoid it.
- The LMS does not have extensive integration capabilities. The API may be limited or not be as pervasive in the LMS as first thought. You may discover this when you upgrade other systems or simply want to share data with a data warehouse, payroll or rostering software.
- Your people move around a bit and you want an easy way to move people into different business units, departments and job roles without losing historical data or jumping through hoops to adjust your organisational structure due to promotions, contract changes, relocations, terminations, acquisitions etc.
- Your compliance requirements are complex and this impacts workflows, pre-requesites, co-requesites, validity periods, gap analysis reporting, notifications, alerts and many other features you need to ensure you are minimising risk from compliance issues. This is an area that requires very careful consideration and scenario testing. If your business has multiple sites, can you filter reports to run against specific user populations?
- The learning experience needs to be as seamless and automated as possible to reduce administration tasks maintaining your LMS. Learning and activity sequencing is critical to this. At some point you will want to set up a series of ‘if this, then that’ sequences for learning pathways and programs.
- To maximise productivity you want to decentralise some administrative and reporting to those closest to the workforce. You want to ensure permissions, access, reporting and other administrative tasks can be cascaded down the organisation as opposed to having it all being done centrally.
- Learning plans may be mandatory for a particular job role, voluntary or part of a development plan. Ideally you can assign multiple learning plans to a person that can operate concurrently. You may have a graduate intake, induction and learning plans for a particular job role all assigned to a person.
If you need some advice or a business requirements checklist, please get in touch. We are happy to share our collective knowledge without trying to push you into one LMS or another.
by Brian Clark | learning and development, learning management systems, LMS
Do you have a sense that interest and engagement with your LMS is in decline? Is it only a sense or have you been confronted with metrics showing declining enrolments, logins and participation? These are some ideas on how you can reverse the decline trend and ignite interest and engagement with your elearning programs.
These ideas vary in complexity and cost to implement. I suggest you consider these ideas in the context of both your target audiences and the resources you have available. 
- Add social to your elearning. This may be in your LMS, using social platforms or a mixture of both. You might be surprised to find that a Facebook Group focused on a learning topic or general subject matter will prompt higher participation rates and interest. In both a social platform and your LMS make sure you encourage question and answer, forums, course ratings and surveys. Some organisations have been successful encouraging social collaboration by rating questions, answers and published content and offering awards.
- Mobile learning is no longer an option. You will compromise your participation rates without enabling people to access learning on mobile and tablet devices. Make sure your learning is always available with fast access and mobile is the way to achieve this. Make sure there is learning available that does not require an enrolment process or other barrier to entry.
- People do not have the time or attention span to endure long online learning modules. Make sure your learning content is short and to the point. Short modules can be combined to create longer courses. I recommend modules of 5 to 10 minutes duration. If you go much beyond this a person will lose focus and attention. Your people may be accessing learning on their mobile devices in all sorts of environments so you want to make it easy for them to start and complete a module with the greatest chance for success.
- You can ‘gamify’ your elearning. This does not have to be overly complicated. You simply determine what the parameters of the game are and then implement measurement and tracking. It can be assigning points to courses and people accumulate points as they complete courses. You can award points for participation in social collaboration and sharing. There are many ways to do this. Remember you are not wanting to encourage a toxic competitive culture, you want to make learning fun.
- Case studies are a good way to capture interest. Case studies are great for learning concepts since people can relate to them. You can add coaching and social collaboration to case study learning for even more impact.
If you are facing declining participation rates in your organisation’s elearning you may have reached a fork in the road. You have the choice of the carrot or the stick. The carrot is always more effective to create change and encouraging people to participate in learning is no different. I hope these five ideas will help you out.
