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When introducing any new system, expectations must be clearly identified and communicated. This is the most critical part to the overall outcome, dictating the success from implementation to the quality of training delivered.
Human expectations, perceived vs. actual, are difficult to quantify, and a whole different topic which we will not analyze here. What is critical to understand, is the importance of communicating actual expectations into requirements, to result in a system that will perform the task at hand.
This is why we have introduced the “identify requirements/set expectations” stage on any eFrontPro implementation projects, to help guide customers and ensure their LMS portal will be useful, easy to use effectively and within budget.
The next most important factor to determine a successful implementation, is to decide “who will do what”; what each team will do. There are certain things that are better and more effectively performed by the team behind the Learning and Talent Development Platform, whereas others are more effectively performed by the customer team.
Let’s take a look at this in more detail, as this can save both parties time and resources during an implementation, which ultimately determines its success.
In many cases, each customer has their own very specific requirements, which cannot be met out of the box by any Learning and Talent Development Platform. If they are feature-related or involve core functionality of the LMS, then the LMS team is most likely better suited to deal with these. They have expertise on how the Learning Management System operates and will be more efficient to develop it properly, while ensuring the ability to update to future releases.
When requirements involve other aspects, such as UI branding, integrations with third party systems or display of information in a different format (e.g. custom reports), this is more effectively performed by the client side. They can outsource to a third party if they are not able to undertake such projects in-house.
Involving more than one team in a project will get the outcome delivered faster, with better end results, as each team focuses on what they do best, and within the set time frames.
This is obvious, but needs to be mentioned. Once any custom work is included, the customer should upload some sample content and users, to ensure the user experience is on par with their set expectations. Content and user experience of training should also be considered at this stage, because it takes time to create good content.
This is a good stage to arrange any training of the LMS, if required, for the team that will be administering the portal, so they are proficient in the core functionality as well as any custom features included. This will also help make sure the overall setup of the portal is done properly from the start, reflecting the organization’s hierarchy (in-house departments and/or customers).
The second biggest time waste during implementations is to have to redo things; the first is developing features that are not required. To avoid this, it is crucial the customer has a good understanding of their overall goal to reflect the hierarchy, and how to effectively use the LMS.
Apart from the LMS being intuitive and easy to use, meaning that end users should not require any training, admin/course creators will need to be familiar with the options, the content delivered has to be easy to navigate and if applicable, interactive.
There are many tips and trends in content creation, which also depend on the topic being delivered. Although we will not cover this here, it is crucial to the overall success of the LMS and, as it takes considerable time to do right, it should have sufficient planning in the overall implementation to ensure success.
When incorporated properly in a project, the above can only lead to the successful implementation of a Learning Management System, that will be a pleasure to use for all involved and for many years to come.
