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How to build a business case for a new LMS in 2020

Blog posts | 18.06.2020

Cammy Bean

Senior Solutions Consultant at Kineo US

Selecting a learning management system isn’t always the easiest process, but even when the L&D team has settled on the best platform for the job, that’s not the end of the battle. In most businesses, it will be necessary to demonstrate why your chosen LMS is the right one for your organization’s needs, so you will need to build a business case to persuade your stakeholders. If you’ve just decided you want to implement Totara Learn in your organization, we’ve put together some talking points to help you make your case, whether it’s with the procurement team, the IT team or the C-suite.

Budget

The number one concern of most procurement teams is finding the most cost-effective solution. Many procurement teams are also subject to various rules, such as only procuring products and services from businesses with a certain turnover or companies of a certain age. Totara LMS is one of the most cost-effective options on the market, and with over five years’ development behind the product, your procurement team can rest assured that it’s a safe choice suitable for any budget.

Did you know that organizations have reported saving up to 80% on their learning program by switching to Totara LMS?

Contract

When many organizations find a new LMS, they can find themselves locked into lengthy contracts, especially when it comes to proprietary solutions. While a proprietary LMS may have all the features you need right now, this may not be the case a year or two down the line, leaving you stuck in an unsuitable contract or having to pay to break it. With an open source solution like Totara LMS, you have the ability to switch vendors if you find one who better meets your needs with minimal disruption to your service. When you’re building your business case, explain the benefit of the open source approach insofar as it frees your business from any restrictive contracts.

Features and functionality

A proprietary solution may launch with hundreds of features and then not add any more for some time, or the ones added may not be relevant to your needs. The beauty of an open source LMS is that you have the freedom to develop your own features to align the system to your precise needs. The global Totara network comprises thousands of learning experts who are constantly finding new solutions to shared problems, and code created by members of the community has even been incorporated into the core product to add value to everyone’s products. For a quick at-a-glance overview of the components within Totara LMS, why not include the Totara component overview in your business case to show key stakeholders the full range of key features?

Timeframes

Designing, building and implementing a new LMS can be a time-consuming process. Some of the most platforms can easily take a year from the start to the end of the project, which is too long if you need a rapid solution. Totara LMS has been implemented in less than two weeks from when the project was commissioned, making it a fantastic solution if you’re looking to get up and running quickly. When your CEO asks you to help solve a business challenge fast, speak to your chosen Totara Partner about coming up with a schedule for a rapid LMS implementation to ensure your platform is delivered and ready on time. 

Did you know that Totara LMS has been implemented in just eight days for a leading global automotive company?

Real-life examples

One of the key reasons organizations worldwide give for choosing Totara LMS is the flexibility it allows them. You can support your business case with some real-life examples from Totara partners. For example, Kineo helped New Zealand’s Ministry of Justice increase LMS engagement by over 100%, enabled ASADA to award over 50,000 open badges to learners across the Australian sporting community and created an innovative new mobile learning solution for Drug Free Sport New Zealand. Look for a case study from an organization with similar challenges to yours or in the same sector for the strongest addition to your business case.

A free LMS resource

Learn more about implementing a state of the art LMS in your organization by downloading our free guide for some leading best practices. Find out why over 1,000 organizations worldwide choose Kineo and Totara Learn.

Cammy Bean

Senior Solutions Consultant at Kineo US


Cammy has been collaborating with organisations to design online learning programs since 1996. An active speaker and blogger, Cammy gets fired up about instructional design, avoiding the trap of clicky-clicky bling-bling, and ways to use technology to create real behavior change.