Why the Right LMS Partner Is Critical to Business Success

Selecting a learning management system that is going to support your organization goes beyond the capabilities of that system. The critical component to selecting an LMS provider isn’t what the system can do, but how it aligns with the goals of your business. You need more than just a service provider – you need a partner. 

You can’t afford to overlook the need to have the right partner as opposed to just a vendor of capabilities. It goes a long way to make sure you’re on the same sheet of music with your LMS provider. Additionally, ensuring that the relationship remains rich throughout the entire process will foster a collaborative, problem-solving environment for your organization to flourish.

Unfortunately, many LMS providers aren’t interested in the ins and outs of extended enterprises. They believe that training models are “one approach or type fits all.” Thus, they will fall short of providing the kind of partnership you need to ensure your learning platform is driving your business goals forward, constantly seeking ways to improve training in your organization, and improving the LMS along the way. 

For this reason, it is vital that you choose a vendor that fully understands your industry, your pain points, and how to work with you to solve them. 

A Partner Is Familiar With Your Industry

While any LMS has the basic functionality to support your training program, the vast majority of them don’t understand the complexities that are inherent in extended enterprise training, and they are more worried about license sales than they are about business value and impact. 

When you have a partner who understands the problems and nuances of your industry as well as know how to leverage your assets, and drive the business value of training, it can make all the difference. 

When you’re working with a partner who is already familiar with your industry, you cut down on much of the time needed to explain your business needs. They already get it! They understand. 

As your LMS partner, they will already be knowledgeable on these topics within your organization and can speak your vernacular to keep the focus on obtaining value from the learning management system and the training program overall. 

A Partner Seeks The Best Fit

Another benefit to having a partner as opposed to just a vendor is their ability to listen and understand your needs. Most software companies have a standard roll out that they provide. After they have made the sale, the vendor will come in and set up that software, but other than basic technical support, the service ends there.

And while this may suffice for a period of time, you end up feeling stuck with a system that doesn’t really support you in the way you were hoping it would. These vendors aren’t really working with you to understand how to best leverage the software in your unique position to maximize the value and functionality of the software that best fits your business needs.

When you work with an LMS partner as opposed to a vendor, you can rest assured that the set-up will extend beyond plug-and-play software and be more integrated and tailored to what you’re trying to accomplish with your training program. 

A Partner Encourages Growth

Vendors are there to provide a service. And for many things that we use vendors for, that’s all we really need is the service. However, when it comes to your training program and the learning management system that supports it, you need someone who will take you beyond a level of service and into a level of growth and improvement. 

A partner who understands your industry and your needs can provide you with a clear roadmap of the training system you’re getting. Where is it going? What is it doing? How is it serving you in the industry currently? 

A partner will also be able to help you examine the industry, clue you in on trends that might be coming your way, and advise you on how best to adapt to specific challenges or changes. Your partners will already understand where their gaps are in your industry and what roadmap for improvement they have in place to bridge these gaps. 

A good LMS partner will also seek your input on their proposed roadmaps for improvement and the ways that they are interpreting the market or the industry. They will also seek to understand what your priorities are or what features would be helpful to be incorporated into the product. 

Consequences Of Having The Wrong Partner

If you focus on selecting a vendor for your training system and you miss the importance of selecting a partner, you will feel it from day one. You will struggle to come to an agreement with your vendor. The implementation of the product will feel stressful and forced. Worst of all, the end product may or may not meet your goals. 

These commitments are lengthy, extending about three to five years on average. During this time you might look for something else to supplement your program to help fill the void, leading to increased costs on band-aids to fix what shouldn’t be broken in the first place. 

Another problem that is commonly faced when selecting the right LMS partner, is that most vendors are “yes” men. You’re asking for specific functionality and how it supports your industry, and they will tell you, “Yes! It can do that!” But they don’t really understand your industry, and they don’t know what they’re saying yes to. 

If you have to explain your organization and your industry to your LMS vendor, you might be making the wrong choice. The last thing you want is to be married to the wrong system for three to five years because you were promised functionality by a vendor who didn’t understand what you really needed. 

LatitudeLearning Gets You

As an extended enterprise, you need an LMS partner, not a vendor. The intricacies of your organization and the industry as a whole require a specific type of system to support your business goals in the way that your training program should. 

Having the right partner gives you someone to join in your successes and help smooth things over when the road gets bumpy. Not everything in your training program is a plug-and-play venture – it’s a growing and learning-tailored solution that builds relationships. This is where LatitudeLearning comes in. 

With years of experience providing learning management solutions for extended enterprises, LatitudeLearning truly understands your organization’s intricacies, your industry’s nuances, and the gaps that a robust learning management system needs to fill.

When you are looking for a true LMS partner, look no further than LatitudeLearning. We understand what you need, and we are committed to building relationships with our clients because we want to see you succeed and help you move forward.

If you’re ready to dive into a partnership and a learning platform that can support your organization in the way you’ve always wanted, register for a free trial today and see how LatitudeLearning can take your training program to the next level!