EPISODE 81: Using One LMS for Multiple Audiences
Brendan Noud, Co-Founder and CEO of LearnUpon
People are the lifeblood of organizations. Employees, customers, business partners and more — each group plays a specific role. And each comes with unique learning needs.
This means leaders must choose learning systems carefully. Does it make sense to manage a collection of point solutions? Or should you choose one LMS for all?
The answer requires insight and expertise. That’s why I’ve asked Brendan Noud, CEO and Co-Founder of LearnUpon, to join us today. With over 20 years of leadership in the LMS industry, Brendan understands the tradeoffs involved when organizations consolidate learning systems.
So let’s dig deeper on this episode of The Talented Learning Show…
Using One LMS for Multiple Audiences — KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Years ago, organizations broke away from HR systems of record when training customers, channel partners, and other external audiences, employee-focused systems didn’t have the functionality or flexibility to support diverse needs, and they couldn’t scale with audience fluctuations. Specialized systems became the norm. That’s changing.
- The LMS market has matured. Increasingly, organizations prefer not to manage multiple platforms, content, processes, costs and risk. Systems consolidation is gaining momentum. But accomplishing this is easier said than done.
- Whether you’re investing in your first LMS or replacing a collection of disparate systems, let broader business goals guide you. Successful strategies rely on relevant performance measures to demonstrate progress over time. A consultative LMS partner can help.
Using One LMS for Multiple Audiences — Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
Welcome Brendan. For those who may not be familiar with LearnUpon, could you tell us about the company?
Thanks, John. Twelve years ago, Des Anderson and I started LearnUpon after working together for years at another LMS company, WBT Systems. Des was on the technical side and I was more salesy.
At that time, companies were too often left to their own devices or didn’t get enough support after they selected an LMS. We were passionate about that issue. And we saw an opportunity for a different type of system that emphasized speed of setup, ease of use and stellar customer support. So we set out to address that need.
First we focused on small training companies that needed a platform to sell and deliver courses to their customers. They could create branded portals in 60 seconds and easily license their content online.
At the time, no one else was focused on that multi-portal idea. So we got a lot of attention and we bootstrapped the business for 7-8 years.
Smart idea…
Then as we grew, we moved into the corporate space, where organizations are training multiple audiences. And again, we leveraged our portal capability.
We love the idea of providing one LMS platform, not only for internal employee training, but also customers, partners, resellers and others.
Now, we have over 1500 customers and over 20 million users. And we have almost 300 employees, globally, who are equally passionate about this space. That’s a long way from where the two of us started. Yet we feel we’re only getting started. There’s much more to do.
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I’m glad you’ve moved into the corporate space. But the market has certainly changed in recent years. What kind of customer gets the most value from LearnUpon now?
We love companies with a few thousand employees and multiple audiences to train.
Often, we start with one use case like customer training. A legacy internal LMS may be in place, but they may not be happy with it. They don’t want to expose customers to an academy built on that system, so they’re looking for a different solution.
This is where our platform’s learner experience resonates. It’s seamless and easy for external learners to log-in and take relevant training. Once this is in place, we typically expand from there.
Or there may be an opportunity to begin with employee training. We’ll go for that and build a strong track record. Once the company knows what it’s like to work with our team, we expand from there.
Also, we see a lot of consolidation. In other words, companies with two or three different platforms are looking to move to one LMS. That’s a strength for us, as well.
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Mmhmm. What vertical markets do you prioritize?
We have a broad footprint across many industries, but we’ve seen a lot of success with customer training at high-growth software companies. Also, we do well with associations, coaches and non-profits that are training volunteers.
When you’re training thousands or even hundreds of thousands of end users, the last thing you need is massive support overhead. For example, you want to minimize the need to answer questions when people don’t know how to get started or can’t log-in.
LearnUpon is a good solution for customers like this because it’s so reliable, stable and easy to use.
Do you still bump into corporations without an LMS? Or are they all looking for an LMS replacement?
This shocks me. Even after 20 years, about 40-50% of opportunities are still from organizations that are investing in their first LMS. This baffles me, because the market seems saturated.
Also, how do companies of this size manage training without a full LMS solution? Many are using Zoom and spreadsheets. We see two scenarios:
- First, newer high-growth companies where they’ve had an HRIS system for a year or so. Now they want a learning platform that will integrate with the HRIS. There are always companies that haven’t been around long.
- We also see well-established companies with 1000-2000 employees, who for some reason, are finally getting around to implementing an LMS.
How does an all-in-one LMS work? Check the LearnUpon listing in our LMS Directory for details, including a preview video and customer stories …
That’s amazing! I’ve been in this space for 30 years, and I presumed you’d say it’s all about LMS replacement…
I’m still kind of surprised too, especially with mature companies. It’s easy to assume they would have at least one LMS in place.
So, with a first-time LMS, do companies prefer a multi-audience approach? Or do they pick one and expand from there?
First-time buyers usually lead with a key problem they need to solve.
For example, a software company may be struggling to scale its customer support system. The head of CX can see the value of an LMS to help with onboarding, rolling-out new features, and enablement.
We also see companies similar to ours. They have an HR platform, but when they hit 100-200 people, they start looking at how to better enable their teams. That’s when career paths, skills and competencies start coming into play. So the value of a learning platform makes sense.
Sure. And what drives organizations to replace their LMS?
Several things:
- Sometimes people aren’t happy with engagement on their platform and vendor support isn’t good.
- Often, people are unhappy when innovation in their LMS is lacking. This space is moving very quickly, and some vendors are investing a lot of R&D in new technologies. Others aren’t.
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Yes. I see that, too…
Also, pricing is often an issue. The cost of some platforms is prohibitive, particularly if you’re training 10,000 or 20,000 customers. An existing vendor’s pricing model might not work with that kind of volume. So it drives people to look for other solutions that are a better fit for training external audiences.
So, what are the specific advantages of choosing one LMS vendor?
Good question. Obviously, it’s more economical for procurement to work with a single tech vendor. But even more so when that partner understands your business and your different use cases, so they can talk more effectively with stakeholders and better serve your needs.
For instance, we develop a strategy for each client based on overall business goals and how learning feeds into that. So no matter what audiences you serve, you can have a conversation with a vendor that helps connect the dots and consults effectively with you.
In addition, a vendor should help you answer questions like:
- How can we elevate learning across the organization?
- What should our learning tech stack look like?
- What systems are we going to integrate with?
For example, there are a lot of efficiencies in integrating your HR system with your CRM, whether it’s HubSpot or Salesforce.
So, how are organizations measuring results? Is it about training data or are they actually moving the business needle?
It’s all about moving the business needle. We start by specifying what needs to change and what we need to measure…
…For complete answers to this and more questions about whether your organization should rely on one LMS to serve multiple audiences, listen to the full 30-minute podcast on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, on Amazon Podcasts, or right here on our site.
Find Out More About LearnUpon
Check my Hot Take Review on our YouTube channel…
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