The global Learning Management System market size shows dynamic expansion year by year. Currently (2024), it is valued at USD 4383.84 million and is expected to more than double by 2027, reaching 9602.59 million. Meanwhile, according to Research.com, the projected number of LMS is 73.8 million. Learning Management Systems available in the market may appear similar at first glance, but they are designed to serve different user groups.
Our primary focus is distinguishing between LMS for enterprises and those tailored for small and medium-sized businesses. The key divergence lies in the fact that enterprise-level LMS must fulfill specific criteria. These include the need for customization, particularly to align with internal organizational structures, adherence to high-security standards, integration with internal systems such as HR or finance, and adaptability to innovations. This article goes into the enterprise LMS features designed to meet the specific requirements of corporations.
10 Must-Have Enterprise LMS Features
The role of technology in supporting learning has evolved from simple web conferencing or collaboration platforms to sophisticated, intricate ecosystems. The mere ability to provide a place to store content and facilitate communication is no longer adequate, especially for enterprises. What enterprise LMS features should you look for in 2024?
Seamless access
In the context of LMS for enterprises, accessibility extends beyond the mere availability of content across different device types. While this is certainly an essential feature, it is considered a baseline expectation rather than a unique capability.
What is crucial for corporations is seamless access to heavier content, such as videos, SCORMs, or virtual reality 360 experiences, without interruptions for hundreds or thousands of users simultaneously. More than a standard internet connection may be required to achieve this level of performance. For example, Samelane addresses this challenge by delivering an LMS feature that allows the content to be delivered directly from local servers, such as Network Attached Storage (NAS), dedicated file-level data storage devices connected to a company’s network. The content can be synchronized with AWS automatically and regularly to ensure the courses remain relevant.
The case study of Comcast, a major US cable television and entertainment provider, provides more information on NAS implementation.
Another option for ensuring seamless corporate access is to implement an on-premises LMS. This approach hosts the entire training system and its content on the company’s servers and IT infrastructure. On-premise platforms can provide offline access to training materials, which is beneficial in environments with limited internet connectivity. Because managing an on-premises LMS is typically less resource-intensive for them, organizations with strict data security requirements or extensive infrastructure are more likely to favor this solution.
Integration with other corporate systems
Enterprise-grade LMS should be able to integrate with other internal systems to automate user management and reporting. These business platforms can include:
- Human Resource Information systems (HRIS)
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- payroll systems.
These enterprise LMS features are not typically found in conventional LMS platforms but are indispensable for enhancing the effectiveness of enterprise L&D programs. This solution’s advantages include eliminating the need for manual data entry across disparate systems and the manual creation, updating, and termination of user accounts by administrators. Additionally, the enterprise LMS features provide a comprehensive view of employee learning data alongside other pertinent data points from integrated systems. Consequently, integrations enhance both the user experience and company performance.
2024 Enterprise LMS Features: Certification
Certification ensures compliance, verifies skills, supports career advancement, and enhances organizational reputation. The option to obtain certifications significantly influences employees’ motivation and work engagement. Employees often seek certifications to improve their credentials and advance their careers, which motivates them to acquire new skills.
Moreover, professional enterprise LMS features should let the system automatically generate a certificate upon course completion. Importantly, these certificates should be fully configurable, allowing customization of their appearance and the data they contain. In Samelane, an additional feature is available. Employees with external certificates relevant to their jobs can also upload them to their repository. It ensures accessibility for employees and other stakeholders, such as HR staff or managers.
Law compliance
Many sectors mandate that employees undergo specific training to uphold the highest industry standards and compliance. Laws and regulations frequently make compliance training an employer’s non-negotiable obligation, and businesses must keep track of the proof that their employees have completed it. Additionally, compliance training may encompass policies crucial for worker safety and understanding their responsibilities. Therefore, enterprise LMS features should let you maintain a centralized record of all earned certifications signed by employees, facilitating the tracking of completion history and the need for recertification.
Variety of training formats
Corporate LMSs must provide benefits, such as supporting various formats to enhance user experience and allow companies to utilize their existing resources. File types include SCORM, TinCan, ILT, PowerPoint, HTML 5, video, and video 360. Virtual Reality (VR), including VR 360, and Augmented Reality (AR) courses are less common but gaining momentum.
It’s essential for corporate LMSs to support a wide array of formats to enhance user experience and for companies to utilize resources they already have. The file types include SCORM, TinCan, ILT, PowerPoint, HTML 5, video, and video 360. Less common but gaining momentum are Virtual Reality (VR), including VR 360, and Augmented Reality (AR) courses.
This variety caters to different learning styles, improves knowledge retention, and ultimately enhances the overall effectiveness of training programs. HR and Learning Development Managers are particularly interested in whether users find the platform engaging and motivating, especially in suggesting courses that users may find valuable or interesting. Recommender engines make this function possible.
What they also focus on is the use of cutting-edge technologies, such as Conversational AI, and ensuring a seamless user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, which are tailored to the preferences of Generations Y and Z. This ensures high adoption of the LMS among younger users entering the workforce.
Communication and feedback features
Enterprise LMS features can also serve as a communication tool for interacting with users, providing information beyond just L&D programs, including company news. The most advanced systems offer managers access to communication reports detailing metrics such as message open rates, which users have read the messages, and when. This feature enables supervisors to craft more engaging messages and stay informed about who is up-to-date with important information.
For instance, in Samelane, there are two types of communication channels. The first is the News Widget, which is visible to all employees within the organization. It’s utilized to share information about the company, product updates, events, and more. These communications can have different formats, such as HTML or PDF files. The second type is direct messages, which are sent to specific users based on criteria such as job title, department, or location. Employees can access these messages from the dashboard or a dedicated messaging module. In both cases, users receive notifications about new updates or messages, allowing them to mark them as read and access historical updates whenever necessary.
Enterprise LMS features should also include a tool for collecting user evaluations. Post-training feedback surveys offer managers valuable insights into the course’s reception, relevance, and applicability in users’ roles. They also assess the effectiveness of trainers. The data collected this way is invaluable for evaluating the training’s impact and identifying areas for improvement.
User segmentation
In corporations with thousands of employees across various departments and locations and a network of partners, an LMS must reflect the organizational structure and accommodate user segmentation.
A multi-tenant architecture allows for the creation of separate learning environments for different user groups, such as customers, vendors, franchises, and suppliers. This functionality enables the delivery of customized content and experiences to each group by establishing distinct and secure environments within the LMS. Each group can only access content relevant to them, ensuring overall control and information security for the parent company.
Data protection and security features
An enterprise LMS offers robust security measures to safeguard sensitive employee, partner, and client data, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR. Industry-standard security features include data encryption, restricted access controls, secure authentication protocols, regular data backups, and disaster recovery procedures. Additionally, alignment with established safety standards such as FISMA, ISO, and PCI is highly valued. For organizations prioritizing on-premise solutions due to data protection concerns, an enterprise LMS should offer the flexibility to host the training platform on the company’s local server.
Personalization
When an LMS reflects the company’s branding, it creates a consistent and familiar user experience for employees and promotes brand recognition, reinforcing corporate culture. This functionality contributes to a more engaging and effective training environment for large teams. A common way to personalize enterprise LMS features is the ability to easily change brand colors and add a custom logo and favicon. Some LMS providers offer white-labeling options, allowing companies to remove any mention of the provider and fully customize the platform with their branding by changing domain names and email addresses to feel like an extension of the company’s internal systems.
Real-time reporting and progress monitoring
Enterprise-scale businesses, employing 15,000 people or more, face a significant challenge in measuring the effectiveness of their learning programs, with 54% citing this as a key concern. Therefore, robust reporting capabilities are essential features of an LMS for such organizations.
Managers should look for metrics such as course pass rates, average learning time per person, and participant progress, all of which should be updated in real-time. Additionally, learning track reports should offer advanced filtering criteria to provide a comprehensive view of training effectiveness, enabling the identification of areas for improvement in content, training methods, and employee recognition. Analyzing these indicators helps allocate resources more effectively and maximize the return on investment in employee and business partner training.
Enterprise LMS Features: A Conclusion
For large corporations, selecting a Learning Management System entails more than finding a course delivery platform. The LMS must meet specific criteria tailored to the unique requirements of large organizations, surpassing the capabilities of standard systems suitable for smaller businesses. The ultimate objective is to optimize learning and development processes while maximizing the return on investment in employee and business partner training.
Request a trial version of Samelane to learn more about enterprise LMS features essential to 2024 corporate training.
