For A Seamless Migration Expertise

Migrating from one Studying Administration System (LMS) to a different is a frightening process, particularly for bigger organizations with in depth content material libraries and well-established processes. The considered disrupting ongoing studying packages, transferring massive volumes of knowledge, and retraining workers on a brand new platform could make even essentially the most forward-thinking groups hesitate.

However simply as there are drawbacks, there are very actual rewards. Staying with an outdated or insufficient system can restrict your group’s means to develop and innovate. And if you happen to’re studying this, you already know that your current LMS is not getting the job accomplished.

With the precise method, LMS migration would not need to be overwhelming. On this article, we define 9 sensible tricks to simplify the method, reduce disruption, and set your group up for long-term success.

Whether or not you are upgrading to satisfy fashionable studying wants or consolidating platforms to streamline operations, these methods will enable you to navigate the transition with confidence.

Why Migrate To A New LMS?

There are a number of the explanation why a corporation may wish to migrate from its legacy LMS to a different:

1. The present system or platform isn’t producing sufficient engagement amongst learners.
2. You are missing the precise performance. This usually consists of the flexibility to localize content material for worldwide groups, contain Topic Matter Specialists (SMEs) simply, and create programs quicker with the assistance of AI. All of those are crucial as you develop.
3. The LMS lacks integration with different instruments—your HRIS or CRM, for instance.
4. The Return On Funding from the educational platform is not paying off.

Regardless of the purpose, migrating an LMS includes some main challenges. It is advisable to switch a lot of worthwhile knowledge rapidly and effectively, with out overly disrupting present consumer exercise.

And you then want the smoothest potential onboarding to the brand new platform to get everybody up and working simply.

It is unimaginable to embark on a migration with out preparation. That is the place a correct migration plan turns out to be useful—and that is what this text will enable you to put together.

The Important Steps For Clean LMS Migration

This is a easy and efficient 9-step migration guidelines for a clean transition to a brand new Studying Administration System.

1. Align L&D With Your Firm’s Strategic Imaginative and prescient

Migrating to a brand new LMS is a strategic transfer that must be completely aligned along with your firm’s long-term plan. It is also the proper time to evaluate your Studying and Growth roadmap. You are about to rebuild your studying atmosphere round new instruments, so reinforcing your technique now helps set you up for fulfillment.

Evaluation your organization’s 5-year strategic plan and be sure that it’s correctly mirrored in your expertise administration technique. Ask your self: how can coaching assist this ambition?

Right now, essentially the most profitable L&D packages tie on to core firm aims. In case your coaching and studying initiatives assist the enterprise progress in the direction of its largest targets, your affect turns into evident to everybody.

In brief, rigorous strategic alignment from the outset is the important thing to a really useful LMS migration in the long run.

2. Assess Your Migration Wants And Goals

Except for strategic aims, take time to correctly assess your migration wants. This step is essential for selecting your LMS supplier and making ready for the following steps.

Think about your wants by way of:

• LMS options and performance. What’s your present LMS missing {that a} new system ought to present? For big corporations, this might embrace detailed efficiency reporting or superior admin roles for the educational assist crew.
• Studying expertise. What kind of consumer expertise would you like? Most learners profit from social studying options (similar to dialogue boards) and gamification (similar to quizzes or multiple-choice questions). We’re agency believers in a collaborative learning method, so the precise LMS will emphasize this.
• Integrations with different instruments you utilize. Verify compatibility along with your CRM, HRIS, ERP, or coaching content material creation instruments that you just use alongside it.
• Compliance with requirements in your sector, similar to SCORM or compliance guidelines linked to the safety of shared knowledge.
• Timing. When do you want your new LMS up and working? How a lot downtime from eLearning providers are you able to settle for? Relying on the reply to those questions, your LMS migration might occur suddenly or in phases.
• Prices. What funds are you able to deploy on your new LMS?

Crucially, get settlement and sign-off from key stakeholders on these wants and the funds earlier than going too far into migration.

3. Choose Your New LMS Platform

This step is easy, however not at all times straightforward. You need the precise LMS platform that matches your small business and learners. So attempt to line up the priorities you recognized above along with your subsequent studying platform.

One technical concern to contemplate at this level is LMS knowledge migration. You need to have the ability to deliver all your current coaching knowledge and historical past with you to the brand new service. This concern impacts each the brand new LMS and your current platform.

To start out, have a look at the content material migration providers supplied by your present LMS, and the way they adapt to completely different platforms:

• Does it allow you to routinely export your studying content material with out modifying it?
• What concerning the knowledge linked to the usage of the platform (engagement charge, completion charge, historical past of programs taken by staff)?
• In that case, in what codecs?

If the reply to the primary query is not any, you will have to consider allocating time to manually transferring knowledge from one software program bundle to a different. Which is, clearly, an enormous enterprise.

To make the precise alternative, ship a specification to completely different LMS distributors and evaluate the completely different options accessible to you.

4. Outline The Roles Of Key Stakeholders

An LMS migration undertaking typically includes a number of gamers within the firm:

• A coaching supervisor, accountable for the tutorial technique.
• A devoted undertaking supervisor, who screens the assorted phases and allocates duties to every individual.
• IT specialists, who will deploy and combine the LMS into your tech stack. Given the potential for added points and complexity, contain your IT crew early within the planning part.
• Studying content material creators, who will migrate after which create the content material from scratch.
• Workforce leads and/or line managers of some key roles, to verify the consumer expertise and assist get their groups excited. An apparent instance may very well be managers of junior gross sales groups, the place the necessity for coaching is excessive, and the amount after all content material shall be too.

Make clear everybody’s roles and tasks at every stage of the migration, to restrict platform downtime and potential errors. Forming an actual crew is the important thing to a clean migration.

5. Talk Internally About The Modifications

Migrating from one LMS platform to a different is akin to a company change administration technique—particularly if customers had been aware of and connected to their previous software program. Therefore the necessity to talk clearly with learners and managers concerning the affect of migrating your LMS.

Listed below are a couple of inquiries to reply:

• Why have you ever launched this migration? What advantages will crew members get from it?
• How lengthy will the migration take?
• What affect will it have by way of entry to the platform, course of modifications, entry to coaching historical past, and extra?

The perfect communication channels shall be these you already use most continuously: all-hands or «city corridor» conferences, your HR e-newsletter, intranet, or company communication instruments like Slack or Groups.

6. Migrate Your Present Knowledge And Content material

Apart from selecting the right enterprise LMS, knowledge migration is essentially the most crucial a part of the LMS implementation course of.

To succeed, begin by categorizing your knowledge into completely different typologies:

• Person knowledge (linked to the profiles of the assorted learners)
• Knowledge linked to the programs themselves (uptake throughout the group, for instance)
• Analytical knowledge (utilization historical past, engagement, and different metrics measured in your previous LMS)
• Certifications

Then there are 4 essential steps to observe.

First, again up present knowledge to a separate server out of your LMS. This may allow you to retrieve it intact if one thing goes flawed.

Second, extract the information out of your present LMS. Many LMSs provide automated export choices, however you continue to have to verify that each one the information you want is contained on this export.

Then, remodel this knowledge in order that it suits effectively along with your new platform. That is the time to scrub out your coaching and analytical knowledge that you could be not want. It could be essential at this stage to vary course codecs—for instance, by remodeling PowerPoint displays into movies or extra partaking eLearning modules.

At this stage, you’ll most likely have SCORM recordsdata emigrate to your new LMS. (SCORM is a set of technical requirements used to create eLearning programs). Keep in mind to obtain any media you might have (paperwork, movies, and so on.) in case your present LMS provides this.

Some uncommon instruments available on the market provide SCORM reversibility for content material created of their authoring device. That is the case with 360Learning.

Lastly, you may import your up to date knowledge into your new LMS.

7. Take a look at And Validate The LMS Migration

Now that your knowledge has been migrated, return over the listing of exported knowledge and verify that every part is current in your new LMS. If this isn’t the case, you will have to manually export lacking knowledge out of your backup.

Subsequent, perform a take a look at on a couple of completely different consumer profiles, and verify that every part is working correctly. Have these assessments carried out by a number of folks within the firm: the undertaking supervisor, the course content material creators, the IT managers, and even take a look at teams of volunteer learners.

Be sure you can even use all of the options of your new LMS platform to change your content material, consumer profiles and reporting.

As soon as these assessments are full, you may formally swap from one platform to the opposite.

8. Prepare Your Customers On Your New Platform

To reap all the advantages of your LMS, guarantee that your learners know the way it works and may use it optimally.

To do that:

• Arrange demos, guided by coaching managers.
• Put together tutorial movies to show them how to hook up with the coaching platform, use it and get essentially the most out of it.
• Create a devoted communication channel the place customers can ask any questions they might have.

Additionally contemplate coaching content material for back-office customers. Those that are concerned within the content material creation course of, or who need to do the efficiency reporting, additionally have to grasp the brand new platform correctly.

9. Measure Put up-Migration Efficiency And Outcomes

Final however not least, verify that your new LMS platform is effectively suited to your wants and people of your learners.

To do that, monitor key metrics regarding:

• Platform use. Variety of connections, use of a specific function, and extra.
• Worker engagement. Completion charges for the assorted modules, and engagement charges for social studying options (similar to boards or feedback).
• Studying outcomes. Worker success within the numerous quizzes or certifications obtained through your LMS. And if potential, broader progress in the direction of key firm aims—similar to worker retention or measurement of offers closed.
• Gather qualitative suggestions from learners. Distribute questionnaires (nameless if essential) to learn the way they’re getting on with the brand new platform.

These outcomes allow you to frequently alter and enhance your new LMS.

Case Research: Mangopay’s LMS Migration Course of

International fintech Mangopay has greater than 500 staff throughout a number of geographies. The crew had loved utilizing Looop as their device of alternative for compliance coaching and onboarding, however wanted extra assist in upskilling and reskilling staff. So Mangopay’s studying specialists selected emigrate to 360Learning.

Lengthy story brief: the migration was an enormous success. Quick outcomes included a 99% relevance rating for coaching programs, and a extra engaged workforce that may simply adapt to altering enterprise priorities.

Mangopay created customized studying teams for every division, assigned authors and group admins, and created a course of to share inside studying wants.

These new teams and roles gave managers the visibility they wanted over their groups’ studying whereas protecting L&D leaders in management.

Total, there’s now a greater construction and clear tradition of collaborative studying at Mangopay.

Keys To This Profitable Migration

On high of the 9 steps shared above, there are a couple of nice classes to be taught from Mangopay’s LMS migration.

1. Open communication. Throughout the migration course of, 360Learning and Mangopay had common check-in conferences to maintain the undertaking on observe and guarantee either side understood their tasks.
2. An inside migration crew. Mangopay’s L&D crew created a migration group on 360Learning. Utilizing the net discussion board, this group had real-time discussions across the content material migration and launch initiatives.
3. A revised L&D technique. Mangopay used the migration to 360Learning as a chance to evaluate and revamp their total L&D technique. Whereas a migration is a big undertaking, it is also the proper time to evaluate your present initiatives and make sensible modifications the place acceptable.

Read Mangopay’s migration story in full.

Prepared To Migrate To A New LMS?

Switching such a core firm device will at all times really feel like a big, and probably overwhelming, problem. But when accomplished for the precise causes, the rewards will be big.

As you put together to take this massive step, revisit the steps and recommendation above to make sure issues go easily. A superb undertaking plan is essential, and nearly as essential as choosing the proper platform emigrate to.

In the event you’re on the lookout for a high-performance, collaborative digital coaching platform, 360Learning’s LMS solution is designed to enhance learner engagement and make instructing more practical. What’s extra, the migration course of is easy and simple, together with a mass import perform for all of your content material (together with SCORM).

Making the swap to 360Learning is easy and painless, and our crew is right here that will help you each step of the way in which.

Request a demo now to take your digital studying to the following stage.

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