building the learning business case,the roi of a next-generation … · building the learning...

SAP White PaperLearning

Building the Learning Business Case: The ROI of a Next-Generation LMS

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Table of Contents

4 Introduction

5 How to Know When You Need a New LMS

5 ConsiderationsandBenefitsfotheNext-GenerationLMS

9 Building Your Business Case

10 Transitioning to Your New LMS

11 Conclusion

© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.


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Face it. Technology change is tough. And every organization has gone through painful technology purchases and implementations.

Sometimes it’s a necessity. If your learningmanagement system (LMS) is more than a few years old, you’re likely missing out on new, important capabilities. This isn’t just about new fads or cool technology, it’s about real learning outcomes being out of reach.


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Introduction

Learning is essential to any organization’s suc-cess because it improves business results, boosts productivity, and increases organizational competitiveness. Learning helps produce positive business outcomes in critical areas and at key moments in an organization’s development, such as during mergers and acquisitions, restructur-ings, and product launches.

Outdated LMSs are holding organizations back,yet they’re often one of the last enterprisesoftware systems to be replaced. For some, it’sseen as a cost center or simply a complianceexercise that only requires the bare minimuminvestment.

That puts the onus on learning leaders andstakeholders to make a strong business case forupgrading. In this white paper, we’ll cover:

• Indications that you might need a new LMS • Benefits of a next-generation LMS • Building your LMS business case • Preparing for the transition

More than two-thirds of companies believe moving to next-generation learning is urgent or important, yet only 6% have mastered the technology and content aspects of learning.Deloitte


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Many organizations haven’t updated theirlearning systems in years. Sometimes, it’sbeen a decade or longer. And in some cases, anorganization doesn’t have an LMS and is buyingone for the first time.

After the global recession at the end of the lastdecade and the slow recovery that followed,companies didn’t prioritize learning purchases.

But we’re finally seeing more organizationsseriously consider new LMS options. There areseven concerns we commonly see that drivepurchases of more next-generation LMSs:

•Organizations have multiple learning systems: Depending on the task at hand, employees might need to access three or more systems to get the training and development they need. Compliance training might be on one system, competency or skills training might be on another, and leader-ship development might still exist solely in videos or in classroom environments.

• They aren’t cloud-based: On-premise learning-solutions were the norm just a few years ago, but the cloud has allowed employees to work anywhere — unless they want training from your on-premise LMS. Training has to be deliv-ered manually, or when — and if — they come into an office, behind the firewall.

• Dated systems hurt learning adoption: Dated interfaces and clunky experiences don’t en-courage employees to really engage in learning. If a system is severely outdated, it also shows a lack of investment by the organization in development.

• Learning content is inaccessible: Your employ-ees get email and access other company re-sources from their smartphones or tablet de-vices, yet they can’t get critical training when they need it because older systems don’t sup-port it. Even if your LMS did support mobile ac-cess, many of the resources — like Flashbased simulations and videos — don’t work on most devices.

• Lack of analytics and reporting: Most learning systems, even older ones, have the ability to track course completions for compliance pur-poses. What many can’t help you understand is how, where, and to whom training is delivered so you can measure the efficiency of internal and external training sources and the overall impact of training experiences on employees.

• Discontinuing or lagging vendor support: Many legacy vendors are discontinuing support for their on-premise solutions as they move on to updated editions and cloud-based solutions. That leaves organizations using third-party sup-port providers to get the help they need, some-times at a premium cost.

• Learning isn’t integrated with other talent man-agement modules: All organizations want to at-tract, hire, onboard, develop, align, and reward every employee to maximize engagement and retention. Being able to do this from one inte-grated talent management suite is key not just for efficiency but because it can inform other critical areas like performance and succession management.

Ultimately, you’ll know you need a new LMS whenthe current system has significant shortfalls andis hampering learning and business outcomes.

How to Know When You Need a New LMS


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So you understand how your current, outdatedsystem is holding you back. But what should youlook for in a new system?

Though technology is always changing and shinynew technologies will always get most of theattention, there are some basic features to be on the lookout for:

• Ability to consolidate learning systems: If you have many LMSs for a wide variety of learning tasks, one of your chief goals should be to re-duce that number to one. That means looking for an LMS that has a wide swath of capabilities for compliance, development, and even extend-ed enterprise capabilities.

• A next-generation system with great ease of use: Most cloud-based solutions have been up-dated in the last few years to meet the usability standards end users demand. The critical point is that your employees don’t have time for com-plicated or convoluted software. It has to be easy enough for your employees to log in and know exactly what they’re supposed to do, without deep instruction.

• Comprehensive mobile access: Ultimately, a fully responsive solution that looks great on any device would be the optimal solution, but the ability to easily complete learning activities on a smartphone or tablet device is a component that any modern learning solution should have.

• Robust analytics and reporting: Learning bud-gets are not easing up anytime soon. That means dedicating internal resources to projects such as developing courses or revisiting past e-learning activities needs to be based on da-tabacked use and need. Push providers to tell you what’s possible with analytics, beyond mandatory reporting.

• Support infrastructure: If you’re going to be in-vesting in and revamping your learning sys-tems, you want a partner that will be there with you. Understand where their support begins and ends, both before and after implementa-tion. Also, learn more about their partner net-work of providers that can help support you be-yond the product.

Considerations and Benefits of theNext-Generation LMS

Companies that invest highly in their employees — including training and development — decrease turnover by 65%.Great Places to Work



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• The potential to integrate other talent manage-ment systems: At some point in the future, you may want to integrate with recruiting and on-boarding, performance and goals, compensa-tion, succession and development, and even po-tentially a core HR system. Make sure you choose an LMS that is part of a world-class HR system. A world-class HR system must not only support processes for HR, but all the data, infor-mation, content, and processes to ensure that each stakeholder group has what they need to get the job done. Or, in other words, to maximize their engagement.

• The ability to move from a top-down to bottom-up approach: An organization that has truly ad-opted a learning culture has the tools in place to make every employee both a learner and a teacher. However, many organizations today still have a top-down learning approach where train-ing departments push training to employees.

This approach, while effective to an extent, fails to take advantage of the vast amount of knowl-edge the employees have themselves. By provid-ing tools that enable employees to create and share content, organizations can incorporate bottom-up learning strategies with top-down ap-proaches, which will help transform the company.

Although these are the seven building blocks for any next-generation LMS, there will be specific use cases your organization needs to solve. For example, if you have oil workers on the North Slope in Alaska or in the Arabian Sea, Internet access may be a barrier you must deal with in order to effectively deliver learning.

Think about your specific needs as you work tobuild a business case.

By providing tools that enable employees to create and share content, organizations can incorporate bottom-up learning strategies with top-down approaches, which will help transform the company into a learning-centric organization.



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Helpfullearningstatisticsasyou’rebuildinganLMSbusinesscase

24% increase

65% decrease

6% mastery

35% usage

34% prepared

10% use

nearly 1/3 identified

3.47 devices

An investment as low as $1500 per employee in training increases profit margins by 24%, on average. Source: Federal Reserve Bank/Georgetown

Companies that invest highly in their employees—including training and de-velopment—decrease turnover by 65%. Source: GPTW

More than 2/3’s of companies see the trend to next-gen learning as urgent or important. Only 6% have mastered the tech and content aspects of learning. Source: Deloitte

35% of employees turn to their smartphone first to solve issues.Source: Pew Research Center

Only 34% of executives agree that their leaders are prepared to lead a diverse workforce Source: Workforce 2020

Only 10% of organizations have use of mobile learning.Source: Brandon Hall Group

Nearly a third of organizations identified a lack of qualified workers as a barrier to growth. Source: PwC

The average worker carries 3.47 mobile devices for work.Source: appsFreedom



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Depending on your organization, you’ll need tobuild a business case for a new technologypurchase.

In our experience, this generally involvescommunicating four key points. We’ll highlighteach one below and give tips on which areas tofocus on for the greatest business impact.

1.WHAT’STHEBUSINESSPROBLEM?The organization is facing one or more of thefollowing issues:

• Increased compliance pressure • Looming skills gaps • Lack of engagement and productivity • Ineffective learning resources

2.WHAT’STHECURRENTSTATE?The organization has outdated learning systems:

• They’re disparate and expensive to maintain • Learning is inaccessible outside of the organiza-tion or on mobile devices

• The old system is hurting user adoption • The provider is discontinuing support for the-current solution

• There is a lack of analytics and reporting that internal stakeholders need in order to make decisions

3.WHYDOWENEEDADIFFERENTSOLUTION?The organization needs a better-performinglearning solution that:

• Reduces costs or increases efficiency • Reduces dependence and cost of in-person, instructor-led training

• Increases availability with a cloud-based solution

• Ensures 100 percent certainty on compliance • Increases skills and delivers better outcomes • cross the workforce • Creates a secure learning infrastructure

4.THEPROPOSEDSOLUTIONThe organization can solve problems and fix thestatus quo if you find a solution that meets allof these broad needs as well as some of thediscrete challenges you face. Specifically, sup-port infrastructure and implementation are two areas to be certain of before finalizing the busi-ness case.

Not every single bullet and statistic we provide isgoing to be helpful to your specific situation, andthere may be additional reasons why yourorganization needs to make a swift change to anew LMS. Feel free to use this as a guide to builda compelling case that will help you accomplishwhat you need.

Building Your Business Case

No two business cases are alike. Use the information from this paper and other sources to make your case customized for your organization.



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Once a decision is made, the hard part is over,right?

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. As part of thepurchase process, you’ll want to understand howyou can partner with the provider and third-partyconsultants and firms to come up with an actionplan that’s appealing to internal learningstakeholders.

Though it can be a long, arduous process forsome organizations, SAP SuccessFactors hasdeployed learning in a short time frame to largeglobal enterprises.

As you plan your transition and implementation,there are three critical factors to keep in mind:

First,don’treplicatebadprocessesjustbecausetheyexistinyouroldsystem.Use the transition as a fresh start to take acritical look at your processes and make surethey’re aligned with how you should be working,not just how you have been working.

Second,thinkabouthowyoucanmakeanimplementationandtransitioneasieronyourselfandensuresuccess.You’ll want to look to the provider to betterunderstand the ecosystem tie-ins that can solvediscrete issues, integration with other talentmanagement software, or enhancements thataren’t baked into the product.

Andfinally,involvethebusinessownersinordertogettheiropinionsandbuy-induringthe process.Ensuring that you have executive sponsorshipwill lead to success.

With these three considerations in place, you’ll beon the right path to transitioning andimplementing your new LMS.

Transitioning to Your New LMS



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Learning technology probably isn’t the first thingorganizations think of when they prioritizetechnology purchases. There’s a good chanceyour learning system doesn’t have the latestfeatures and benefits you can get from a next-generation solution.

The need is there, though. Learning is a criticalcomponent that drives performance, success,and engagement across the workforce. Inaddition to providing a positive ROI, the rightchange can help you reduce costs and increaseefficiencies.

SAP SuccessFactors offers a way to move to a next-generation LMS that takes into account many of your organization’s concerns. Our learning solution is a single, simple learning platform that improves engagement and reduces complexity

and cost. It’s secure and compliant, and will en-able you to develop your employees, close skills gaps, and deliver better learning outcomes more effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, it’s only one part of a comprehensive talent management suite. SAP SuccessFactors simplifies talent man-agement so you can proactively act, easily mea-sure, and clearly communicate talent results and business impact.

Want to learn more about a next-generationlearning system and get more resources tohelp build your business case? SAP SuccessFac-tors has the people, tools, and — most important —the experience to help you transform yourlearning business. To get started, contact us [email protected] for moreinformation.

Conclusion

vQ317 © 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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