Elearning - April/May 2008 - (Page 31)

smaller revenues and focus on specific markets or geographies. In addition, the enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors Oracle and SAP remain serious about the LMS market and continue to grow, focused primarily on the global enterprise marketplace. We believe neither company has the focus nor the expertise to dominate this market; most companies purchase LMS’s from Oracle (PeopleSoft) or SAP because they have already made a significant commitment to that ERP vendor’s technology, and they are willing to accept an LMS with somewhat less functionality than one available from a more focused vendor. In addition, because of the growth in the talent management market, almost every LMS vendor has announced or shipped a suite of additional functionality for performance management, succession planning and competency management. This has created a flurry of partnerships and potential mergers with talent management vendors partnering with and seeking to buy LMS vendors. The challenge for LMS buyers is the complexity of the choices. Buyers can purchase an LMS independently and focus on the best possible solution for training. Then later, they can integrate this system with the performance management and succession planning systems, or they can buy an integrated suite (typically from an LMS vendor) and possibly live with less functionality in performance management. We believe the market is moving toward the latter solution, but not at a very fast pace. While we believe strongly that integration between learning and performance management is a vital strategy for talent management, most companies do not implement LMS and performance-management systems at the same time. In fact, each is complex enough to take one to two years to roll out. We recommend that you consider such integration potential as you select your system, but still focus on the right vendor to meet your immediate needs. OTHER TRENDS At the same time, there are other trends in learning and development organizations that will have an impact on technology purchases. “Learning on demand,” a term used to describe learning resources (of any type) that can be quickly and easily discovered, is becoming a reality for organizations, both big and small, that need to respond quickly to changing business needs. A component of learning on demand, social learning, is also being implemented by some training organizations. Both of these systems require their We believe strongly that integration between learning and performance management is a vital strategy for talent management. own technology and process investments that need to be considered in the context of the overall learning technology strategy. These are separate technology applications in and of themselves and will not be adequately addressed by LMS vendors. These trends will continue to ensure that the LMS market evolves over the coming years. Both advances in technology and the changing purpose and structure of the training organization will drive much of this evolution. In addition to serving as a catalyst for business performance improvement, training departments will emerge as a key component of an overall talent management strategy rather than only as a producer and administrator of training. The convergence of learning and performance management systems is still in its early stages. However, we believe that these two important business functions will ultimately be combined as organizations address the growing talent shortage taking place in many industries and organizations sizes. This evolution will continue to impact the LMS market as buyers and solution providers rationalize an everchanging landscape. —Chris Howard is vice president of research and a principal analyst for Bersin & Associates. For more information on original Bersin research, visit the Website www.bersin.com. Elearning! April / May 2008 31 http://www.bersin.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - April/May 2008

Elearning - April/May 2008 Editor's Note Contents News Targeting Africa Locating Courseware People in the News Upcoming Events Deals Trendlines Web Services Building a Learning Culture Measuring the Learning Experience Making Learning Fun and Social LMS's 2008: What You Need To Know Learning Leader: CA Case Study: AVI Case Study: IBM Case Study: QualComm WBS Case Study: National Center for State Courts Case Study: Grundfos Pumps Case Study: Virginia Tech Pop Quiz Last Word

Elearning - April/May 2008

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