We came up with four different options to explain a learning management system in 140 characters or less:

Technology changes so rapidly these days it’s hard to predict what will be next and how it - whatever “it” is - will shape the way that we live. Social media has impacted the way that we communicate with old friends, catch up on news, and even do business, but 10 years ago, social media had a completely different landscape.

Growing up, my dad would always point out advertisements in a silly way. What I mean by this is: when he would see an advertisement for a tanning salon with really fit people, he would say “Wow, if I go in there - I’ll come out looking like that!” And he wasn’t just referring to the shade of the person’s skin. Advertisement is powerful and marketing departments work hard to showcase benefits - tangible or intangible, but sometimes that can set consumers up with high expectations that can’t be met. As much as I wish applying sunless tanner would then give me a six-pack, that’s an expectation that absolutely will come to actualization…. bummer.

Whether you’re already using a training database, looking to create your own from scratch, or shopping around for one for the very first time. We have created a list of the do-not-skip when purchasing (or even creating) a training database. These features and functions will make sure that no training is skipped, all employees have passed their respective trainings, managers are notified, and the process is repeatable - not to mention, scalable.

Microsoft Access, a software that comes within the Microsoft Office Suite, is known as an even better alternative to Microsoft Excel when it comes to creating a training database to track the training of your individual employees, monitor certification renewals, and more. While the software is robust enough to create tools to track other need-to-knows like job proposals, performance reviews, receipts and more, and can be used as a storage system for information that falls within these categories, the software can get just as cluttered as Excel. The information can become difficult to sort, search through, and ultimately loses its purpose other than a glorified holding place for lots of information that is important not to lose.

Across most businesses, there is some sort of training that takes place. Whether this training is to keep employees abreast of the latest trends across the industry, or simply onboarding an employee with relevant HR information or organizational practices, it doesn’t matter. Each and every training that is completed to advance careers or to remain informed of changes should be documented by the relevant personnel to ensure there is no oversight.

Whether you’re new to online education systems, or e-Learning, it is important to get on the same page as your vendor or sales person to really get the most out of what may be taught as it relates to your learning management system. A quick review of the most common terms used when it relates to learning management systems and online training will be helpful for quick education and to get you up to speed when talking about your new software.

So, you, possibly a training manager, believe that your company could benefit from adopting a Learning Management System (LMS), but your boss isn’t exactly on board? Convincing senior level executives can be a challenging task, especially where software is concerned. There are learning curves, expenditures, training, and more and proving how it impacts the bottom line can be challenging and oftentimes, that is exactly what your boss is the most concerned about. If your company has some sort of training program in place, isn’t that enough? What does your organization stand to gain from adopting a Learning Management System?

Compliance Management is evident in all businesses, large and small, new or old. While the types of compliance management necessary for success may not look the same, the underlying need for compliance is there and in many cases, controlled by more than one overseeing agency. From Federal to state governments, industry auditors and regulations, to meeting qualifications standards and certifications in an individual role - compliance is here to stay. Thankfully, with the robust growth seen in the learning management system industry, there is a much easier way to stay up on compliance efforts without adding a new product or vendor to manage.

Oftentimes it is standard practice to measure learning and development across an organization by levels of compliance. Compliance standards are typically set outside the company and audited, however, they can also expand to practices such as onboarding a new employee. In the latter case, employees go through onboarding to achieve a certain level of compliance that will deem them capable of working on their own, or show managers that they have at least marked a checkbox.