Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About LMS But Were Afraid to Ask—Well Maybe Not Everything!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About LMS But Were Afraid to Ask—Well Maybe Not Everything!

As the 1977 Trooper song says "We're here for a good time, not a long time," and while the song was referring to living rather than working, the latter part of the lyric certainly holds true for today's workforce. People just don't stay at one job for very long anymore.

For many organizations, gone are the days of simply hiring an employee, giving them a half decent salary with a few perks, and hoping like hell they'll stick around for the long run. It's no longer just about what an individual can bring to the organization; employees today are also expecting a lot more from their employers. They not only want a job, they want a learning experience.

Today, if a company wants to retain its employees, it must take great strides to make that experience a rewarding one. Organizations must be willing to develop and nurture their employee's career goals by creating what I like to call, "a recipe for success"—a recipe that not only benefits the employee, but the company too. This recipe should include a well-rounded talent management strategy, a pinch of competency objectives, and a heaping spoonful of learning management.

Learning management coupled with thoroughly planned learning processes have become important factors in generating competitive advantages. In fact, studies have shown that corporate learning is an effective way to increase an organization's overall performance. But even the best learning strategy cannot work without the right technology to back it up. Thus, the difficultly for many organizations lies in determining what type of system to buy to compliment their learning strategy.

What Is Learning Management?

Learning management is a term used to define strategies that are developed to help achieve learning outcomes. A learning management system (LMS) provides the necessary tools for managing, creating, scheduling, training, or learning in an organization.

LMS typically helps to manage both classroom and on-line learning (also known as e-learning). Some LMSs often manage classroom learning alone or e-learning alone, rather than handling both. Some LMSs may also include content authoring and management, as well virtual classrooms.

How to Decide Which Type of System is Right for My Growing Business

Where does one start when it comes to choosing an LMS? With a plethora of choices available that include core human resource (HR) functionality or more robust features including talent management, succession planning, competency and performance management, and incentive management, how do you know which one will best suit your organization?

Before you can choose the right type of system, it's important to first determine what is driving your decision to buy in the first place. In my experience with LMS, some of the main drivers for organizations in purchasing a new LMS have been

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the need to automate reporting and tracking;
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to keep up with regulatory and statutory certification requirements; or
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to align learning with strategic business goals.

With the trend moving towards educating employees and nurturing their career goals, enterprise software vendors have taken marketplace demands into consideration by developing all-in-one solutions (better known as suites). So rather than a pure LMS, consumers are now finding solutions (or suites) that mix all facets of HR together. What's interesting, however, is that many solutions are also sold as best-of-breed, allowing buyers to mix and match.

The bottom line when choosing an LMS solution is that organizations must focus on getting the most critical functions they need, while ensuring the system is modular enough to allow individual components to be easily added as required.

Learning for the Future—Emerging Trends

In this section, we'll review some of the emerging trends in learning management that your organization may want to consider down the road. Understanding where learning management is headed tomorrow will allow you to make better informed decisions today.

Mobile Learning

Are you one of those people, like millions of others, who can't live without their Blackberry? The recent serge in mobile phone use globally over the last decade has provided a great opportunity for enterprise software vendors to turn their future developments to the mobile market—and mobile learning is no exception. In fact, because the global workforce in general has become more mobile, it only stands to reason that their learning opportunities should be mobile too. With more and more organizations adopting learning and talent management strategies, employees are constantly under pressure to keep up with their training—especially those competing for a specific position. Finding the time to attend training courses or to even logon from their personal computer at work to complete an online training module can be difficult. But having the freedom to login remotely through a personal digital assistant (PDA)—now you're talking!

Web 2.0 (Social Networking)

Web 2.0 (also known as social networking) has become a popular tool in the learning community. Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn—among others, continue to increase virtual interaction on a social level. With new functionality emerging at a rapid pace, social networking encourages the sharing of information and knowledge, and it's all bundled neatly within a secure framework.

LMS Vendors at a Glance

Here are two of the leading LMS products that I have recently had the opportunity to see up close and personal. Both Saba and SumTotal have joined Technology Evaluation Center's (TEC) roster of LMS vendors and are currently working with our research analysts to have their products "TEC certified".

The list below is not an exhaustive one; in fact, there are hundreds of products available on the market.

Saba (Learning Suite 5.4). Saba's people management solutions are used by more than 1,300 organizations and over 17 million users worldwide. Saba's targeted clientele are usually companies with over 25,000 users. Its solutions help to increase organizational performance by aligning workforce goals with organizational strategy; developing, managing, and rewarding the workforce; and, improving collaboration. In my opinion, Saba's Learning Suite provides robust functionality, with easy-to-use screens, and drop-down menus. Saba's product offerings address all aspects of strategic human capital management (HCM) and are available both on-premise and on-demand.

What's unique to Saba? The fact that they have their own university! For more information about it, you can read my blog entitled "Saba University: What a Concept!"

SumTotal (Total LMS). SumTotal's LMS solution helps accelerate performance and profits for more than 1,500 small to medium businesses (SMBs) and governments worldwide. Its talent development suite of learning, performance, and talent management applications enables companies to identify knowledge and competency gaps across their entire value chain.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with SumTotals' Narendra Patil, director of product marketing and Bill Docherty, senior director of product management who were kind enough to do a product briefing with me and some members of my team. What impressed me the most about SumTotals LMS solution was its unique best-of-breed capabilities, including open activity architecture (OAA)—which helps customers leverage existing curriculum workflows and processes, and total versioning. It enables users to easily tag, update, and manage revisions to curriculums, classes, and training manuals.

Some Other Vendors to Consider

While the above-mentioned vendors are just a few that have developed a learning management solution, here are some others you might want to consider reviewing. They provide a combination of talent, performance, and learning management solutions.

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Cornerstone OnDemand (Talent Management Suite)
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GeoLearning (GeoMaestro 5.x)
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Halogen Software (Halogen eLMS)
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Kenexa(BrassRing) (Kenexa Learning Management [KLM])
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Learn.com (Learn Center)
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Meridian Knowledge Solutions (Meridian Global LMS)
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Plateau Systems (Talent Management)
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SAP (Enterprise Learning)
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Softscape (Learning Management System)

Many of these vendors and products, incidentally, appeared in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems 2008. The Magic Quadrant is a research tool that was developed by US-based research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. and offers a visual snapshot of a specific market's direction, maturity, and participants. Gartner conducts research on more than 100 technical industries and its quadrant report is updated every one to two years.



SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-lms-but-were-afraid-to-ask-well-maybe-not-everything-19408/

Evaluating the Total Cost of Network Ownership

Introduction

A bank devotes extensive resources to its computer network-both in human wherewithal and hard cash. The upfront costs can be high, and veiled costs compound the burden. Ultimately, an invisible price tag hangs from a computer network. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a model that helps systems managers understand and handle the budgeted and unbudgeted costs of an IT component throughout its lifecycle.

The lifecycle of a network occurs in five stages:

* Design. The IT department evaluates needs, industry standards, and current technology.

* Acquire. This phase involves acquisition, configuration, and distribution services, as well as asset management.

* Integrate. The system is installed, and the project continually managed. Training and support plans are established.

* Support. Help desk services, maintenance support, and disaster recovery plans are arranged.

* Upgrade. At some point (often too soon), hardware and software becomes outdated, and needs upgrades.

The upfront expenses of a network comprise only 19% of the total cost. The remaining 81% can sneak up on bank management, often unaware of some subtle TCO factors.

Direct, Budgeted Costs

Budgeted costs are usually two-fold. They primarily consist of expenditures directly related to computing, like hardware and software. The second component of direct costs is labor, including Help Desk and technical personnel.

Bank management should budget for costs of all IS professionals directly managing and supporting the network, in addition to outsourced management and maintenance fees. On the support end, costs can be broken into Operations labor, Operations fees, and Help Desk. Operations labor includes management and administrative assistance needed for support. Casual learning and formal training of technical staff are factors, in addition to end-user training performed by the IS staff. There are also cost factors associated with travel and purchasing time.

Networks create and require extensive communications capabilities. These include remote access server fees, WAN costs allocated to the client/server systems, communication lines and device fees, and Internet service provider charges. All of these fees are included in budgeted costs.

Indirect, Unbudgeted Costs

The more elusive figures fall under the unbudgeted category. These include non-productive end-user time, troubleshooting, other IT tasks, and system downtime. Support and training make the system work for users, and the price of those services must be factored into the TCO. Management must calculate peer and self-support from the IS department. There are also costs related to casual learning, CBT, manuals, and online help. End user training can cause downtime and lost productivity.

Unbudgeted expenses often add enormously to the TCO. And, without understanding precisely what the costs arise from, bank management cannot control them. Fortunately, there is a way for Management to keep expenses in check. Knowledge establishes control. Awareness of the root causes for network expenditures gives Management and IT personnel the power to evaluate unacceptable conditions and change them.

10 Ways to Control the TCO

1. Standardize hardware and software purchases. Fewer technology platforms mean lower costs. Defining standards takes only upfront time, with periodic evaluations. As components wear out and become outdated, replace them uniformly across the organization. Upholding policies becomes the test. In the end, the strongest policy will fail without actions to enforce it. Defined standards will help the bank establish training requirements and reduce the costs of hardware upgrades.

2. Inventory all hardware and software. The network administrator needs to know the bank's computing environment for efficient decision-making. The information should be readily available to key people, and easily accessible in each department. The bank can improve its resource management practices by keeping a current catalog of hardware and software.

3. Reduce opportunities for trouble. Implementing explicit policies and profiles helps prevent users from delving into areas better left unexplored, and protects the integrity of the system. High security levels can:

* Prevent users from accidentally deleting critical files

* Keep users out of the Control Panel and the registry

* Keep virus protection software updated

* Keep users from installing unapproved software

* Monitor system activities

4. Implement an efficient Help Desk support system. Users will always need some technical support. Insufficient support is a leading complaint among computer users in banks and elsewhere. An efficient Help Desk will reduce the TCO and frustration at the same time. Some ways to facilitate efficiency are to:

* Implement a single phone number for all end users.

* Have lower-level technicians or a call coordinator answer the Help Desk calls.

* Install Help Desk software. (The benefits of a well-run Help Desk will spread throughout the operation.)

* Track all calls and solutions using specialized software.

* Take action on trouble PCs or end users. o Set minimum SLA levels for technicians.

5. Implement system management technologies. Banks can use technology to help manage technology. Implementing specialized products can help manage a network structure, including remote troubleshooting, application software distribution, and hardware and software inventories (asset management and software version control). Protocol analyzers can be employed to find chatty NICs and busy LAN segments. These watchdog products can isolate problems and inefficiencies early-long before the situation becomes detectable to the bank. This can save the bank enormous costs over the long term.

6. Minimize upgrades. Hardware and software upgrades are expensive. The bank can more cheaply purchase the power it needs upfront. Surprisingly, upgrading hardware and software often costs more than the initial purchase. Another tactic for controlling costs is to maintain software version control, and run only one version of software at a time.

7. Maintain a dependable infrastructure. A strong infrastructure is the foundation for a successful network. A weak structure causes problems that can affect large groups of people-not only individual users. The system should maintain ample bandwidth to key resources for high availability. Software is available to continually update network administrators of strains on the system.

8. Achieve total management support. TCO affects the entire operation, making bank management's support of network decisions critical. Departmental managers need ownership of a piece of TCO. The bank benefits by everyone feeling invested in the system, and taking responsibility for making it work. Since users are an integral part of a network, their buy-in is crucial. Users' enthusiasm about the benefits of network improvements can actually lower the TCO, through less downtime, faster learning, and more peer support.

9. Spread knowledge. The efficiency of the system increases proportionately with the training level of the staff. Users need education to learn how to make the most of the hardware and software that forms the network. Users should be encouraged to understand the network environment, directory structures, printing options, etc. The bank can maintain books, CBTs, and videos for reference and training.

10. Treat TCO as an ongoing issue. Reducing the TCO is not the goal in itself, but rather a catalyst for environmental improvements. As technology develops, the bank must adjust TCO methods to maximize cost reduction. Management can delegate part of the job of continually addressing TCO issues to someone in the bank with the knowledge and resources to curtail problems before they cost the bank money.

What Tools Can Help?

There are many tools that network managers can use to control and manage the TCO. Some specific products are:

# Microsoft Systems Management Server

# Novell Managewise or Z.E.N. Works

# NT Terminal Server/Citrix Metaframe

# Protocol analyzers like Microsoft Network Monitor, Novell Lanalyzer, and Network Associates Sniffer Pro (same product new name)

# Properly updated virus protection software





SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/evaluating-the-total-cost-of-network-ownership-15978/