You’ve been assigned the task of scouting out a new LMS for your business. You’ve spoken to a salesperson. You agreed to a second meeting, but now you need to figure out who else from your business needs to be involved in the conversation.
Does this sound like you? Well, you’re in the right place, and we have the list of who you should invite and why you need them there.
Involving stakeholders
Hardly ever (translated to never) is there just one person who makes decisions or influences the learning strategy of the organisation. These decisions are influenced by leaders in Finance, IT, Operations, and even Legal, but are ultimately made by Learning & Development, Talent, and Human Resources.
This is why it is crucial to engage with stakeholders in your organisation and why we recommend that you start the conversation as early as possible. These are the people who will help to ensure you achieve your vision and make the project a success.
There are many teams that will get involved throughout the process, but let’s start by identifying the teams of people you should be working with at this early stage:
Decision influencers vs. decision-makers
We don’t need to tell you that you’re not the only one involved in the decisions of your LMS purchasing journey. In fact, the reality is that the majority of the business will have a say in the process and a stake in the outcome. Whether it’s budgets, learning assessments, or change management, your internal stakeholders need to be involved to support your journey from the beginning.
Now, there will be many voices and opinions being thrown at you, but only a few will have final decision-making power. The decision-makers are the ones you ultimately convince. However, leaders in Finance, IT, Operations, Compliance, and Legal, aka ‘the many voices and opinions’, are your decision influencers – and you want these people on your side from the beginning.
Even though your decision influencers don’t officially have the final say, they have the power to convince the actual decision-makers one way or another. Start bringing your influencers into the conversation early by inviting them to the second meeting.
So, who are your decision influencers?
Compliance
Maintaining compliance is one of the top reasons our customers say they need an LMS. An LMS enables you to deliver impactful and effective training that reduces the chance of non-compliance in your organisation. The right LMS will have a significant impact on your compliance managers’ daily roles because it will reduce their time chasing overdue training, giving them more time to spend on policies and procedures. Further, the right LMS with the right content will ensure that you remain compliant and avoid fines, accidents, or worse. By involving your Compliance teams in your early meetings, you’ll give them to the chance to assess for themselves how beneficial the LMS will be. If they believe it will be successful in maintaining compliance, their opinion will go a long way with the actual decision-makers.
Link to Email Template: Inviting your Compliance team to your next LMS demo/meeting
IT
To ensure a smooth LMS implementation, you need to share all IT requirements with your IT/technology team as soon as possible. This ensures that all IT considerations can be addressed in plenty of time, and the IT team knows what will be expected of them. Getting your IT team on board early on will prepare them for the change and help them see the future success of the project.
Take a look at our System Capabilities playbook to help you understand the necessary requirements, and bring our Systems Capabilities Checklist with you to your meeting with IT and your LMS provider.
Link to Email Template: Inviting your IT team to your next LMS demo/meeting
Legal
Legal needs to be involved with pretty much everything when it comes to business decisions. They will play a big part in your LMS purchasing journey because not only is it a big investment, but there will be contracts that, well, will make your life 100% easier if they can read and discuss. They will also have great insight into whether this purchase is a safe decision for the company and, therefore, have go or no-go influence with the final decision-makers.
Link to Email Template: Inviting your Legal team to your next LMS demo/meeting
Finance
Depending on how your company works, your finance team may actually verge on the side of the decision-maker rather than the decision influencer. No matter, purchasing an LMS is a huge investment, and your finance team will need some serious persuasion to influence the decision-makers or make the decisions themselves. Budgets need to be planned, and potential ROI needs to be proven… it really does come down to the numbers. If you bring your Finance team into the conversation early, not only can they support you in planning your budget, but they can also be privy to why an LMS is a beneficial investment rather than a cost.
Link to Email Template: Inviting your Finance team to your next LMS demo/meeting
Don’t know where to begin with your LMS budget? Check out our list of questions to ask your stakeholders to secure your LMS budget.
Remember: the more support you gain from your internal stakeholders, the smoother your LMS purchasing and implementation process will be. Decision influencers are ultimately the ones who can persuade the decision-makers. If you ensure they’re informed and involved in the conversation from the very beginning, your chances of a seamless process are greater.
Written by Claire Moloney Claire is an enthusiastic and meticulous content writer whose passion is to support growth and continual learning for everyone.
