Business cases for a new LMS in healthcare.

We know about the challenges faced by organisations in the healthcare sector around education – high DNA rates on classroom courses, poor access to technology to complete training and in-flexible legacy LMS’s to name but a few. So how do you create a business case to support the move to new learning technology?

Facing a range of challenges L&D teams are still expected to become more efficient, provide quality training resources and improve compliance with less resource than the previous year. Creating a business case to prove evidence the need, investment and benefits new learning technology can deliver is the first step on the road to a modern LMS.

Placing a Learning Management System (LMS) at the heart of an organisations learning strategy can help save time and money spent on training and make the whole learning experience more user friendly and effective. So how do you go about convincing stakeholders that this is the case?

Business cases outline the why, what, how and who are necessary to decide if the project is worth continuing. The foundations of a business case for an LMS should include:

• Outline of the business problem / challenges to be solved.
• Solution options including the cost to the business of not purchasing a new LMS
• Proposed solution:
  • The top 3 or 4 key benefits – well defined, clearly stated and with the biggest impact for the organisation.
  • Features of the LMS
  • Risks associated with the proposed solution.
• Impact on operations.
• Cost benefit analysis of the proposed solution including implementation resources.
• Final recommendations

Where you are considering the financial benefits do look for hidden costs where IT or workforce teams are doing additional work due to queries caused by the current system or time-consuming workarounds for reporting.

As you can see, financials are important, however…

If your business case majors on cost saving, you might get some initial attention, but we find you’ll struggle long term. We find the best business cases focus on enabling longer-term changes in cultural and learning behaviours rather than saving some money on classroom training.

This is because:

1. Training teams are already ‘lean’ running with minimum resources possible, cutting head count to invest in technology is rarely an option.
2. Budget holders in the NHS at least have massive cost-reduction targets and whatever figures you can factor in for your LMS will be tiny in comparison to other cost-saving initiatives.
3. People rarely believe headline ROI figures anyway.
4. Most importantly, the real reason for introducing more technology to learning is to increase the effectiveness of learning, not just the efficiency.

Having said that, from a recent survey of our current NHS Customers 100% of respondents said they had seen an increase in e-learning completions since implementing Totara Learn. Organisations have experienced positive results in the reduced need for classroom courses, reduced course administration costs and increased compliance rates.

Very often, organisations are looking to change the culture amongst managers and employees over the long term and foster individual responsibility for managing training requirements and associated reporting. Real time training data and graphical reporting enables managers to make resourcing decisions and effectively manage their teams. This drives compliance whilst saving a lot of administration time and effort within L&D to focus on adding value to the training provided across the Trust.

Other non-financial benefits of a LMS might include:

• Improved learner engagement with branding and theming – making the system recognisably yours and flexible configuration allowing smoother user journeys
• Engaging your workforce in learning through flexible, blended learning activities.
• Flexible IT requirements reducing support provided by IT, reduced queries for L&D and a more positive user experience.
• The automation of basic administration tasks.
• Integration with single sign on reducing the number of passwords needed by staff.
• Customised solutions that meet your exact needs. Think work collaboratively with our NHS clients to share best practice and customise processes to meet your needs.

Companies like Walkerstone and NHS Elect offer training on business case creation and have specific experience of working with the NHS.

If you want to learn more…
Contact us to learn more about how Totara Learn can be used to drive efficiencies, streamline on-boarding, learning and performance and improve the learners user experience in your organisation.