Seamless integration.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
It’s a term you’ve heard hundreds — if not thousands — of times in your search for your next learning management system. It’s something every developer strives for and something every instructional designer and training manager yearns for.
When doing even a surface-level analysis of potential LMS platforms, integrations should always be at the forefront of the discussion. Choosing an LMS that lacks the flexibility to seamlessly integrate with your other business software will leave you always wanting more. You want to maximize your online course platform’s potential, don’t you?
But which LMS integrations are available? What can these integrations do to streamline your business operations and improve your courses?
These are questions you need answers to — and this article will aim to provide those answers.
LMS integrations give you the ability to fully synchronize your learning management system with all of the other business applications your company uses to operate its business.
Simply put, if your LMS does not integrate with your CRM, Analytics, eCommerce, and other platforms, you’re missing out on an infinite number of opportunities to improve business operations and streamline processes.
With LMS integrations, valuable data is shared across these platforms. You gain insights on customer and employee behaviour, the effectiveness of your training courses and marketing efforts, and save hours and hours on administrative tasks.
The bottom line? When used appropriately, LMS integrations will save you time and help drive better business decisions.
Let’s explore how 7 LMS integrations can benefit your eLearning or training business.
An API (Application Programming Interface) allows you to connect third-party applications to your LMS with the purpose of sharing and synchronizing information.
Chances are, you’ve interacted with an API hundreds of times. Netflix uses APIs to distribute content; Travel booking websites use APIs to offer the best deals to consumers; APIs are also used by financial institutes to process payments, authenticate account information, and more.
If you’ve connected Google Analytics to your LMS — you’ve already used API integration yourself!
Third party applications, like Analytics, provide you with a numerical key that can be entered in your LMS. This gives developers permission to interact with your data while offering you the ability to leverage their software.
Benefits of API integration:
Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is the heart of your business. It stores valuable information about customer behaviour, how they’ve been communicated with, and identifies opportunities for future business growth.
Unsurprisingly, the importance of integrating your LMS with a CRM cannot be overstated.
Accounting for nearly 20% of CRM global market share, Salesforce is the go-to option for most LMS platforms, including Lambda Suite. With Salesforce integration, massive amounts of data become significantly more accessible.
Benefits of CRM-LMS integration with Salesforce:
eCommerce API integration is absolutely essential if your company is dealing with high volumes of learners — or looking to take a step in that direction.
Without eCommerce integration, the process of selling and delivering your courses will be a colossal challenge.
Benefits of eCommerce integration include:
Be sure to choose an eCommerce platform that can handle all of your sophisticated business needs. An all-in-one online course platform like Lambda Suite offers all of the above benefits and more.
Have you ever been prompted to log into an online account with your Facebook or gmail credentials?
If so, you’ve experienced the wonders of single-sign-on (SSO) integration and authentication.
As a user, it’s incredibly convenient. So much so, you probably don’t think twice anytime you’re asked to use one account to access another completely unrelated website.
In your LMS, however, SSO support not only benefits you, but your customers and all members of your organization. It provides streamlined access to CRM, online training, analytics, video conferencing and more.
Consider single sign-on the master key that opens every virtual door in your organization.
Benefits of Single Sign-On Integration:
Learning management systems like Lambda Suite offer a simplified solution with the use of SSO - OAuth for authentication purposes.
LMS analytics are indispensable. Whether your LMS has its own built-in reporting tools or you’re gaining insights from Google Analytics, your data needs to be gathered early and often.
Leveraging learning analytics can have a profound effect on the efficacy of your courses.
Some benefits of Analytics integration include:
Dashboard reporting in Lambda Analytics.
With more and more employees working and training from home, virtual classrooms have become a great way to offer face-to-face support to team members and keep employee morale high.
For blended training courses, you’ll need an LMS that allows you to integrate sophisticated video conferencing software, such as Zoom, to ensure employee performance doesn’t suffer during this new age of remote
Virtual Classroom integration benefits:
Have you ever come across an online resource and thought, “Gee, this would be a perfect addition to our training course on xyz. If only there were a way to add this directly to my LMS…”?
Well...there is! It’s called LTI integration.
So, what is LTI?
LTI, or Learning Tools Interoperability. is a standard protocol developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. When this standard is used to create an application, it can be integrated with any LMS that also supports LTI.
When an LMS uses LTI integration, it can connect its learners to a wide variety of content, activities, and external tools found on other LTI compliant websites.
Benefits of LTI integrations include:
Key benefits:
You see, LMS integration can yield incredible results — making life easier for you and your learners in the process. These integrations allow your online course platform to pack a more powerful punch and truly maximize its potential.
If you’re looking to find a fully-integrated, all-in-one online course platform, look no further than Lambda Suite. Lambda Solutions’ top notch support team will ensure your LMS is optimized and customizable so you get all of the benefits of the most impactful integrations without the hassle and expense of purchasing and developing them individually.
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