The Learning Management System Market Today

The learning and talent management system market today marks a time of significant change. According to research from Bersin by Deloitte, 61% of companies will be in a ‘learning management system replacement phase’ over the next year and a half. In addition to this, Bersin researchers cite that the market is growing at an unprecedented rate. In 2014 alone, the global market is expected to reach $2.5 to $2.7 billion marking over 21% growth since 2013.

Why is this transitional phase so wide-spread? Well, there are a few reasons. A key one is that learning management system technology is currently entering a new technological phase with capabilities significantly greater than when they first emerged 10 years ago. Furthermore, Bersin researchers note that since most organizational LMSs are 4-7 years old, companies are now looking for ones with capabilities that match leading platforms.

Learning Management Systems Today

Remember when the first iPhone came out and how futuristic we all thought it was? I can remember using the touch screen to zoom in and out of a video and thinking, “wow…the future has arrived”. Learning management systems are precisely in that phase. The LMS used to once be a place to store, access and review course content. Now, according to Josh Bersin, these capabilities only account for “less than 10% of what an LMS will do…”

Leading and advanced learning management systems are now not just a place to integrate interactive online courses, to collaborate and share knowledge and to automate mundane and costly administrative tasks. They are truly sophisticated and adaptive systems that can run on all mobile devices, further extending user abilities to learn anywhere at any time. They are predictive analytic tools that create insightful reports using Big Data both from your learning management system and aggregated data from other systems. They are social learning platforms that allow employees to collaborate and connect in Twitter and Facebook-like settings. Finally, learning management systems today allow organizations to track learning 360 degrees with intelligent monitoring technology that allows employers to know learning progress from not only administered course content, but web-related learning activity as well.

It’s a Good Time to switch it up

If you are one of the 61% of organizations that is looking to switch up your learning management system, or you are new to the market, it really couldn’t be a better time to be looking or entering. According to Bersin by Deloitte, the current market is composed of 600+ providers who are either small to medium sized players. This is great for buyers because a) you have options and b) an increase in competitors is causing commoditization of the learning management system market. As competition stiffens, products and features are not only getting better but prices are decreasing and bundled services are improving. Researchers at Bersin have found that there are no clear leaders in the global market. This means a local provider can provide you with equal product and services as a so called ‘leading provider’.

We do take our ‘leading provider’ status seriously though. In a competitive market it is still a function of differentiating ourselves because our stamp of satisfaction comes with the approval of more than 75 million users. Follow this link to test drive the world’s leading open source providers Moodle and Totara today!

You can also check out our 5 Tips for Choosing the Right LMS.