An organization's needs and strategic objectives are constantly changing: over time, technologies become obsolete, strategies prove outdated, systems age.
This reality implies constant transformations - the natural evolution of training directly affects a central point of corporate learning: Learning Management System. Sooner or later, all businesses that use a Learning Management System to train their teams and support the professional development of their employees need to face the challenge of migrating to a newer, more improved system that is more aligned with new strategies and objectives. apprenticeship.
But change can be difficult and stressful: time, scope and budget, for example, can delay and hinder the progress of a migration project. Therefore, it is important to develop good planning and act clearly on what improvements are needed.
To help your organization in this process, we have put together a step-by-step guide with 06 important tips that will guarantee great results and a satisfactory and safe migration.
Prepare the team and communicate the change
How to prepare your team for the migration task? This is the most common question. The first step to make everything happen more smoothly is to focus on communication: data and information regarding the initial motivations and objectives linked to the change must circulate freely among interested parties to help keep the team cohesive and committed to the quality of the project. Remember that different areas of your company will likely have different requirements and expectations when considering the LMS, so it's important to listen to everyone: from HR to Sales, IT and Finance – knowing how each team understands the project is an important step towards an effective and assertive migration.
Define the team responsible for the migration
From communication to understand expectations and needs, names can emerge that will be responsible for guiding the company throughout the migration process. The team assigned to this task will be responsible for planning, the migration schedule, supervising the integration of data and systems, establishing goals for implementation and managing the budget allocated to the project – the team responsible for the project will be the link between the company and the supplier and must be made up of professionals who know the requirements common to corporate training, from instructional design and content structuring, to data mining and learning management in a way that is aligned with the company's strategic objectives.
Assess your assets before migration
Migrating to a new LMS does not mean a total replacement: your current system certainly has countless relevant features and many other tools that should not (and cannot) be lost. It is important to inventory all existing assets in your LMS to check not only the data and interactions essential to the new platform, but also to find out if these assets are ready for a migration or if they need to be processed. This survey work is also important to highlight investments made in the past that proved to be of little relevance and profitability, preventing similar errors from occurring in your new Learning Management System.
Determine your goals
There are several reasons that can be cited to justify a migration between LMS: improving accessibility, acquiring new resources and functionalities, improving the system – but for a migration to be successful, it is necessary to define objectives in more depth. Understanding your team's expectations and needs and knowledge about your platform's current assets are two fundamental points for strategically defining the objectives that must be achieved before, during and after the migration. Determining measurable and realistic goals is an important step in structuring planning and a crucial aspect for correctly monitoring the progress of the LMS migration. Well-constructed objectives serve as guides and help your team monitor the evolution and effectiveness of the changes made.
Be careful with integration
The integration of the LMS with other software used by your company is a fundamental point for the success of the new platform. If the Learning Management System If your current LMS is integrated with other systems (such as HR or CRM, for example) and it is essential to replicate these interactions in your new LMS, make sure you have all the technical and functional details of these software and the necessary integration technologies. It is important to check the estimated deadlines and costs associated with any integration, in addition to considering in the planning, scope and budget of the project these aspects and issues such as time and other necessary resources, whether technical or human resources.
Train your professionals to be experts on the new platform
Managers, instructors and students need to know the new system as well as they knew the previous one: they are the heavy users of your LMS and the performance of training and knowledge management directly depend on the understanding and value they will give to the new platform. Go beyond training them according to the role they perform: create an environment where they can discuss new ideas and ask questions about their roles and the functionalities reserved for their areas, which can strengthen interpersonal bonds and also bring together different points of view the structuring of the platform. This exchange of information will help build the future of your LMS and will be important feedback on everything that happened throughout the migration process.
Migrating between different LMSs doesn't have to become a source of problems or a battlefield. The step-by-step guide we have listed is a great facilitator for your planning: define what is important, involve your team in executing the project, check whether the new system is ready to assimilate your needs - this way your company will be able to transfer the best solutions and tools from the old LMS to a new platform that will have all the additional features your company was looking for!
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