Customization Is Biggest LMS Implementation and Maintenance Challenge, According to Expertus Survey Results.

Integration Requirements, Lack of Application Experience, and Technical Resource Shortages Are Among Other Top Challenges

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Expertus, a provider of strategic training outsourcing services, and TrainingOutsourcing.com, a company that offers guidance and consulting to buyers and sellers of outsourcing services, jointly announced today the results of the fourth of six surveys designed to provide market data on all aspects of today's corporate training challenges. This latest survey was designed to find out more about the implementation and maintenance of learning management systems (LMSs) in today's corporate environment.

Customization was by far the biggest implementation challenge cited, with 54.8% of survey respondents listing it as their top challenge. Integration was next highest, selected by 45.2% of respondents. Approximately 25% of respondents said customization was their major maintenance challenge. Lack of technical resources (23.6%) and insufficient application expertise (17.3%) were other significant maintenance challenges

"LMSs are among the most widely used enterprise applications today," said Ramesh Ramani, CEO of Expertus. "The implementation process can impact thousands of employees and customers throughout an organization. We've found that most companies require LMS customization - whether the LMS is hosted or installed behind a corporate firewall - in order to achieve the promised benefits of the application. This work usually requires in-depth application expertise and typically requires ongoing maintenance as application versions change." More than 50% of respondents said their LMSs were accessed by more than 5,000 users in their organizations.

Survey responses were almost equally split between hosted and behind-the-firewall implementations. SumTotal and Saba were the most frequently used LMS vendors; approximately 25% of respondents used offerings from these vendors. Almost 40% of respondents said their companies did not use the latest versions of installed LMSs. Reasons for not upgrading included lack of budget (38.1%), impact on previous customization work (32.1%), uncertainty about version stability (32.1%), and lack of technical resources (25.0%).

Other survey findings include:

* Third-party service providers were used for implementation by 7.7% of respondents and for ongoing maintenance by 9.7%.

* 38.3% of respondents said their LMS implementations had occurred within the last year.

* The training organization typically has primary responsibility for both implementation and maintenance of LMS implementations (47.9% and 44.9%).

* Almost 30% of respondents said their implementations were over budget; more than half of respondents said implementation took longer or much longer than expected.

"While LMS implementations can be challenging, this survey verifies that companies do find value in these mission-critical implementations," said Doug Harward, CEO of TrainingOutsourcing.com. "Almost 70% of respondents said they were obtaining the expected benefits of their applications. In our experience, LMSs are just as critical to the efficiency of an enterprise as ERP applications; therefore, they require similar levels of investment and planning."

An analysis of all survey results is available at http://www.expertus.com/survey/results4/LMSImplementation.pdf. Those interested can also obtain results of prior surveys on global training, channel partner training, and LMS consolidation at www.expertus.com.

The next survey in the series will focus on training administration and will be distributed later in January.

About Expertus

Recently named as an Emerging Leader in Outsourcing, Expertus provides a variety of training outsourcing services in business consulting, technology, content, and strategic business process outsourcing. From implementing and managing LMS and learning-related technologies to supporting major customer training initiatives to seamlessly handling all aspects of training administration, Expertus has helped major companies such as Cisco, ADP, EMC, and Hyperion achieve efficiencies in corporate learning and development. Expertus is headquartered in Mountain View, California and has offices in London, New Jersey, and Chennai, India. Its staff of highly trained business and technical consultants, content developers, and process specialists delivers to clients the experience, skills, and knowledge that have an immediate impact on learning initiatives.

For more information, go to www.expertus.com or contact Mike Murrell at 919-386-0135 or [e-mail].

About TrainingOutsourcing.com

TrainingOutsourcing.com offers guidance and consulting to buyers and providers of training outsourcing services with the goal of facilitating mutually beneficial economic relationships. Its web-based knowledge community offers a wealth of information resources and best practices to those interested in any aspect of training outsourcing. For more information on TrainingOutsourcing.com and its webinars and conferences, go to www.trainingoutsourcing.com.