In Discussion with Sammir Imandar on New Developments in Learning Management System

Learning Management System (LMS) has grown at a rapid pace in the last few years in India. Working professionals are leveraging online courses to upskill and reskill for career advancement. So, are the corporates which want to make learning modules tech-savvy, on-demand and easy for their employees.

According to Infoholic Research, the LMS market in India will witness a double digit growth during the forecast period 2016-2022. Given the growing popularity of LMS in India, and understand how it is evolving, SHRM interviewed Sammir Imandar, co-founder of Enthralltech.

According to Sammir Imandar there has been a massive disruption in HR technology across all domains, including LMS. While the LMS ecosystem is yet to develop to its full potential in India, it is changing the face of learning and development in the organizations and increasing its footprint across various sectors. It is replacing the traditional model of learning quite swiftly. He says, “LMS has shifted from ‘classroom’ module to ‘byte sized, just in time and just enough’ version. Organizations and employees are looking for empowered and nimble agile solutions in LMS. They want LMS to be easily searchable as and when they want”

There is usually a myth associated with LMS that it is quite expensive and time consuming to implement and maintain. Hence, only large organizations can benefit from it. Sammir debunks this myth and explains, “LMS can be leveraged across all verticals by organizations of all sizes -from startups to giants, whether the workforce strength is 200-300 or over a lakh.”

Though most LMS modules are designed in cloud, organizations should look for one that is scalable and available on multi-delivery platform. LMS software has moved from learning capex model (acquisition cost) to opex model (rental cost).

Is LMS making the business cycle shorter? Or, it takes a longer implementation and operational time? To these questions, Sammir answers, “Organizations are not willing to wait for months and years for learning to happen. They demand new age HR learning software that can be deployed within minutes and be part of their go-to-market strategy. The quality LMS solutions have features such as free trials, demos and automated approvals, which can make deployment pretty fast and agile.”

With more than 300 million smartphone users and 450 million internet users in India currently, and more than 50% population would be below the age of 25 by 2020, organizations are also exploring offer LMS module on the go. They want to create a mobile-unified experience for their employees. Sammir agrees, “It is important or else you will miss the competitive edge. This is the age of ‘mobile first’ and ‘design thinking’. India has a millennial workforce with about 240 million young people. So, LMS software should be designed considering them as well.”

Another myth that floats in the organizations is that LMS is applicable only to leadership positions. Sammir says that LMS can be used by anyone from CEO to new inductees. While nothing can beat the live interactive interactions, the text and video modules available on desktop, laptop and mobile makes it accessible to one and all.

However, employees are apprehensive about using it. They feel that tech-enabled LMS is not the right tool to assess their potential and understanding of the subject. Sammir addresses their concern, “Assessment is defacto strategy. The new age learning modules are interactive, offer pre and post learning assessment, and have built-in curated question banks to assess the level of difficulty. So, there is no need for classrooms to procure evaluations. In fact, highly advanced LMS also has features such as biometrics scan”

The future of LMS lies in automation, and online modules are reinventing this HR domain. Sooner the organizations adopt it, the better and more efficient learning experience they can provide to their employees.