LMS 2009 Research Released
Today, at our IMPACT 2009 Research Conference, we released our 2009 Learning Management Systems research which details the pivotal changes taking place in the market for corporate learning platforms. This market has grown to $817 Million (projected for 2009) and continues to grow despite the economic downturn. Some of the highlights of our research include:
- The market grew by 8.4% in 2008, slowing from a 10.6% growth rate in 2007. This growth is primarily occurring in mid-sized companies who are now purchasing SaaS (Software as a Service) learning platforms as part of their corporate HR infrastructure. Large corporations are consolidating and replacing their LMS systems and while nearly 70% of large companies have an LMS, many still need new, upgraded systems.
- The market is radically changing, being impacted by the tremendous growth in demand for informal learning approaches. Our research shows that more than 65% of organizations now believe that their highest value corporate training strategies rely upon informal learning: collaboration, coaching, learning on-demand, and social networking. (We have a lot more coming in this area, stay tuned!). The current LMS vendors have not yet tapped into this market, causing buyers to build their own “YouTube” systems for learning and impacting LMS future market growth.
- Our research also clearly shows that today, while LMS features are critically important to success, customer service and integration with other HR applications are more important drivers of customer satisfaction. As I often say to clients, we have reached a stage in learning technology where “integration is more important than functionality.” Most major LMS vendors are rapidly building talent management feature sets, because more and more companies now realize that a standalone LMS limits many of their talent development application solutions.
More to come… back to the conference… read more here…
