Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are included in two categories: 

1. Corporate
2. Education

LMSs manage learners and facilities, launch and track online learning and keep records of the activity.

Corporate LMSs usually include registration and management of classroom instruction as well as eLearning management and delivery.  Some corporate LMSs add e-Commerce capability and may include regulatory compliance, competency, performance, human capital and talent management which link closely to Human Resources functions.  Corporate LMSs tend to emphasize the management of asynchronous (self-directed) online learning because there is no assumption that an instructor will always be present.  Course authoring and content management are not normally included in a corporate LMS except as part of a suite that includes learning content management (LCMS).

Educational institutions are usually already well equipped for registration and management of classroom instruction so Education LMSs tend to be primarily for online learning and they usually provide course authoring and some content management features.  Consequently they sometimes call themselves LCMSs.  They are also called Course Management Systems (CMS) or (less commonly today) Virtual Learning Environments (VLE).  They also emphasize communication and collaboration features.  They are generally built on the assumption that an instructor is always available to build course content and to communicate with students. 

Talent Management Systems:  Corporate Learning Management Systems are often part of Human Resource (HR) solutions.  Several of the major LMSs are moving into the area of talent management.  Talent management includes recruitment, performance management, compensation and benefits, succession, retention, career planning, learning and development.  As a rule, they are oriented to planning and do not provide the day-to-day processing capabilities such as payroll.  The terms human capital management and workforce productivity are also used. 

LMS vendors that incorporate talent management tools include Cornerstone OnDemand, Learn.com, Plateau, Saba, SumTotal Systems and TEDS.  There are separate talent management systems that do not include learning management including Success Factors (www.successfactors.com), Authoria (www.authoria.com), Taleo (www.taleo.com), and others.  Success Factors provides the talent management capabilities of GeoLearning.

Brandon Hall (www.brandon-hall.com) has produced reports profiling these systems.  More listings can be found at http://www.capterra.com/talent-management-software.