LMS Reporting Problems – Getting to the Source

Are Your Reporting Problems Really Reporting Problems – or Something Else?

By John Schneble, Product Director, Technology Solutions, Expertus

John Schneble, Product Director, Technology Solutions, Expertus

Of all the challenges associated with legacy learning management systems, reporting is almost always cited as the toughest.

If you’re familiar with any enterprise LMS, I’m sure you’re not surprised. And if you’re responsible for responding to numerous executives who request complex, multifaceted LMS reports on-the-fly, you know exactly where the difficulties lie.

We’ve all encountered technical issues (such as system downtime) and stale data (delays of a day or even a week are not uncommon). But there are 3 other key concerns: limited data access, costly/complex reporting tools and “dirty” data.

Top 3 Reasons for Reporting Headaches

1. Limited Data Access – Your reports don’t have access to necessary data captured in LMS fields, or the LMS doesn’t capture this needed data.
2. Costly Reporting Tools – Too often the tools required to generate the reports you need are sophisticated 3rd party reporting tools that require licenses (money) and expertise (money).
3. Dirty Data – If you don’t know it before you deliver a new report, you will hear about it soon after. Data integrity is a challenge in any enterprise-wide platform, and especially in an LMS.

Now, estimate the sum of all of this effort, and then take an honest look at what you are delivering – incomplete or invalid information, after the fact! Here are suggestions for handling these issues:

Tip #1: Reporting vs. Data Availability – Clarify the Problem

What would happen if you asked everyone who requests reports whether they’d prefer real-time access to that information? I’m sure a large percentage would laugh, and say “of course!”

Do you think they’d be able to do their jobs more efficiently if they had immediate access? Do you think they’d be more effective at reducing business risk if they knew at any moment that someone was out of compliance with training requirements?

If so, then I challenge you to view their situation as a data availability problem, not a reporting problem.

A report is an after-action summary. It answers the question, “What happened?” But if your requesters are trying to manage today’s operations, they don’t need a report. They need a tool that reveals “What’s happening now?”

Tip #2: Proactive vs. Reactive Management – Is It Worth the Risk?

Too often managers are responsible for ensuring that their employees are compliant. However, they don’t have the necessary data available to make this happen. Instead, they’re forced to request “after-action summaries” and must manage their team’s compliance based on less-than-timely data.

Needless to say, this is a frustrating and risky process.

Tip #3: Dynamic Learning Platform vs. Legacy LMS – 4 Key Advantages

For more than a decade, Expertus has configured, customized, implemented and supported today’s major enterprise learning management systems (LMSs), Our technical specialists have been responsible for scoping report requirements; designing custom reports; and deploying, testing and managing  reports on these systems.

Several years ago, we recognized that learning measurement and reporting were one of the weakest links in the learning infrastructure. That’s when we created a next-generation, cloud-based learning platform that – among other things – addresses common LMS reporting problems. That platform is ExpertusONE, and here are the key issues it addresses:

1. Streamlined Reporting – In ExpertusONE, reports are presented in the same browser-based interface as other screens. This means no more 3rd-party reporting tools, no more subscription fees, and no more expensive custom report-building resources!

2. Smarter Architecture – Businesses are moving too fast to be managed using yesterday’s data. Our system architecture supports real-time reporting and data access without the use of a dedicated reporting database, and with zero performance degradation.

3. Open Data Availability – We’ve redefined data availability by ensuring that the system can access and report data from every data field. If your organization is taking the time to capture data, you should be able to access it.

4. Real-time, Actionable Data View – We need to stop looking at manager reports as “reports” and see them for what they really are – highly valuable business decision-support data. That’s why ExpertusONE has built-in management views that provide your senior leaders with quick and easy access to actionable data. If non-compliance is a costly risk, we make sure your managers can avoid it. If performance is a key success factor, we make sure your managers can monitor it.

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Conclusion

If you have any doubt about the structure, scheduling or validity of your learning system reports, we can quickly evaluate your situation, pinpoint the root cause of problems and suggest an effective course of action.

Note from John: If you need expert advice to resolve learning reporting challenges with measurement services or you’re interested in cloud-based tools to drive learning analytics, contact me anytime at johns@expertus.com.

Baker Hughes – Compliance Training in Hard-to-Reach Places

Guest post by Francesco Turchetti, Director Talent Management, Baker Hughes

Francesco Turchetti, Director Talent Management, Baker Hughes

Compliance is critical in the energy sector. At Baker Hughes, our compliance challenges were compounded by our 34,000+ employees, spread across  a global organization with multiple business units.

The key to our compliance success was to develop a training solution that offered the required employee training while supporting our growing, global workforce. Our learning organization partnered with Expertus to develop a centralized shared-service model that solved a multitude of learning administration issues, such as logistics, training support and report management.

Logistics
Logistics management for 16 hard-to-reach countries was essential for us. So the team established key contacts in all 16 countries and delivered training via CD to employees who were in remote areas with limited Internet connectivity.

Centralized Support
In order to support our  various business units worldwide , the team developed processes flexible enough to adapt to each  unit’s unique needs and a 24×7 support team infrastructure to make the training transition as smooth as possible.

Report Management
We gained key insights for compliance decision making because the team developed reports, dashboards and charts that made it simple for country managers to track compliance and push non-compliant employees to complete their training.

RESULTS

Within 60 days, we increased our compliance from 32% to a record 99.8 %. And while this initiative was not focused on reducing costs, learning administration costs were reduced by more than 40%.

We now have a cost-effective learning umbrella designed to cover the unique needs of our enterprise and our employees, while meeting the industry’s strict compliance guidelines.

Note from Expertus: Would you like to know more about the training outsourcing & reporting solution we spearheaded for Baker Hughes? Or do you have a real-world enterprise learning story to share? Contact Expertus anytime at info@expertus.com.