The ultimate LMS migration guide: When and how to switch learning platforms

High employee turnover

Inadequate onboarding and a lack of learning opportunities are two of the largest contributors to employee turnover. More than nine in 10 employees would stay with their organization longer if they had more learning opportunities[9]. And nearly 70% of employees will stay with a company for 3+ years if they have a great onboarding experience [10].

High customer churn and poor product adoption

If your customers aren’t receiving the training they need to fully utilize your product, it can lead to high churn rates and poor product adoption. The power of customer retention has been known for decades now: Pioneering research from the Harvard Business School showed that a 5-point improvement in customer retention increases profit by 25-95%[11]. An effective customer education program does just that, improving customer retention by 7.4% on average and reducing support costs by 6.1%[4]. If customers are churning or not expanding their use of your product, it’s time to evaluate how your current LMS supports customer education…if it does at all.

Poor partner performance

Partners are an extension of your organization, and so is the partner experience. When a customer interacts with a partner, they see the experience as an extension of your brand. Unfortunately, 61% of partners say they lack strategic guidance and 70% say onboarding processes should be improved[5]. How healthy is your partner ecosystem? To find out, try comparing the CSAT of customers that leverage your partner network to those who don’t. If there’s a discrepancy, you should invest in partner training and enablement.

Learner disengagement

An intuitive and engaging user experience is essential for both learners and administrators. Gallup estimates that low engagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion each year[12]. This tracks the data around learner engagement: More engaging learning practices like personalization and immersive learning make organizations up to 3x more likely to be high-performing [13]. Beyond the bottom line, poor learner engagement is also risky: It increases the risk of non-compliance as well as customer and employee churn.

Integration issues and challenges with your technology ecosystem

Today's businesses use an average of 130 SaaS platforms[14]. Integration issues between your LMS and other systems create inefficiencies and data silos. A modern LMS should integrate smoothly with other tools, enhancing overall productivity and data consistency.

Low (or no) ROI

To build a program that drives ROI, you need robust reporting and analytics so you can measure and improve your learning initiatives. A modern learning platform can help you visualize performance at the business level, program level, course level, and even learner level. Any other strategy is just wishful thinking. Currently, only 27% of businesses have a framework for measuring learning success[15]—and many of those are only looking at vanity metrics as opposed to ROI and business impact.

A fear of scale (and an inability to scale effectively)

How would different stakeholders feel if the number of learners using your platform quadrupled tomorrow? Excited—or terrified? As your learning programs grow, your LMS should be able to scale with you. More learners should mean more champagne; not more work hours.

Are we expanding into new markets or geographies?

Entering new markets or geographies requires tailored learning programs to meet the unique needs of those audiences. This means the capability to manage version control, personalization, and translation for multiple languages.

Are regulatory and compliance requirements evolving?

A new learning platform with robust compliance management features can reduce risk and help you remain compliant with all regulations.

Is there rapid growth in our employee or customer base?

A significant growth in your employee or customer base can strain your current LMS. Our favorite example is Zoom: When the pandemic struck, they had a massive explosion in customers that needed training. They needed a customer training academy, fast. Fortunately, they used Docebo and within one month of launching their academy, they had trained over 100,000 learners. Today, that number is over 2,000,000.

Work around your current LMS’s update and contract schedule

If your current LMS is approaching the end of its lifecycle or requires big updates, it might be more cost-effective to switch to a new platform that offers the latest features and capabilities.

Consider budget cycles

Align the switch with your organization's budget cycles to make sure the necessary funding is available. Consider the financial implications of the transition, including potential savings and the ROI of a more efficient LMS.

Align the platform with organizational strategy and goals

Time your migration to fit your organization’s strategic planning and long-term goals. A new LMS should support and enhance your overall business objectives. Position it as a strategic move, not just a tech upgrade.

Solicit feedback from learners, instructors, and administrators

User feedback can highlight critical areas for improvement and help identify the features that a new LMS must have to meet their needs. (Tip: Use verbatim quotes to help get buy-in for a new learning platform. Reading a valued customer’s angry rant has a motivating power that’s difficult to overstate.)

Model business impact

Evaluate how a new LMS will impact learning outcomes and business objectives. Consider the potential for improved engagement, better training results, and alignment with business goals. This assessment will help justify the investment and demonstrate the value of making the switch.

Start with key stakeholders—the people. Talk to employees to understand their learning preferences and what’s working (and what isn’t) with the current system. For customers, have direct conversations and look at reviews and support tickets. This will help you figure out what training they need to get the most from your products. Similarly, reach out to partners to understand what strategic guidance and resources they require for improved performance.

Next up: Processes. Assess the processes that are critical to your learning and development initiatives. Start with key workflows like course creation, learner onboarding, and reporting; you’ll be amazed at the inefficiencies you discover. This is a two-part process: Part one is identifying the processes that your new LMS can help you with, but the other part is streamlining your processes before you switch to a new system.

Finally, assess your technology. Look for gaps in your current capabilities, user experience, and integration ecosystem and make sure your new LMS can help fill those gaps. Don’t be surprised if you discover a lot of redundancy: Over time, duplicative systems and abandoned silos are inevitable. Define what features are essential to support your organization's goals and don’t forget to consider future needs like regulatory compliance, localization for global markets, and advanced analytics.

Data migration and integration

• Data mapping / architecture planning
  • Compare the data architecture of your old and new platforms to ensure necessary data can be transferred.
  • Identify key data elements that need to be migrated, like user records, course content, and completion statuses.
  • Decide the timespan for which you need historical data.
  • Outline the data architecture and map out how data will flow from the old LMS to the new system.
• Transferring data without loss or corruption
  • Develop a detailed data migration plan to ensure all data is accurately transferred*.
  • Implement data validation techniques to verify the integrity of the migrated data.
• Testing integrations with other enterprise systems
  • Test the new learning platform’s integration with existing enterprise systems like HR software, CRM, and content management platforms.
  • Ensure seamless data exchange and functionality across all integrated systems.
• Ensuring data privacy and compliance
  • Review and comply with relevant data privacy regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, or other industry-specific standards.
  • Implement robust security measures to protect sensitive data during and after the migration.

*Your current vendor can likely help with this. Here’s a tip: Mention that you’re internally auditing your content and need to fully extract all of it for validation.

Training and change management

• Communicating changes and benefits effectively
  • Develop a communication plan to inform all stakeholders about the upcoming changes and the benefits of the new LMS.
  • Use multiple communication channels to ensure widespread awareness and understanding.
• Supporting users throughout the transition period
  • Provide ongoing support through help desks, FAQs, and dedicated support teams.
  • Encourage feedback and address any issues or concerns promptly.
• Consider your content needs
  • Conduct a thorough analysis to identify skill gaps within your organization.
  • Determine which skills are critical for your business objectives and prioritize content development accordingly.
  • Decide what content must be created ad hoc and what can be easily licensed from third-party content providers.
• Governance
  • Create a cross-functional governance team responsible for overseeing and assigning roles for decision-making, approvals, and oversight during the migration.
  • Develop policies and guidelines to standardize the migration process, ensuring consistency and compliance.
  • Build a change management plan for software update approval and validation.
  • Consider permission levels and determine access control levels and who will be your super administrators.
  • Assess potential risks and build a risk monitoring protocol and contingency playbook for issues like data breaches and platform outages.
  • Create a schedule to regularly review and enforce policy adherence and regulatory compliance throughout the migration.
  • Establish data handling policies, considering data collection, storage, use, management, and access.
  • Implement ongoing governance to manage content updates, user roles, and system improvements post-migration.

Content and user migration

• Content auditing
  • Review and assess content for relevance and quality before migrating.
  • Deprecate outdated or redundant material and create backups if required.
  • Identify content and records that should be migrated.
  • Ensure that course materials (e.g. SCORM, xAPI, PDFs) are compatible with the new LMS platform.
  • Identify content that needs to be refreshed and updated.
  • Update and optimize content where needed for the new LMS environment.
  • Determine which content can be migrated automatically and which may require manual adjustments.
• User migration
  • Identify, segment, and categorize different user groups (e.g. learners, administrators, instructors) and determine how they will be migrated.
  • Map user roles and permissions from the old LMS to the new one to ensure proper access levels are maintained.
  • Decide how users will authenticate in the new LMS (e.g. SSO, OAuth). Ensure credentials and security tokens are securely transferred.
  • Migrate user profile information, including personal details, learning preferences, and custom fields.
  • Transfer user histories such as completed courses, certificates, and progress records.
  • Inform users about the migration process, and notify them about any actions they may need to take (e.g. reset passwords).
  • Have a plan in place to reactivate inactive users or encourage users with low engagement during the migration process.
  • Conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure users can log in and access the appropriate content and functionalities in the new LMS.
• Content strategy
  • Identify relevant and in-demand skills your business needs to grow.
  • Consider a build vs. buy strategy (or hybrid of both).
  • Evaluate external content providers and marketplaces.
  • Evaluate Generative AI content tools and ensure these tools are optimized for learning specifically. You don’t want to use ChatGPT for learning content.
• Content migration
  • Migrate or update metadata (tags, categories) for content to ensure ease of search in the new system.
  • Verify that migrated content complies with accessibility standards.
  • Migrate structured learning paths or sequences of courses without losing their logic or order.
  • Ensure the migration of multimedia elements such as images, videos, and interactive elements, preserving their functionality in the new LMS.
  • After migration, test interactive courses, quizzes, and assessments to ensure they function correctly in the new environment.

Monitoring and evaluation

• Set metrics and KPIs to measure success
  • Define clear metrics and KPIs to assess the success of the LMS migration, such as user adoption rates, engagement levels, and performance improvements.
• Monitor governance
  • Review user permissions (especially super admin and power users) and update access as required.
  • Review policy adherence and regulatory compliance.
  • Review data handling policies and ensure data collection, storage, use, management, and access is occurring securely.
  • Audit content and deprecate content that’s out of date or where a license has expired.
• Gather feedback and make iterative improvements
  • Collect feedback from users regularly to identify areas for improvement.
  • Implement changes based on feedback to continuously enhance the learning experience.
• Plan for continuous support
  • Ensure there’s a plan in place for ongoing support and regular system updates.
  • Keep users informed about new features, updates, and best practices to maximize the value of the new LMS.