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by Mohana Radhakrishnan
“The integration of e-learning with other enterprise systems now offers the promise of achieving a long-sought goal, that of measuring the impact of training on business performance.” KMWorld Magazine, June 2003.
Almost five years later, the training industry is still waiting for learning technologies to make good on that promise.
In a recent survey of training executives, we found that 64 percent of respondents felt their learning technologies did not effectively communicate with other applications, such as CRMs.
Software applications of all kinds have needed to speak with one another since the 1960s, when mainframe online systems first hit the market. And today, companies want to leverage their learning technologies to get measurable business results through the integration of e-learning, LMS, CRM, HRMS, portals and business intelligence software.
So why aren’t learning technologies and other enterprise software systems speaking effectively with one another? The answer: business processes and learning initiatives are not aligned.
There are many protocols, tools and technologies on the market today that help software systems speak the same language. But in the end, to achieve communication between systems, it takes two other things.
- Evaluate your learning initiatives vis-à-vis your business goals and existing processes. With that evaluation, a long-term strategic plan can be put in place to build communication channels for software systems and different groups of employees.
- Take that plan and acquire, maintain or upgrade your technology infrastructure continuously.
Without such an approach, your learning tools may go underutilized. And, ultimately, your learning technologies may do a lot of “talking” that nobody hears.
If your organization is grappling with LMS integration issues or if you’re interested in increasing the efficiency of your learning technology infrastructure, contact me. | 
