A Learning Management System should help organisations manage and develop their training programmes for years to come. Yet the market offers a wide range of solutions with different features, technical capabilities and pricing models. At the same time, requirements vary considerably between organisations, departments and user groups.
This raises a key question:
How do you choose an LMS that truly meets your organisation’s needs?
This was the focus of our LMS Masterclass #2, “Choosing and Evaluating the Right LMS”, held on 29 September 2026. Guy Fischer and Despoina Pourtoulidou explained how organisations can define their requirements, create a structured requirements catalogue and compare providers systematically. The key takeaway: a broad range of features alone does not make an LMS the right choice. What matters is how well the system supports your learning and administrative processes.
What should the new LMS improve?
Before comparing different Learning Management Systems, you should be clear about what you want the new platform to achieve.
Do you need to manage mandatory training more reliably? Should onboarding be automated? Do you want to bring classroom training and digital learning together? Or does your current administration involve too much manual work?
Starting points can vary considerably. Some organisations want to replace an existing LMS. Others currently rely on several separate tools, external learning platforms and Excel spreadsheets.
In both cases, the selection process starts with your own processes and challenges.
It is also worth looking ahead:
Which additional audiences will need training in the future? Will you be adding more locations or countries? Which learning formats and integrations could become important over the coming years?
The more precisely you define these goals, the easier it will be to assess whether an LMS can actually meet them.
Functional requirements: Which learning processes must the LMS support?
Functional requirements describe the tasks a Learning Management System should handle in day-to-day use.
Typical areas include:
- E-learning, blended learning and learning paths
- Seminar and event management
- Creating and managing learning content
- Users, groups, roles and permissions
- Automated assignments and reminders
- Tests, surveys and certificates
- Mandatory training and recertification
- Communication and collaboration
- Analytics and reporting
Simply collecting individual terms in a list is not enough.
For example, the requirement “The LMS supports certificates” tells you very little about how this feature can be used within your organisation.
Can you use different certificate templates? Are certificates generated automatically once several training courses have been completed? Can you define validity periods? Do learners receive timely reminders when they need to renew their training?
A well-defined requirement therefore describes the workflow that needs to be supported as precisely as possible.
Consider technical requirements early on
Alongside your learning processes, the technical setup must fit your existing IT environment.
Key considerations include integrations with HR systems, single sign-on, data imports and exports, and connections to other applications.
Hosting, server location, data protection, security measures, backups and availability should also be considered during selection. Growing user numbers, multiple organisational units, mobile access and accessibility may be important requirements too.
Another consideration is whether your data and content will remain usable in the long term.
If learning content can only be created in a proprietary format, switching systems later may require considerable effort. You should therefore establish early on which export options are available and whether standardised formats are supported.
Your IT team and those responsible for data protection should be involved in the selection process from an early stage.
A requirements catalogue creates a shared foundation
Once your goals and requirements have been gathered, they are brought together in a structured requirements catalogue.
This combines functional, technical, organisational and financial requirements. It then provides the basis for shortlisting providers, conducting demos and carrying out the final evaluation.
The catalogue should reflect more than one department’s perspective. Learning and development, IT, administration and other stakeholders each bring different viewpoints.
For every requirement, you should be clear about the following:
What is needed? How important is it? How will you verify that it has been met? And what explanation should the provider supply?
A clear requirements catalogue makes both internal coordination and comparisons between LMS providers easier.
Must-have, should-have or could-have: Not all requirements are equally important
Prioritising requirements is a crucial step.
Must-have requirements are essential. If a provider cannot meet one of these requirements, its solution is not suitable for the project.
Should-have requirements are important, but not necessarily decisive. They help distinguish between systems that are otherwise suitable.
Could-have requirements describe additional capabilities that may offer value but are not essential to your current goals.
Which category a feature belongs to depends on the organisation.
For example, single sign-on through Microsoft Entra ID may be a must-have. An integrated authoring tool may be particularly important for another organisation, while playing a smaller role in a project focused on seminar management.
Requirements that would rule out a provider should be checked as early as possible. This avoids spending significant time on solutions that do not meet your basic needs.
Why a simple “yes” is not always enough
The webinar highlighted the importance of clear wording and provider responses that explain how requirements are met.
For example, “The LMS supports the creation of learning content” can be interpreted in very different ways.
Does this mean administrators can create a course and upload existing files? Or do you need an integrated authoring tool that creates interactive learning content and exports it as a SCORM package?
Similarly, a response of “requirement met” can mean different things for features such as offline access, reporting or automated notifications.
Providers should therefore explain how they meet a requirement.
Is the feature included as standard? Does it need to be configured? Is an additional module required? Are there limitations or extra costs?
These details help resolve misunderstandings before a contract is signed.
Prepare LMS demos around real use cases
A demo is especially useful when it addresses your own requirements.
Without specific guidance, providers will understandably tend to showcase the features that make the strongest impression. Whether those features are important to your organisation may remain unclear.
Organisations should therefore prepare realistic use cases and ask providers to demonstrate complete workflows.
One example from the masterclass was onboarding new employees:
- User data is imported from the HR system.
- User accounts are created automatically.
- The “Onboarding” learning path is assigned.
- Employees complete the assigned learning activities.
- Managers can view progress according to their permissions.
- Certificates are generated automatically.
- HR receives the required reports.
A use case like this shows whether individual features work together as an end-to-end process.
The people who will use the LMS every day should also attend the demo. They are well placed to assess whether the system is easy to understand and whether routine tasks can be completed with a reasonable amount of effort.
Try the system yourself with a test account
A presentation provides an initial impression. A test account also lets you explore the user experience and key features yourself.
How easy is it to create a course? How is content assigned? How quickly can learners find their training? And how much effort does it take to generate a required report?
Both the administration area and the learner interface should be assessed.
A system may technically meet all essential requirements yet still be cumbersome in everyday use. Usability should therefore be evaluated as a criterion in its own right.
Evaluate LMS providers against the same criteria
After the demos, all providers should be compared using a consistent evaluation method.
For must-have requirements, a simple “met” or “not met” assessment may be appropriate. For should-have and could-have requirements, a graded scale can help highlight differences.
One possible scale is:
- 0 points: not available
- 1 point: only achievable with extensive customisation
- 2 points: available, but with limitations
- 3 points: fully meets the requirement
The weighting of individual criteria should reflect your project. What matters is that the scoring method is established in advance and applied consistently to every provider.
Open questions, limitations and risks should be resolved before a decision is made. The main reasons for the decision should also be documented. This makes the selection process transparent and provides useful context when staff change or new requirements arise.
Costs and service are part of the overall picture
The licence price is an important factor, but it does not always reflect the total cost of an LMS.
Additional costs may arise from implementation, integrations, training, extra modules or customisation. Potential future extensions should also be discussed early on.
What happens if user numbers grow? Can an authoring tool be added later? How much will additional features cost?
Alongside pricing, the quality of support matters.
Who helps with questions or technical problems? What services does the implementation partner provide? When does the software manufacturer need to be involved? And what agreements cover support and response times?
An informed LMS selection therefore considers functionality, usability, technical suitability, service and total costs together.
The most common mistakes when choosing an LMS
Many difficulties can be avoided during the selection process.
Common mistakes include creating a long wish list without clear priorities, defining requirements too vaguely, attending provider demos without preparation, or focusing comparisons solely on individual features.
Looking only at the licence price, underestimating usability or checking essential requirements too late can also lead to an unsuitable choice.
The main takeaway from our LMS Masterclass is:
You can select the right LMS more effectively when goals and requirements are defined early, prioritised and tested against realistic use cases. What matters is how well the solution fits your organisation’s actual processes and future needs.
A template for your LMS requirements catalogue
You do not have to start from scratch when creating your own requirements catalogue.
During the webinar, we presented different approaches to structuring and evaluating requirements. We also offer an adaptable Excel template containing core LMS requirements, developed through our consultancy projects.
The template provides a starting point. Your own requirements, priorities, mandatory criteria and weightings need to be added to suit your project.
Would you like a copy of the template? Get in touch with us.
Looking for the right LMS?
Whether you are introducing a Learning Management System for the first time or replacing your existing platform, we can help you clarify your requirements and show you how nectar LMS can support your learning processes.
nectar LMS is a flexible learning platform that brings together digital learning, seminar management and the organisation of workplace training.
Contact
If you have any questions or would like the Excel template for your LMS requirements catalogue, please email us at nectar-support@fkc-online.com.
