What is SaaS LMS? The Ultimate Guide

If you’re a learning and development leader charged with training your organization, which involves multiple employees spread across various locations, then you need a learning management system that allows you to develop training materials that employees can access on demand.

For decades, the only option was to install training software in-office on specific servers and computers. Keeping them in sync was cumbersome and required hundreds of hours of IT support. 

Fortunately, that’s no longer the case.

SaaS LMS software has become the standard. This cloud-based solution has many benefits over traditional hosted software, so it’s no surprise the SaaS market was valued at $261 billion in 2022.

Understanding SaaS LMS options can help your company save money on IT maintenance and troubleshooting, buy fewer devices, and improve your team’s access to training no matter where they live or work.

What does a SaaS LMS do?

A SaaS LMS allows your training system software to live on remote servers. Rather than managing these systems in-house, the software company is responsible for maintenance and security. 

As a result, you can access the LMS from anywhere without having special software installed on your computer or device. This makes a cloud-based LMS the obvious choice for organizations who don’t want the hassle of maintenance and troubleshooting. 

With a SaaS LMS, you have the most up-to-date software and don’t have to pay for expensive upgrades. Instead, you pay a smaller fee each month to access the software.

Saas LMS vs. self-hosted LMS

A self-hosted LMS requires your organization to install hardware and software onto the company’s devices to access training courses. 

Often, this means that the training programs are only available on specific devices, which limits access and can make it challenging to keep your employees up to date. It can also make it difficult for employees to pursue career development since they can’t access training materials on demand or at their convenience.

Your IT team would need to address any problems with the software or hardware, and the training wouldn’t be available until they were finished. You may also have to pay separately for integrations that offer additional functionality.

On the other hand, a SaaS LMS is hosted remotely, allowing anyone with the right credentials to access training, no matter where they are. 

The maintenance and updates are done by the software or hosting company, saving your organization significant time and money while being able to access training more efficiently. 

SaaS LMS benefits

Learning the benefits of a SaaS learning management system can help you understand why SaaS solutions are so popular. Here are just a few of the benefits to your organization.

Cloud-based

A cloud-based learning management system gives you a lot more flexibility. You don’t have to dedicate IT personnel to figuring out computer and data-storage problems, so your team can focus on employee development.

You can also scale your training program without having to invest in IT infrastructure, and your team can access training anywhere, making it easy for remote employees to stay up to date. 

Cloud-based software is also more affordable and has improved security over in-house solutions. You don’t have to worry about disaster recovery if your building is damaged; you always have the newest updates and security patches.

Easy deployment and updates

Because your organization doesn’t have to manage hardware and software installation to use SaaS solutions, you can deploy it much faster and more efficiently. 

That means you’ll start seeing the benefits of your SaaS LMS immediately. With the Learning Cloud from WorkRamp, you can start creating training programs, exploring prebuilt and customizable content, and more. 

Your ROI from a SaaS LMS comes much quicker because you aren’t waiting for a lengthy installation period. 

As we mentioned earlier, you’ll also have the newest updates and security patches vs. waiting on an annual upgrade. That helps you use the complete feature set of the software while protecting your organization’s data.

Control over training

Want to include a new type of content in your training? If you have a self-hosted solution, this might involve a ticket to IT and waiting weeks or months.

Updating or adding new training content isn’t a problem with a SaaS LMS solution like the Learning Cloud. 

The L&D team has more control over developing training because they don’t have to wait for IT to enable or create specific functionality. 

Scalability

If your organization currently has 20 people needing training, you might think an LMS is not the right solution. However, what if you could choose a SaaS solution that makes it easy to train your 20 team members—and can grow with you as your team expands?

For example, at Vanta, a data security monitoring company, training for new hires lacked structure and was entirely manual. New sales reps shadowed existing team members, and customer support agents attended live training sessions. 

They created streamlined onboarding and ongoing training for new features with the Learning Cloud. Now they quickly and easily create training content at scale.

Flexibility and multipurpose use

The flexibility of SaaS solutions like the Learning Cloud allows you to do far more than just new hire training. You can create sales enablement training, upskill your team, develop influential leaders, provide customer education, and more on a single platform, maximizing your ROI. 

Quantum Metric, a continuous product design platform that supports digital experiences for brands, is a great example. Quantum Metric University has trained and educated over 1800 customers and partners while also serving as the hub for internal training and new hire onboarding. 

Using the Learning Cloud as a single source of truth on product training has saved the company significantly in terms of time and resources.

Choosing a platform withthe flexibility to host all of your training needs can help your organization maximize the benefits of a SaaS LMS and save time and money that would otherwise be spent on learning and integrating different systems. 

Third-party integrations

Having third-party LMS integrations is a significant benefit to your organization because it allows you to connect the training results from your SaaS LMS to other software you already use and streamline systems to reduce tech bloat.

For example, with the Learning Cloud, you can connect your sales enablement training to Salesforce to track results after training and demonstrate better close rates. 

With the right integrations, your LMS software can fit seamlessly into your tech stack, helping your organization work more efficiently.

Security and backups

Having proper security is essential for an LMS to protect confidential and proprietary data. You don’t want that information to get out to competitors or the public. The good news is that a SaaS system generally has stronger security than an in-house training system would.

Backups are also important. Because a SaaS LMS is offsite, it won’t be disrupted by things that happen in the office. You can set up frequent automatic backups so that if something goes wrong, you can restore your files without losing productivity. 

Features to look for when choosing a SaaS LMS

As an L&D leader, what should you look for when comparing different SaaS LMS options? 

There’s a lot to consider; this list can help you narrow down what’s most important for your organization. 

LMS integrations

As we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of benefits when your LMS can integrate with your existing technology stack. What types of integrations matter most?

We recommend looking for an LMS with these types of integrations:

• Sales and support software
• Content management
• HR platform integrations
• External learning options
• Learning ecosystem integrations
• Communication and scheduling
• Identity and SSO

For example, having HR software integrated with your LMS allows you to seamlessly train new hires and track their progress in onboarding and orientation.

Centralized learning content

An LMS should make it easy to centralize all of your learning content in one place, whether it’s focused on customer education, sales training, or employee development. 

Having learning content centralized makes it easy for your team to update or create new courses quickly and gives you a single source of information for all training programs.

“WorkRamp enables us to train employees and customers in a single platform. This allows us to share training materials across teams and provide an amazing education experience for our customers without the added work of spinning up a new instance.”

 

–Chauncy Cay Ford, Director of Customer Enablement, Quantum Metric

Data tracking and analysis

Data tracking allows you to show leadership the impact of your training programs. You’ll be able to show decreased churn linked to customer education, for example, or an increase in close rates related to your sales enablement training.

Data analysis tools make collecting and displaying this data in a useful way easier, leaving your L&D team with time to focus on their core tasks while clearly demonstrating the positive impact of training on the company’s bottom line.

The Learning Cloud offers LMS reporting to help you track the ROI of your training with detailed reports and dashboards. Track learner progress, report on training effectiveness, and make data-driven decisions to improve training programs.

Multi-platform access

Learners in your organization may be spread across multiple offices, or they may be working remotely. Employees must be able to access training systems from wherever they are, using whatever devices they have.

Mobile access allows learners to access training on the go, making it easy to complete microlearning courses when they have free time or can learn in the flow of work. Accessing training on demand means employees can complete courses no matter where or when they work. 

Assessment tools

Your teams have completed training, but do they remember what they learned? Without assessment tools, it’s impossible to know. Assessments allow you to show that learners benefit from your training program and can also be used to show compliance on key issues. 

Security and compliance

Finally, ensure you find an LMS platform that meets essential industry standards for security and compliance. You might look for Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 certification, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance, or IS0 27001 with Certification Europe.

Keeping data and systems secure isn’t something you can compromise on. It’s an essential part of having the right SaaS LMS solution. 

Choose the best SaaS LMS vendor

Having a SaaS LMS platform allows you to create training in a single location and make it accessible to everyone throughout your organization. Your organization will save valuable dollars on IT support, hardware, and software. 

What makes a company the best SaaS LMS? Besides the features we’ve described above, one of the keys is versatility. 

When you choose the Learning Cloud from WorkRamp, you’re not just getting a new hire training tool, an employee development tool, or a customer education tool. You’re getting an all-in-one training solution that covers those needs and more.

If you’d like to see what the Learning Cloud can do for your organization, contact us for a free, personalized demo.