cloud computing
Who’s in control – you or your LMS vendor? There are several elements to the overall purchasing decision. First there is the product itself, followed by its deployment or ownership model, clarifying who and how the system will be managed. While many of us make decisions based on price, features, and maybe take
innovation into consideration, the killer factor is ownership. Unfortunately it can be very easy for the customer to lose control of their future IT strategy. Just a few short years ago the technology landscape was focused on service-oriented architectures, meaning that component parts would be interoperable, providing some vendor independence for the customer. While that hasn’t entirely disappeared the rise of proprietary cloud services has tilted the power back in the software vendors’ favour. As a customer you should rightly be wary of what that entails for your organisation’s ability to remain agile and handle uncertainty.
Enter the Cloud – but with SaaS comes caution Cloud computing offers huge advantages to the customer – it’s quick to deploy, offers lower set-up costs, plus there’s managed support and regular updates. These are compelling reasons to select a cloud service. And that’s why many of your other business systems – HR, CRM, and accounting – are moving into the Cloud. Lots of LMS platforms are available there too. However, in most cases one of the major disadvantages of cloud computing,
including LMS Cloud instances, is “vendor lock-in” meaning that you have dependency on a single provider. Imagine if when you bought a car you were only allowed to use one mechanic? Would that mechanic be motivated to offer you good service at a good price? If your needs change, you need an integration with another system or you want to switch to some other provider, then it can be a really painful and costly experience. You may end up walking away with nothing and starting over. So how do you balance the risks with the benefits of a cloud LMS?
The Best of All Worlds – Open SaaS There is a way you can benefit from a cloud based LMS solution while having flexibility and control. It is called Open SaaS. In essence it is a hosted, open source solution. This is a new approach for enterprise learning platforms, but if we look at other software types it’s well established. WordPress is a good example, it’s the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world and it is an example of Open SaaS. Over 74m sites are run on WordPress. Many companies offer you a fast to set up and hosted WordPress solution but you can take your WordPress site with you. You can use a different hosting supplier and also different designers to adapt it for you. Drupal is the most popular enterprise level CMS – Acquia Drupal is a great example of an Open SaaS provider. In fact, the fastest growing software company in the world, Hortonworks, is an open source SaaS provider.
Free at last…
With a true Open SaaS Cloud model, you are not locked in. You can take the solution with you – be it your CMS or LMS, and move to a different supplier. You
can add more features and custom ones over time. So this brings potentially the best of all worlds – the low cost and deployment speed of cloud based solutions, with the freedom and flexibility of open source.
Who can benefit from Open SaaS LMS? Most organisations should reconsider their LMS strategy to incorporate open source solutions. However, we think there are three types of organisations who might find the open SaaS Cloud approach to the LMS particularly appropriate:
Emerging businesses managing rapid growth Businesses that are smaller yet established enough to have a people development policy/strategy and need a learning platform to support their people. These organisations are ready for an LMS, but they are growing quickly and so want reassurance that they can change their deployment model and integrate/ customise as the need arises. Open SaaS provides a highly flexible entry route for organisations at this level. Just make sure that the option is truly open. Look for a partner model with plenty of choice, in case there is a need to move your LMS to another supplier at some point in the future.
Organisations serving niche markets Organisations that serve a particular target audience,for example reaching their partner/reseller network or offering customer education. The audience size may be relatively small at the outset, with an initial requirement for basic functions in the short term until the service proves successful. Open Saas LMS works well here because it’s low risk at the start, and there are no constraints on growing the service and in adding more sophisticated features.
Corporate Change Agents Within divisions and departments of a larger organisation, you often find corporate change agents (sometimes better known as mavericks!) itching to make a positive impact but frustrated by standard practices. They’re eager to prove the value of an initiative/change programme and don’t want to be tied into an existing centrally controlled system, which may involve extensive IT involvement or political challenges. With an Open SaaS model, theycan have a lot more freedom to develop and defend the business case internally, to pick up and control the service without it impinging on existing LMS, intranet or other systems. In time, the success of such initiatives can be shown to be an appropriate challenge to an older, less agile central system.
There’s a bigger picture So why be Open Source in the first place? To get philosophical for a moment I think most people would agree that one of the main forces around improvement to economies and wider society is via education and training. The velocity of the diffusion of knowledge is a key competitive advantage and in modern society learning technologies now play a critical role. We believe it is essential to make such technologies widely available and
We believe that open source and collaborative software innovation networks offer a better future for all stakeholders.
e.learning age september 2015
accessible, and open to underpin innovation. Lowering the barriers to adoption through better price points is one part of that strategy. We believe that open source and collaborative software innovation networks offer a better future for all stakeholders. It offers much better value and delivers superior outcomes because the customer and multiple suppliers are empowered to be part of the innovation process. It’s better to be open.
Richard Wyles is CEO of Totara Learning which is launching an Open SaaS Cloud solution Totara Cloud
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