Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become a critical tool in modern-day workforce training and management. With the increase in demand for online education and remote learning, you need a flexible system that can support your dynamic flow of workers. In this blog post, we'll explore the benefits of LMS multi-tenancy. But we need to back up a little and start with the fundamentals.
What is multi-tenancy in an LMS?
LMS multi-tenancy allows for an organization to have many administrators and each administrator can oversee their individual branch of the organization (tenant). While simultaneously a super-administrator can view the entire organization at the top level.
This can look different for organizations and industries. In government for example, a state can have dozens of agencies within the state. Multi-tenancy allows for all agencies to sit within the same LMS system, but each agency can have autonomy. Meaning, the Department of Education and the Department of Health Services can each have their own administrators, instructors, branded logos, content, etc., while still being within the state’s hosted LMS. The state’s super-admin can go into each individual agency, get a high-level view of operations and build specific reports as needed.
Let’s dive deeper into the six benefits of multi-tenancy support in your LMS
1. Centralized management in your LMS allows for streamlined operations and maintaining organizational alignment
With LMS multi-tenancy, you can manage multiple tenants and learners from a single sign-on of the platform. This has a host of benefits, for example the super-admin can easily deploy mandatory training and track compliance across the entire organization with just a few clicks. A centralized system also means you don’t need external resources needed to help manage different tenants. When you’re forced to individualize different tenants within a system because of LMS limitations, you can easily start to lose consistency across all your tenants. In the long term, this can further complicate LMS management for administrators.
2. Each tenant can customize their experience in the LMS platform
LMS multi-tenancy allows each tenant in the organizational hierarchy to customize their experience on the platform. This means each tenant has its own separate space within the LMS, enabling them to create unique learning environments that meet their specific needs. This feature allows you to cater to the different needs of each tenant while still maintaining department autonomy within a unified platform. (Think of the government example I gave in the beginning of this article.)
3. LMS multi-tenancy is scalable for any organization
LMS multi-tenancy is scalable, meaning that it can handle an increasing number of learners or tenants. Whether you have 1,000 users or 100,000 users, it’s important that your LMS meets their unique needs. This also means that as your organization changes and grows, you can easily add new tenants or learners without having to invest in new hardware or software. And something to keep in mind, an open LMS doesn’t limit the number of tenants you can have or charge to add additional tenants. To best serve your end users, you might need 30 tenants to manage the 30 individual branches of your organization, is your current LMS giving you that flexibility?
4. LMS multi-tenancy is cost-effective for all budgets
Keep in mind, LMSs are very complex technology solutions. They manage massive amounts of data and require a sophisticated infrastructure and a number of integrations to operate effectively. If an organization is forced to set up single-tenant LMSs for each individual branch within the organization, due to limitations in their parent LMS, they will be hit with a number of additional costs and complications. By using a single LMS platform for multiple branches, you can reduce the time and resources needed to manage multiple instances of the LMS.
5. LMS multi-tenancy promotes collaboration
LMS multi-tenancy allows for improved collaboration between tenants and learners. Tenants can interact with one another, share resources, and learn from each other's experiences. The flexibility to have unlimited tenants also creates a more connected community within the branches of an organization. Taking it back to the state government example, a tenant who works specifically for the Department of Education can oversee that agency within the overall state’s LMS. This is much easier than having one person, who may work in the state’s capitol, oversee the minute details of every individual agency. The autonomy each tenant can have over their LMS can lead to better learning outcomes.
6. LMS multi-tenancy can increase security measures
This feature of LMS multi-tenancy is especially critical for organizations with high compliance or regulatory requirements. Each tenant can have its own separate space on the platform, ensuring that its data is kept separate and secure. This feature is critical in environments where data privacy and security are a concern ie. Government and Healthcare.
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