When Paul Mitnick was the principle consultant at Practical Technologies, he helped a client determine requirements, select the appropriate LMS vendor and implement the system.  In this case, the client was the operator and developer of more than 150 thousand apartments across the U.S.A.

The company had been using a homegrown conglomeration of SQL and Access databases and Excel spreadsheets to manage employee learning. The goal was to consolidate into a single integrated system to accommodate recent and future expansion with minimal manual processing.

The first step in the process was to determine and document the specific requirements and objectives for this client’s LMS. Going to market proved to be somewhat of a surprise to Mitnick due to the sheer number of vendors he found in the LMS market space. But after some research, he sent the requirements document to 27 vendors.

After evaluating the responses, demonstrations and interviews were held with 14 LMS vendors. These included going over the requirements and how their system handled each issue. From the demonstrations, three vendors were chosen to present their products to the entire selection committee, which included representatives from education, IT and management.

"After some discussion, the committee as a whole overwhelmingly selected the Training Partner system from GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc."  Mitnick explained that there were several key reasons for this decision. "Training Partner seemed to have a better fit for the things we considered most important."

The ability to customize the product was also important. "Training Partner is designed with the expectation of modifications while most vendors make significant customization either impossible or very risky."

Mitnick continued, "As a pure software product, it seemed to be a better crafted product in many ways. In addition, GeoMetrix provided excellent customer references." Mitnick noted that in general, TrainingPartner seemed easier to use for learners as well as for administrators. Mitnick was also impressed with the entrepreneurial nature and business style of GeoMetrix. "Its people seemed more suited to our way of doing business."

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