Case study 02
A new LMS for 9,000+ users
Replacing a learning platform that couldn’t keep up, on schedule and without losing a learner
Before
PageGroup’s LMS had been bought as a base system, without the add-ons a 9,000-person, multi-region company needed. There was no real reporting: learning data was cross-checked by hand from Active Directory into Excel. There was no calendar link, so classroom events and invites were managed by hand. User accounts were updated by a script that ran once a week, so new hires could wait days for access. And a shared course link took three clicks and landed on the homepage, never the course.
I was one of three administrators on the Global Digital Learning team, which owned the platform worldwide. With my team lead I co-led the vendor evaluation, vendor and IT liaison, course architecture, content audit, train-the-trainer sessions and the launch. The automations after launch were mine alone.
Decisions
Base the criteria on what was broken.
We listed what the old system couldn’t do and looked for it in the new one: Microsoft 365 integration (Outlook calendar, Teams, single sign-on), accounts fed automatically from Active Directory, and reporting without manual cross-checks. We compared Docebo, TalentLMS, Totara and LMS365 through demos, a scoring sheet and a pilot, within a fixed budget. LMS365 won because it sat inside Microsoft 365 and could automate the work we did by hand, such as calendar invites for classroom training.
Redesign the structure.
We audited 1,000 learning items and rebuilt the structure: courses in sections that mix documents, slides and SCORM, read-and-understood sections, and learning paths that group courses together.
Move one region later.
One region was in the middle of training on a new CRM inside the old LMS. Rather than stack a second change on them, we moved their data quietly and invited them three weeks later, once the CRM training was done.
Train the regions to run it themselves.
Seven train-the-trainer sessions for six regional teams (North America, UK, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, France and Europe) taught them to schedule sessions, create Teams groups from courses and learning paths, enrol and unenrol learners and send notifications, without full admin rights.
- Step 1Criteria from what was brokenMicrosoft 365, Active Directory accounts, reporting
- Step 2Four platforms comparedDocebo, TalentLMS, Totara and LMS365
- Step 3Demos, a scoring sheet and a pilotWithin a fixed budget
- Step 4LMS365 chosenIt sat inside Microsoft 365
The launch
The Friday before launch, the new platform’s API connection dropped and it was flagged unsafe. My team lead and I worked with IT and the vendor to get it investigated and cleared the same day. The team stayed late rather than move the date, and the platform launched on schedule that Monday.
After launch
PageGroup’s signature onboarding programme for its business ran globally, in five phases, each ending with an assessment in eight languages, 40 separate forms in all. Checking that a learner had passed a phase meant opening the right form in the right language, one by one, with no single view of progress. Once the new platform was live, our team got a Power Automate licence, and I used it to fix that. I built a flow that wrote every completion’s grade and answers to that phase’s Excel log, view-only for Talent Development, with one daily summary email instead of a ping per learner. I captured every answer, not just the grade, so the questions themselves could be reviewed later.
- Step 1Assessment completed
- Step 2Grade and answers written to the phase log
- Step 3One daily summary email
- Step 4View-only log for Talent Development
Results
Measured
- Two months to select the platform, one month to migrate.
- 1,000 learning items audited and migrated.
- Launched on schedule, despite the Friday crisis.
- New users active immediately, instead of waiting up to a week.
- Zero user-migration issues, thanks to the live Active Directory feed.
- Seven train-the-trainer sessions for six regional teams.
- My work was recognised in that cycle’s performance review.
Estimated
- About 5 hours saved every two weeks for Talent Development by the assessment automation (my own conservative estimate, from cohort sizes and review time per learner).
What I’d do differently
Test end to end again just before go-live.
The API connection had been tested early in the project, but not again before launch, and it failed on the Friday before go-live. We fixed it in a day, with the team staying late. Next time I’d run a full end-to-end test a week before launch, leaving time to fix whatever breaks.
Recreated for Meridia Health, a fictional medical-device company, with invented data.
Try it
A train-the-trainer kit for Meridia Health’s new learning platform, with a facilitator guide and a “How to run the platform in your region” module.