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Group of executives around a table examining a plan for a new learning technology project

How to Gain Executive Buy-In for Your Learning Technology Project

By | August 29, 2017

Technology that is difficult to use and hinders processes defeats the reason we use technology in the first place – that is to say, to increase efficiency, accuracy, etc. For L&D professionals, this type of pain is often felt when stuck using an outdated learning management system (LMS).

You might very well understand the many benefits of upgrading your LMS; however, your executive team might not immediately see the full value of a investing in modern learning technology. In order to convince them, you’ll need to understand their priorities and the challenges they need to overcome to achieve positive business outcomes. Then, you can connect the dots for them and position your request for learning technology to address their specific concerns.

Building a Business Case for a New LMS

Your ability to deliver a compelling business case for a new LMS hinges on how well you structure your argument to resolve the key challenges and priorities of your audience. Break down the problems of each person you’ll have to convince.

What’s your CEO or CLO’s biggest headache? What did they announce as their biggest priority during your company’s annual meeting? Directly addressing each of these problems will make your business case stronger and will help you handle any objections they might bring up.

Outlining Key Concerns for All Executive Decision Makers

Below is a breakdown of some examples of the key concerns held by L&D leadership, CEOs, and IT leadership, and how you can address them in your business case for learning technology. When building your case, be sure to perform outline the key concerns for all executive decision makers that might be involved.

CLO/VP/Director of Training

Key concerns:

How to address them:

  • Attract and retain key talent

  • Onboard more people and make them
    productive in less time

  • Keep up with fast growth

  • Staff teams across a global company

An LMS can…

  • Provide continuous learning and development opportunities

  • Centralize learning content and delivery

  • Look at systems that scale seamlessly as your business grows

  • Increase collaboration among disparate teams (e.g., by providing multilingual support)

CEO

Key concerns:

How to address them:

  • Meet board expectations for profitability

  • Innovate and differentiate from the competition

  • Build and align the organization by enhancing collaboration

  • Manage risk

An LMS can…

  • Improve efficiency to meet business objectives

  • Increase collaboration and skill development, creating a stronger, more engaged, and higher performing workforce

  • Facilitate consistent learning and social
    learning so knowledge is capitalized within the organization

  • Help to maintain compliance

IT Leadership

Key concerns:

How to address them:

  • Protect the company against IT risks

  • Evaluate all technology purchases

  • Ensure the IT infrastructure is successfully exploited to achieve continuous improvement

An LMS can…

  • Mitigate the complexity and security risks
    associated with multiple technologies

  • Easily and securely integrate with a wide variety of third-party platforms

  • Reduce maintenance and support efforts (because it’s a cloud-based system)

For more materials that will help you build a better business case for a new learning management system (e.g., a presentation template, an ROI checklist, and more), download Docebo’s free LMS Project Toolkit.

Victoria Hoffman is a Content Specialist at Docebo. She is a graduate of University of Toronto’s Semiotics and Communication Theory Program and has 5+ years of experience in digital marketing. She enjoys writing and is always looking for a good book recommendation.