Connections – Essential Integrations for a TMS

Organizations often select a Training Management System (TMS) to centralize and simplify processes for their training operations. Instead of using separate systems for planning, scheduling, qualifications, reporting, and more, a TMS consolidates all these activities and systems to enable smooth operations, lower costs, and to provide a unified experience for the users. Organizations are looking to improve efficiency – they may be able to create valid schedules by hand, but these schedules are not optimized, and usually take much too long to generate, requiring inputs from too many people or systems.

Once they have decided to acquire a TMS, many organizations look for specific features such as scheduling, or qualification management, but another equally important consideration is how the TMS will integrate with the organization’s current systems. An organization that is considering a TMS is ready to replace and unify several components, but still requires the other systems that work with the TMS, such as HR, Crew Resource Management (CRM), payment services, and more. Ensuring that all these systems integrate and synchronize properly, with the required security standards, is vital.

Growing with a TMS

Organizations often look for a TMS as they are expanding. They need to ensure that their platform will be able to grow with them – to be able to efficiently handle more training programs, resources, additional integrations, new modes of delivery such as mobile, and more.

Some organizations start with a few modules such as scheduling and then slowly add qualification and grading, only later expanding to utilize the full power of a proven TMS, one that can scale with an organization in growth mode. Other organizations jump right in, requiring an expert team to implement the TMS and ensure that all integrations are set correctly from the start.

Data migration

This leads to another essential point, data migration. Organizations need to build their programs based on the training programs and resources that they have built until that point, and not start from scratch. Finding a vendor who will ensure that both the data migration and integration will run smoothly may be almost as important as selecting key capabilities. The vendor must also offer continuous, top-quality support and maintenance services with a clear roadmap of future development, and demonstrate proven project management and implementation methodology that mitigates risk and achieves a positive ROI.

While organizations are looking at the big picture, they cannot forget their individual users. A positive experience means ensuring that personnel are able to accomplish their tasks successfully in a timely manner, including interactions on both desktop and mobile. Planners, schedulers, instructors, and all other personnel who will be interacting with the system on a regular basis should have a positive experience.

A proven TMS has much to offer organizations with training programs. Organizations need to consider many factors, including capabilities, scalability, ease of use and implementation, and as discussed, the ability to integrate securely and efficiently with all the related systems.