In a rush to show results, some organizations have developed their LMS applications in-house.  Tough competition for in-house IT resources and support caused them to deploy “behind-the-firewall” or hosted LMS implementations from specialist vendors. However, this “best of breed” approach is also fraught with danger.  LMS vendors  in the 2007 market, provide a suite solutions through partnering or developing their own additional component to LMS functionality. In this climate, selecting a viable supplier can be a risky proposition.

Despite its infancy, the online learning industry can point to many success stories, the elearning Guild being the best place to get that type of information

An organization that has successfully developed an effective e-learning program, learned some hard lessons and maintained a clear vision for how an e-learning ecosystem will support overall business strategies.

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As LMS and e-learning systems continue to mature, they should serve as the foundation for integrated e-learning ecosystems, vastly improving  skills, satisfaction and productivity. Executing such a vision will require a continued focus on interoperability standards, a clear vision of learning as an integrated component of an institution or company’s financial, customer and clients management systems, and a long-term commitment to innovate.

Above all, it will require a maturing e-learning industry to learn from experience—and to play well with others

Building an e-learning ecosystem with the correct technology solution—one that cost-effectively automates and integrates training features with other systems—is critical to success.

“Companies want to protect their investments. They want to know their content can play on different systems. They want to use, reuse and combine content objects

An ecosystem is an ecological community that, together with its environment, functions as a unit. Extending the definition to the e-learning environment, we can define an e-learning ecosystem as the learning community, together with the enterprise, united by a learning management system (LMS).

If e-learning is truly to provide greater access to education and support educational programs that reflect broader strategic business goals, many believe that the e-learning industry must take the time now to learn key lessons from its early adopters.