Whose LMS is it anyway?

Continuing with my earlier post on LMS, I wanted to write about "the main thing", but Manish Mohan's post on What type of CLO are you, inspired me to write this post instead.

So, who does the LMS belong to? Here is a list that might sum up what you would have heard in several organizations.

• L&D: Well,duh! Aren’t we responsible for all learning-related matters? So, the LMS is ours!!!
• HR: Now, wait just a minute. We have this fantastic HRMS and LMS is part of it, so it’s ours!
• IT: You think this system will run on thin air! We control where and how it runs; it’s ours, and if you don’t agree, we’ll remove all your access rights. :)
• Finance: In this day and age, when websites can be made free, we don’t understand why we paid a tonne of money for this system, and it seems we will continue paying more. So, it’s ours; we need to keep a close watch on this!
• Operations: Meh! Who’s going to use this system? Us! Back off now!! It’s ours, and we will use it as we please.
• CEO: I think you are all forgetting, who agreed to this huge investment. It is my baby! I want to showcase it to the board as my idea and I will show what impact it has had on revenue, bottom line etc.

I guess in any organization, who the LMS belongs to, depends on various circumstances and situations specific to that organization. But what is most important is that in order for any LMS implementation to be successful, all involved departments must be in sync, and all three types of CLOs need to be satisfied!