How to Choose a Training Management System For My Business?

You run a training business and need some software to manage your training, customers, orders, invoices, learners, qualifications, certification and more, so how do you choose the best Training Management System / Training Management Software (TMS) to suit your business.
There are several fundamentals that you need to assess right away, these are;

• Ease of use - This is one of the most important factors. The more difficult and complicated software is to use, the less you will likely use it, or at least use it to it's fullest. We often hear on our demo's that Genius is intuitive and extremely easy to use and our prospects can't wait to try it out, that's not the case with many Training Management Systems. This is largely because software is usually designed by UI designers or developers who don't use the software. Here at Genius new features are requested by our community of users, so essentially our users designed Genius.


• Training & Support - How are you going to learn how to get the most from your Training Management System without adequate training? and if you have an issue how good is the support? Ideally you want your training and support to be included at no charge. Here at Genius everything is included, even if you need a quick chat and a walk through of a specific feature, our team will jump on Teams or Zoom and walk you through every step of the way.


• Updates and New Features - Technology and what is possible with software changes at lightening speed, so you need to know if your chosen Training Management Software receives regular updates, as not all do. Also if you have a suggestion for a new feature or service, will that be heard by the development team or just ignored. This is important and choosing the wrong Training Management System could give your competitors the advantage.


• Where is it Hosted - All Training Management Software is cloud based, which just means it is stored/hosted on a server somewhere in the World. Most use AWS (Amazon Web Services) or Microsoft Azure so could be hosted in the USA or anywhere else in the world. This could have important repercussions on your business if your partners or awarding bodies insist on your data being stored/hosted in the UK for example. Genius cloud servers are all located in Manchester, England.


• Reliability - Again this is very important and most people never even consider it. Will the Training Management System be available when you need to use it? Imagine this scenario, a customer calls to book a place on a course, you try to login to your TMS to book them on, but's it's down. Or a customer makes an enquiry and you can't access any of your business information, and when your entire business is stored in a TMS you don't have offline back ups to refer to. Genius offer a service level agreement of 99.99% uptime, which is much higher than the industry standard.


• Disaster Recovery - What if the Training Management System vendor has a component failure? or an entire server failure? what happens to your data? You need to be sure that your chosen Training Management System vendor has a data backup policy and also a disaster recovery plan to avoid any downtime.


• Pricing Structure - Some people would put this higher up the list, however the pricing is irrelevant if the software pays for itself. Yes that sounds strange, but if a Training Management System doesn't pay for itself in time saved, and allowing you to scale with less staff, then what is the point of using it? at Genius our pricing is simple, we charge a monthly fee per licence, however we DO NOT charge for each customer / learner that you add to Genius as most vendors do so be sure to check that.

Genius is actually 4 platforms in one, these are the Training Management System, Customer Platform, Trainer Platform and Website Integration and you can read more about those platforms below.

Now we've taken care of the basics you will have some specifics that you need to check out, these are questions such as does the Training Management System manage my learners, can I store their qualification data, can I print certificates, does it integrate with my accounts software, can I process card payments and so on.
The best way to see this is by booking demo of the Training Management System.
The good news for you is that there is only a handful (less than 6) Training Management System vendors worldwide, and only 2 or 3 in the UK.
We suggest you view all the UK ones at least, as they all have different features, training & support and pricing.

Booking a Demo of Genius
Booking a demo is simple, just enter your details into the short form and we will contact you to discuss your requirements and arrange a suitable date and time for your demo.

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Customer Platform
If your chosen Training Management Software includes a Free Customer Platform as Genius does then your customers and learners can view, track and manage their own training.
This can be an extremely valuable tool and can often be the deciding factor for your customers when choosing whether to use you as their training provider.
Many of our clients have advised us that they have gained business because their customers can view, track and manage their own training using the Genius Customer Platform. This is completely free with Genius and some of our clients even charge their customers for the customer platform as an additional service, which is a great way to earn additional revenue.

Trainer Platform
This is a rare one, but some Training Management System (such as Genius) include a dedicated Trainer Platform. Again with Genius this is Free regardless of your number of trainers.
This allows your trainers to manage their own diary, their own expenses, create and complete Attendance Registers, and Award Qualifications if you choose to give them that level of access. Genius allows you to accurately control each trainers level of access plus you can grant/revoke access to any trainer at any time.

Now you know what to look for in a Training Management System so get out there and remember to ask these questions before taking your demo, that way you can save time if they don't meet your requirements.

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