Learning Management Systems - LMS - Meridian

For our LMS selection process, we issued a RFI and sent it to every LMS provider we could find. We got down to 10 providers, and our RFP gave us details on what each learning management system was capable of. Meridian's response was almost too good to be true; it was well-written and thoughtful. We thought Meridian's LMS demo couldn't possibly match its proposal. I've seen a lot of LMS demos and a lot of vaporware. But Meridian's demo was exceptional; they gave us thoughtful, truthful answers to every question. We even handed Meridian a flash drive with a short SCORM course on it. The sales team loaded it on the spot and ran a course. When we asked one of Meridian's competitors to do the same, they said, 'Hand that course to us on a CD two days before the demo, we'll have it uploaded for you.' When our nine-person selection team ranked each LMS, everyone had a different pick for their second-, third- and fourth-place product. But Meridian was voted number one by a unanimous decision.

The Prepare Iowa LMS also includes a powerful online tool for public health professionals to use in assessing their skills with regard to a variety of public health roles and responsibilities, such as bioterrorism. The results of the self-assessments help the Prepare Iowa LMS recommend training and provide learners a way to pinpoint what training to focus on.

We don't have the luxury of IT support, so having Meridian host our LMS off-site made perfect sense.

Our users not only possess a wide range of computer skills but also have varying amounts of time for training. So we wanted a training system that was user friendly.

We're seeing double-digit increases in sales for those who go through training via the LMS as compared to a baseline of people who don't. And we're seeing more appropriately targeted sales of products like seed.

We needed to deliver training to tens of thousands of users, but we also wanted to foster collaboration. We had to have a system that was intuitive. Not all users are experts with e-learning or online collaboration.