When organizations decide to move to a new learning management system (LMS), it’s often because the current system is no longer meeting their needs. But here’s the mistake I see time and time again: they try to replicate the exact same processes that frustrated them in the old system.
Just because you did it that way in the old LMS doesn’t mean you should carry it forward. In fact, the reason you’re moving from that old system is because it wasn’t working. If you don’t take time to rethink processes, you’ll just recreate the same challenges in a new platform — and that shiny new LMS will quickly feel like the old one.
Where Organizations Get Stuck
Many clients approach migration like this:
- Copy the old workflows — registration, enrollment, or payment steps — without asking if they made sense in the first place.
- Transfer bad habits — manual processes or clunky steps that waste time.
- Ignore opportunities for automation — failing to integrate the LMS with CRMs, HRIS, or finance systems.
One of my clients had this exact issue. Their old LMS required multiple manual uploads and workarounds to get users into the system. When they purchased a new LMS, they wanted to keep the same steps. We had to stop and ask: why repeat the pain? Instead, we built new business procedures that eliminated those manual bottlenecks.
Kim Scott and I were panelists for an IDLance webinar and as she wisely put it during our session: “Oftentimes, I’ve seen LMSs purchased on a whim… and then they realized, hey, it doesn’t meet our needs, and when I asked them, well, what’s your needs? They never did the requirements document in the first place.”
A Better Approach: Treat Migration as an Upgrade
Switching to a new LMS is the perfect opportunity to:
- Reevaluate business procedures. Which steps are truly necessary, and which are habits carried over from a bad system?
- Document SOPs. Don’t let processes live in people’s heads. Write them down, streamline them, and train others.
- Automate wherever possible. If your LMS can connect to your CRM or HRIS, use that integration to save time and prevent errors.
- Engage users in the redesign. Let admins, instructors, and learners test and provide feedback before launch.
The Bottom Line
An LMS migration shouldn’t just be a lift-and-shift. It’s a chance to improve the way your organization handles training end-to-end. If you only recreate what you had before, you’re missing the opportunity to transform.
Instead, take the time to challenge old assumptions, streamline processes, and fully leverage the features of your new LMS. Otherwise, you’ll end up with the same frustrations — just with a new price tag.
Check out our recorded session at IDLance.