Every month that goes by that a company, government department, or other organization waits to start moving toward online training is a month of lost opportunity. Specifically, we are talking about sticking with costly in-person training, untracked PowerPoints or, worst of all, limited or insufficient training. When this happens, cost savings are missed and staff, new-hires, or business partners are missing critical knowledge and will perform less effectively.

If you plan to do your own content development, couurse assembly, system operation, and progress tracking, you need to make sure that the responsible staff and management team members are aware and accountable. If you will outsource your online training development and management, as many do, make sure you have budgeted for a solution you will be happy with. Trying to find services or software at what is known as the "CPI" (cheapest price on the internet) is rarely a strategy that works out well. And don't forget to allocate management time. Even if you have outside experts building your courses and operating your E-Learning platform, there will still need to be oversight.

You may have the budget available to purchase a million-dollar Learning Management System. But what happens afterward? You will need additional funds and internal budget room for steps like content creation, course assembly, system configuration, and report setup. Expect to staff some, or all, of your online courses with subject matter experts to improve the learning experience. All these areas are usually more costly with the larger systems as well.

The more complex and elegant your learning material will be, the longer it will take you to develop and test it. If online training is a new concept where you are, expect there to be interested parties keeping an eye on the progress of your project. Video, audio, and animation are great options for online courses, but simpler formats like HTML, images, PDF, and converted PowerPoints can get you to a "live date" more quickly. And you can phase in the fancier stuff over time.

The online training initiative that is going nowhere is the one that involves a training coordinator or low level supervisor, and no one else. If executive management does not embrace E-Learning as a strategic priority, and there is no sponsorship at the highest levels of your Human Resources department, it is not likeley that you will ever move forward with a learning system. And when it comes time for implementation work - course-building and other tasks, that will be under-staffed and given a low priority.