A learning management system (LMS) for companies is the software in which an employer hosts its training courses, assigns them to employees, and tracks who has finished them. Almost every large company in India uses one. Employees usually know it as "the learning portal".
The LMS does four jobs. It stores the courses: videos, slides, quizzes and recordings of live classes. It assigns each course to the right people, by job role, department or location. It sends reminders until each person finishes. And it reports completion to HR and to the compliance team, which must show auditors and regulators that the training was done.
Here is a typical case. A chain of 300 electronics stores across south India hires about 150 new staff every month. Each new joiner appears in the HRIS, the employee record system, on the joining date. The LMS reads the person's role from there and assigns the courses for that role. Every employee gets a data privacy course and a course on preventing sexual harassment at work, because Indian law, the POSH Act of 2013, requires employers to run awareness programmes. Sales staff also get a course on the new range of air conditioners, and store managers get one on handling cash. Each course ends with a quiz with a pass mark of 70%. On 31 March, the LMS report shows that 94% of staff have finished their courses. The LMS then emails the managers of the 180 staff who have not.
Courses are usually packaged in a standard format called SCORM. A SCORM course can play in any LMS that supports the format, and almost every company LMS does. The course sends back the learner's score and whether they finished. Companies license ready-made courses from content libraries and online course marketplaces, or have courses made for them. Both are covered under eLearning content. Some courses come from specialists. Security awareness training, for instance, teaches staff to spot fake emails.
Newer platforms add a layer called a learning experience platform (LXP). It recommends courses to each person, in the same way that a video app suggests videos. It can take the skill gaps that talent intelligence finds, and suggest courses that fill them.
A company LMS is different from the LMS in a college. A college LMS holds a semester's lectures and assignments for its students. A company LMS assigns required training to staff, and proves that it was done. Teaching a person to use an application while they are using it is a separate job, done by a digital adoption platform.