Ever had someone describe two business terms they say aren’t interchangeable in such a vague and similar way that you have no idea what the difference is? It’s super confusing and way too common when it comes to business jargon and acronyms. The discussion around TMS vs LMS can fall into the same trap.
Imagine if we did that in everyday life. Suppose someone asked you the difference between a squirrel and a bunny. In that case, you’d never reply, “Well, a squirrel is a small, often gray animal that people tend to see hopping around their yard, while a bunny is a little animal that is frequently gray and likes jumping around in the grass.”
You wouldn’t technically be wrong, but that’s the most unhelpful description you could possibly give in that situation. This is a common issue people run into with corporate training software descriptions. They describe each type accurately, just not in a way that necessarily helps people distinguish them from one another.
That’s why we’re going to clearly explain the differences between TMS vs LMS software.
Here you’ll learn:
- What a TMS is
- What an LMS is
- The benefits of each option
- The differences between them
- How to choose the right option
What is a training management system (TMS)?
A training management system is a type of software meant to help companies manage their training process. It does this by automating as many administrative tasks as possible and helping training administrators and HR departments track their training operations budget, create courses, distribute materials, and manage instructors and students.
Training providers know that training programs come with a lot of administrative processes and resource management requirements. TMSs can help everything run smoothly by streamlining everything and automating what it can.
Main TMS benefits
Choosing a TMS can provide a lot of advantages to the training company. Every TMS is different and will have a unique set of features. However, some features and benefits are common in many TMSs.
Just keep in mind that not every option will provide each of the benefits listed here. It’s important to research each option carefully to ensure the one you pick has the right features and benefits for your needs.
Some of the core benefits common to TMSs include:
- Easily author training courses: A TMS can make it easy to create the training content you need at every level of the business, from new entry-level employees to C-level executives.
- Streamlined training processes: Having a TMS gives you a way to structure, administer, schedule, and track your training materials and progress. Implementing all the courses throughout the entire training business can be complex. Having a TMS can help simplify it.
- Better learning outcomes: A TMS gives you more content management options. You can improve or personalize the learning experience to help keep employees more engaged. This makes employees more focused and productive, increasing their knowledge retention.
- Course management and reporting: The most effective employee learning experiences come from a system of constant tracking and tweaking. Tracking your employees’ training sessions and outcomes is vital for understanding your learners’ progress and the effectiveness of the training program. If something isn’t working, you can make changes and track the effects.
- Cost savings: Having an easy way to administer training to every employee that streamlines the process and automates recurring admin tasks will save time and money. The more you can automate and systematize your training process, the lower your overhead costs will be.
What is a learning management system (LMS)?
LMSs are software solutions to help businesses create, implement, and track e-learning content for employee training. It does this by providing tools for authoring e-learning content and creating specific online courses, training modules, and learning paths. It also has quizzes and analytics to track learner progress.
An LMS is a convenient way to create and implement e-learning courses across every level of your company. It can also come with features to aid in increasing learner engagement, real-time progress tracking, and industry benchmark data to compare your results to those of other companies in your field.
Main LMS benefits
LMSs offer many benefits. Much like TMSs, every LMS option will be different, and the list of features offered will change from one LMS to another. However, some core benefits tend to be common among many different choices. Compare the feature options for different LMS software and match their features and benefits to your company’s specific training needs.
Some of the main benefits LMSs offer can include:
- Content creation and management: Using an LMS allows you to create the exact content you need. You can organize individual learning modules into courses and learning paths that make the most sense for your learners.
- Ease-of-use features: Many LMSs have a responsive design to ensure they work across all devices and a user-friendly interface to make it easy for learners to use.
- Analytics and reporting: These features give you all the data you need to see user progress, understand course efficacy, and assess learning outcomes.
- Flexibility and improvement: Knowing what will work most effectively can be hard. The way things are phrased, the order in which information is provided, the length of each course, the level of personalization, and much more can all affect the outcome. With an LMS, you can easily review your results and make changes to improve the process.
- Social learning and gamification: Many LMS options have social learning elements like forums, group learning, and user profiles to allow students to interact with each other. There can also be gaming and competitive elements like levels, points, achievements to unlock, and leaderboards to make it more fun and encourage learners to do their very best.
What’s the difference: TMS vs LMS?
As you can see, the descriptions and benefits of TMS vs LMS systems are very similar. To many looking at these explanations, they may seem like they do the exact same things but just use different language to describe how they do it. That’s understandable.
To a certain extent, this isn’t even entirely untrue. Some of the features and benefits are pretty similar. Plus, the key differences between TMS vs LMS uses are really subtle. It’s easy to have trouble understanding the differences just by reading the description of each one.
That’s why we wanted a section dedicated to helping explain precisely how the features, uses, and benefits of a TMS vs LMS compare. Several key differences set them apart and make them distinct. Let’s go over each of them and see why the difference matters.
Learning type
One of the main distinctions between a TMS vs LMS is the type of learning they tend to focus on. TMSs are usually used for instructor-led training (ILT), while LMSs tend to focus more on self-guided online learning. However, blended learning (a mix of both) isn’t unheard of. Some options do offer that, so if that’s what you’re looking for, there’s definitely an option available.
Software focus
Another huge distinction between them is the focus of TMS vs LMS software. Training management software tends to focus on the administrative side. That’s why it provides more back-office features to help admin with budgeting and resource management.
Learning management software, on the other hand, is focused more on the online training process itself. That’s why most features focus on creating, managing, and analyzing e-learning courses.
Which e-learning system should you choose for your employee training?
When deciding which option to get, it’s important to start with the features you need. From there, you can compare your list of must-haves and nice-to-haves against the features of a TMS vs LMS. If you don’t need any back-office or admin features, for example, an LMS might be the right choice. On the other hand, if you want to focus on traditional learning and streamline your admin workflows, a TMS could be the perfect fit.
However, it isn’t always a matter of TMS vs LMS. Sometimes, you can get the best of both. Many systems have features of both types or have integrations to add them. With all those options available, you should be able to find a software solution that meets all your training needs.
Key takeaways
The world of educational software can be complex. However, if you take it one step at a time, learn what each does best, and match the software features to your specific needs, you’ll find something that suits your situation. If nothing is a perfect match, there are usually integrations and additions you can find to fill those gaps for you.
