3 Reasons to Change Your Learning Content Management Strategy

The role of learning and development (L&D) within organizations continues to grow. In fact, Allied Market Research predicts that the global corporate training market will reach $805.6 billion by 2035. And with that growth have come rapidly evolving demands on L&D solutions.

On one hand, when we step outside of our learning silo, we find that virtually every function in organizations is now sustained by a content strategy driven by a content management system that enables content developers to create dynamic content and reuse it across multiple formats. This ensures company-wide consistency along with the agility to educate employees on new products, services, policies, procedures as they emerge—, ultimately leading to greater business growth.

On the other hand, widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly reshaping both the ways employees learn and how L&D content is developed and delivered. Driven by an escalating demand for personalized learning solutions, the global market for AI in learning and development is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 26.4% and will be worth nearly $97 billion by 2034, according to Market.US.

However, in the attempt to address modern L&D demands, many enterprises are finding themselves handcuffed by their legacy systems. Now is the time to rethink your learning content management strategy and the technology needed to support it.

A learning content management system (LCMS) is a platform for authoring, storing, and reusing modular learning content, then publishing it to multiple formats from a single source. It is one of several types of content management systems used across the enterprise.

High impact learning organizations like Capgemini Academy are already investing in state-of-the-art learning content management systems, like MadCap Create and MadCap Syndicate, to keep pace with the drivers of change.

A conversation with John May, Capgemini Academy’s learning solution architect pointed to three central reasons that your existing learning content management strategy is likely in need of an upgrade.

1. Learning content management needs to be centralized

Centralizing learning content gives teams version control and a single source of truth, instead of files scattered across trainers’ desktops.

In any industry, a fundamental principle to managing your services is control. Capgemini Academy publishes a large number of information technology courses. The organization has roughly 100 internal trainers in addition to external support professionals who need access to effective and efficient learning content.

The company was using a legacy system that needed excessive maintenance to keep it up and running undercutting its ability to control content. This significantly contributed to the company’s decision to integrate MadCap Software’s LCMS solution.

“It improves the speed of design and the amount of reuse,” May indicated.

At the same time, the company’s previous system required users to develop learning content on non-standardized Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files, and a significant number of these materials were stored outside of the print-based learning system. This made it much more difficult to locate specific documents or learning materials because individual trainers often retained the original files.

Being an international company headquartered in Paris, Capgemini frequently provides multilingual courses, which required heavy lifting in terms of translating every item into another language. Even individual documents needed to be translated multiple times because the company’s legacy system didn’t allow the organization to keep track of whether a file had already been translated. Going further, designers and trainers weren’t able to isolate the translated versions. A localization tool like MadCap Lingo keeps translated versions in sync through translation memory.

MadCap Software has all but eliminated this issue.

“[There’s] greater visibility and a more structured approach to publishing,” May said. “We have version control.”

Most importantly, content development is separate from content assembly, with the LCMS playing a central role in delivering streamlined learning services.

The AI advantage: Companies with centralized learning content also provide the structure and consistency that are foundational to enabling accurate AI-generated content and AI search results.

2. If your learning content isn't single-source, it isn't reusable and single-source.

Reusable content means authoring once as a single learning object, then publishing it to many formats without rebuilding it.

Reuse is a linchpin for efficiency in delivering L&D content tailored for the needs of different learners. But such reuse is only possible with a single-source platform serving as a central resource. Otherwise, content rapidly multiplies in a haphazard manner.

For example, Capgemini had authored upwards of 60,000 documents, and the result was an inconsistent volume of learning content. Then the company switched to Create, MadCap Software’s LCMS, which drives reuse because authors develop content just once as a single learning object. They can then grab and integrate learning content as they see fit to create, reassemble or update training courses.

“The specific benefit of Create is publishing to multiple delivery formats from just one,” May explained.

Since migrating to MadCap Software's platform, Capgemini has developed standardized output stylesheets for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and PDF format. Configured content is then imported into the LCMS and automatically converted into XML-based learning objects.

“Learning objects that are already in Create are reused more than what was done in the past,” May said.

Now learning is driven by content that has a consistent look and feel. Capgemini trainers can focus on delivering effective courses, while designers easily adapt or assemble single-source training materials based on clients’ needs.

The AI advantage: Enterprises that facilitate content reuse with a single-source platform can further enhance productivity by enabling AI agents to repurpose existing content in generating first drafts of L&D materials that content creators can tune.

See how MadCap Create single-sources learning content.

3. Globalization drives a need for mobility

Going digital lets learners access content on any device, while cutting the cost of printing and shipping training materials.

There’s no question that the business universe is rapidly shrinking. An LCMS enables companies to keep up with the pace of change and ensure that content is future-proof, optimized for the output delivery systems of today and tomorrow. This is crucial to your learning content management strategy.

Capgemini’s legacy system was primarily geared to connect with printing facilities. By coordinating Create with Capgemini’s learning management system, the organization is on track to become fully paperless as they implement their learning content management strategy.

“A great advantage is that Create is boundary-less,” said May of Capgemini. “We’re working for a global organization—and we’re more and more doing training globally.”

In a fully digital framework, learners can access and download content using their preferred device wherever they are located. This supports greater flexibility, while also reducing the costs needed to deliver training materials and instruction in a paper-based format.

The AI advantage: Organizations that rely on a single-source LCMS as their central content platform also gain the flexibility to quickly add new learning experiences, from mobile applications to podcasts, AI chatbots, and more.

Capgemini Academy goes into greater visual detail in the following video:

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