How to Maximize ROI for Professional Associations With Flexible Seat-Based LMS Pricing

It’s estimated that there are tens of thousands of professional associations worldwide, with millions of members that keep their respective industries thriving. These organizations set their industry standards and help people in nearly every sector keep their skills current through professional development, continuing education, and certification programs. These services are essential for professionals to stay current in their fields, but providing workshops and other learning opportunities can be costly for these organizations.

In addition to the cost of creating the training materials, professional associations need a learning platform to host and distribute their courses. Learning management systems (LMSs) are the best tool for the job, but traditional LMS pricing models can become quite expensive very quickly. That’s because many learning platforms charge organizations based on an annual, per-user subscription model. This pricing philosophy works well for organizations that have consistent LMS usage. However, it becomes a costly expense for professional bodies that serve hundreds or thousands of people a year who only use the platform when it’s time to renew their professional credentials or take a continuing education course.

When your professional association uses its resources to fund LMS licenses for people who will only use the platform once or twice a year, you end up overpaying for your learning platform. This leaves your association with fewer available resources, making you less equipped to successfully advocate for the advancement of your industry. Luckily, flexible seat-based pricing models like Open LMS’s Monthly Flex Seats exist to make an LMS more affordable. The benefits are obvious: improve your bottom line so you can provide essential services and devote more resources toward helping people in your field.

SEE IT IN ACTION! READ A CASE STUDY | ‘Piloting a Cost-Effective Future: How Young Life Scales Learning Initiatives With a New Seat-Based Pricing Model From Open LMS’

What Is Flexible Seat-Based LMS Pricing?

In traditional per-user pricing agreements, an LMS customer agrees to pay the vendor an annual fee based on how many individual users access the platform during the year. Organizations that pay for an LMS with this pricing model need to estimate how many people will use the platform during the year. The organization will pay an additional fee if their usage exceeds their initial projections.

This can be quite challenging for your professional association because your members’ continuing educational needs can vary significantly. If your organization also hosts learning workshops or virtual networking events that are open to non-members, your LMS usage will fluctuate substantially throughout the year.

Flexible seat-based pricing, sometimes called “flex seat pricing,” addresses this challenge by charging clients based on a set number of monthly users, but those individuals can change from month to month. For example, a professional association for nurses might sign a flex seat pricing agreement that covers 1,000 users per month. In January the professional association offers a course that’s focused on emergency room procedures and best practices. In February, the association offers a course designed for neonatal nurses. The organization might have 1,000 nurses join their courses in January and February, but those individual users likely won’t all be the same people because of their different specialties.

This pricing model can potentially save you a significant amount of money and prevent you from overpaying for LMS services. Monthly flex seat pricing agreements ensure that your professional association doesn’t pay for LMS licenses that it doesn’t need, regardless of which specific LMS users sign up for your courses from month to month. This pricing model also makes it easier for you to scale as your membership numbers and demand for continuing education opportunities grow.

KEEP READING FOR MORE USE CASES | ‘Dircom and Open LMS: The Ideal Partnership for Corporate Communication Professionals’

How to Maximize LMS ROI With Monthly Flex Seat Pricing

In addition to reducing costs, your association can leverage flexible pricing models to maximize the return on your LMS investment in other ways. Over time, monthly flex seat pricing can help associations make informed decisions about their future course offerings.

For example, organizations can track which months have the highest and lowest numbers of unique LMS users. Your professional association can review that data against courses that were being offered at those times. This can help you determine which courses are the most popular during specific times of the year so you can plan accordingly for the future and maximize user engagement.

The pricing data can also help your association see when your LMS is getting the least amount of engagement. You can use the data to take steps to scale back your course offerings during slower periods to reduce overall costs. You might also compare your slower engagement periods with events happening within your industry to see if there are any potential conflicts that could be impacting the success rates of your courses.

When your professional association only pays for the learning software licences it needs, you can devote more resources to creating industry-leading professional development opportunities and high-quality credentials for people in your industry. Monthly flex seat pricing models ensure that your organization can maximize its budget and keep providing cost-effective continuing education opportunities and resources to your members.

ANOTHER PROFESSIONAL BODY CASE STUDY | ‘NEIEP: On Choosing Open-Source eLearning Software to Train and Host 26,000 IUEC Apprentices and Mechanics’