8 Things to Demand From Your LMS Vendor Before You Sign Anything
8 Things to Demand From Your LMS Vendor Before You Sign Anything
The questions most HR leaders never ask, until after the contract is signed.
June brings half-year vendor reviews. Procurement teams are comparing what was promised with what was delivered. L&D leaders are explaining why adoption is lower than projected, why the integration took three months longer than scoped, and why the platform the CEO was told would “transform learning culture” is sitting at 51% active users six months after launch.
Most of those conversations could have been avoided. Not by choosing a different platform necessarily, but by asking eight specific questions before the contract was signed. Questions that reveal deployment capability, integration honesty, support commitment, and financial transparency in ways that no demo ever will.
Here are the eight. Use them in every vendor evaluation.
What’s your actual deployment timeline, not the optimistic one?
Every vendor will give you a timeline. The question is whether it’s the timeline from first discovery call to all users active, or the timeline from “when everything on your side is perfectly ready” to a partial go-live. Press for specificity: what are the dependencies, who owns each one, and what is the vendor’s contractual commitment if the timeline slips?
Which HRMS integrations are pre-built vs “available on request”?
Integration language in LMS sales processes is consistently misleading. “We integrate with all major HRMS platforms” can mean anything from a native, certified, real-time connector to a custom API project that will take eight weeks and cost separately. Get the complete integration list in writing, ask which ones are certified and maintained by the vendor, and ask specifically about your HRMS.
What does your support model look like after go-live?
Support before go-live is always attentive. The question is what happens after the contract is secured and the project is handed to a support team. Ask for the support SLA document specifically. Who is your named point of contact? What is the response time for a P1 issue affecting all users? Is there a local support team, or is everything handled through a global ticket queue?
Can we see a live client reference in our industry?
Case studies are vendor-curated. Live client references are not. Ask for a direct conversation with a client in your industry. BFSI, manufacturing, retail, or IT services, of similar employee count, who has been live on the platform for at least twelve months. The questions you ask that client will tell you more than any product demonstration.
How is your pricing structured, per user, per feature, or flat?
The number on the proposal is rarely the number you’ll pay in year two. Ask for the complete pricing model: what triggers per-feature charges, how user count is calculated (active users? registered users? concurrent?), what’s included in the base licence versus add-on modules, and what the typical cost trajectory looks like for clients of your size after 24 months.
What happens to our data if we switch in three years?
Data portability is almost never discussed in the vendor selection process. It should be. Your training completion records, learner history, assessment data, and compliance archives belong to your organisation, not your LMS vendor. Ask for the specific data export format, the process for extracting all historical data, and whether there are any fees for data extraction at contract end.
How do you handle custom feature requests?
At some point in the next 12 months, your L&D team will need something the platform doesn’t currently do. The question is what happens then. Is there a product feedback channel? How are feature requests prioritised, by revenue, by vote, by roadmap committee? What is the typical delivery timeline for a requested feature, and are custom development costs separate from the licence?
What does your roadmap look like and how is it shaped?
A platform you’re committing to for three years will look different by year three. Ask to see the product roadmap for the next 12 months, and ask how it is shaped. Is it driven by a single large enterprise client? By a product vision the vendor holds without input? Or by a transparent process that weights customer needs, including organisations of your size and sector?
Confidence in these answers comes from experience, hundreds of deployments, consistent delivery, and nothing to hide.
How to Use This List
Print this list. Send it to your vendor shortlist before the final demo round. Ask each question in a live call and note not just the answer, but the confidence and specificity with which it’s delivered. Vague answers to direct questions are information, they tell you exactly what you’ll be dealing with post-signature.
At VioletLMS, we’ve built our commercial model around the transparent ecosystem these eight questions are probing for: no feature add-ons, no hidden integration costs, no data lock-in, and deployment timelines we put in writing. We welcome this list because every question on it reflects a problem we built the platform specifically to solve.
If your current vendor review is happening this June, or if a contract renewal is approaching and the performance data isn’t where it should be, these eight questions are the most useful hour you can spend before making the next decision.
Quick reference: your pre-signature checklist
- Committed go-live date in the contract, not a project plan
- Native HRMS integration confirmed in writing for your specific system
- Named post-go-live support contact with SLA documented
- Live client reference in your industry arranged
- Complete pricing model for 3 years, including all potential add-ons
- Data portability clause reviewed and understood
- Custom feature request process documented
- Product roadmap shared and explained
Ask us all eight. We’ll answer every one.
Book a demo and come prepared with your toughest vendor evaluation questions. We’ll answer them before we show you a single feature.
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