You already have an LMS. It works, albeit reluctantly. Employees complain about the interface, the link with AFAS has been faltering for a year, reports are inaccurate, and the supplier is slow to respond. Meanwhile, you know there are better options out there.
But switching feels like a big step. Because what do you do with years of learning history from hundreds or thousands of employees? How do you get IT, the works council, and management on board? What if the new link doesn't work either? And how do you ensure that people who are finally used to the current system don't have to switch again?
Sometimes it feels like you're not making any progress. And that's frustrating, especially when you know how important effective knowledge transfer is for your people and the people you serve.
This article provides honest answers to those questions, specifically for organizations with 1,000 or more employees in healthcare and education.
Not every LMS problem justifies a migration. Sometimes there are configuration issues to be resolved, or a lack of internal management and training. Before you take the plunge, it's important to identify exactly what the real problem is.
Signs that the situation is structural, and switching is the better choice:
Koninklijke Visio recognized this moment when their existing LMS was declared end-of-life. The organization has 2,900 employees and took the selection seriously: wishes and requirements were collected from management, directors, colleagues, and participants, and worked out in a MoSCoW prioritization with 93 points. HRD advisor Eline van der Voort: "From our table with all the pros and cons on thirty components, Procademy clearly Procademy top." A thorough selection process takes time, but it prevents you from finding yourself in the same situation again in five years' time. Read more about Koninklijke Visio's experiences with Procademy here.
For a large organization, an LMS migration is not a minor decision. You need an internal narrative for management, IT, and the works council. That narrative starts with the costs of the current situation.
Consider: the number of management hours lost to manual corrections and workarounds, the risks during an audit if training data cannot be demonstrated, the effects on recruitment and retention if employees perceive the training offering as outdated, and the licensing costs of a system that is no longer being fully developed.
These costs are offset by the benefits of a well-designed platform: automatic synchronization with AFAS, training profiles for each position and role, real-time reports for management and the works council, and a learning environment that employees want to use themselves. For organizations in healthcare and education, the ability to demonstrate training to inspectors, accreditation bodies, or subsidy providers is not a side issue but a core requirement.
In an organization with 1,000+ employees, the success of an LMS migration largely depends on the people you get on board before the technical implementation begins.
The works council. A new system that affects the way of working usually requires the approval of the works council. Involve the works council at an early stage, explain what is changing and why, and take their feedback seriously when designing the system. A works council that is informed after the fact will become a hindrance. A works council that contributes ideas will become an ally.
IT and the DPIA. Information security and privacy are not an afterthought at large healthcare and education organizations. Expect questions about the processing agreement, a DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment), the location of data storage, access management, and incident management. A supplier with NEN 7510, ISO 27001, and ISO 9001 certification gives your IT department and DPIA a strong foundation, but they will want to assess and document this themselves.
Line management. Without committed managers, there will be no adoption. They are the link between the platform and daily practice. The sooner they know what is going to change and what will improve for them and their team, the smoother the transition will be.
The honest answer: migration at a large organization requires serious effort, but the risks are manageable if you approach it in a structured manner. The two main areas of focus are data migration and connections.
Data migration: what goes and what stays?
The learning history of employees—who has taken which courses, which certificates have been obtained—is the most sensitive data. In an organization with multiple locations, departments, or collective bargaining agreements, this data may be stored inconsistently: different titles for the same training course, incomplete records, outdated categorization. Cleaning up this data is an internal task, because only you can assess which data is correct. A good migration partner will offer clear guidelines and active support for this.
Visio migrated 550 courses to Procademy engaged an external content provider for this purpose. Eline van der Voort: "Procademy truly my rock. We had core team meetings every two weeks. Procademy also Procademy an external party that transferred the content, which was a huge task." The result: a fully equipped learning platform with integrations for GoodHabitz, Noordhoff, AFAS, and Microsoft Entra.
Couplings: stable and certified, or another risk?
One of the most common frustrations among existing LMS users is connection issues: the AFAS integration does not work properly, SSO generates error messages, certificates do not write back. When switching, you want to rectify that. Certified, standardized connections, such as a certified AFAS connection and SAML2 integration with Microsoft Entra ID, are considerably more stable than custom connections. The effort required from your organization is limited (approx. 4–8 hours per connection), provided that the source systems are in order.
In an organization with 1,000+ employees, you don't do an LMS migration for the entire organization in one go. A pilot approach per department, team, or location is standard practice and sensible.
A pilot offers three advantages. First, you discover teething problems in a safe environment before they affect 1,000 employees. Second, you build ambassadors who can inspire the rest of the organization based on their own experience. Third, you can adjust the adoption approach based on real user feedback before scaling up.
A good pilot group is representative, including not only enthusiastic early adopters, but also people who are skeptical or less digitally skilled. It is precisely this group that will tell you what is not yet right.
Employees who do use the platform. An intuitive, modern interface greatly lowers the threshold, not because it is mandatory, but because it works well. Bartiméus saw this immediately: "Where you previously needed 10 clicks, you can now do it in 3. That helps everyone."
Less administrative burden at scale. A stable AFAS link that automatically creates new employees, synchronizes teams, and writes back certificates saves an organization of 1,000+ people not just a few hours per week, but structural FTE.
Demonstrable training. Real-time reports per team, department, or location, immediately available to management, works council, inspection, or accreditation bodies. No more manual Excel overviews just before an audit.
Training profiles per position and role. Employees only see what is relevant to them. Managers can immediately see the training status of their team. Management has organization-wide insights.
Ownership of content. With your own Academy, you decide what it contains, in your corporate style, tailored to your protocols and working methods, and how it looks for employees at location A versus location B.
Fewer user questions. Zorg voor Leren switched from a self-built system to Procademy: "All actions are fully automated in Procademy. We also receive far fewer user questions. It's all pretty self-explanatory."
Technical migrations rarely go wrong because of the technology. They fail because of people. And with 1,000+ employees, adoption is a serious challenge that requires a unique approach.
Resistance to switching to an LMS rarely manifests itself as open opposition, but rather as passive non-use: I can't log in, I can't find the training, I'll just wait. This pattern reinforces itself: if colleagues aren't using it either, it feels less urgent.
An adoption approach in large organizations requires structure:
Network of ambassadors per location or department. Not a single central campaign team, but recognizable colleagues on the work floor who are familiar with the platform and can answer questions. They are more credible than any email from HR.
Managers as leverage. A manager who never mentions the LMS in a team meeting or performance review implicitly signals that it is not important. Provide a toolbox: a ready-made presentation, a sample email, and a short video that managers can use themselves.
Phased communication campaign. Employees who hear about the new platform for the first time on the day it goes live are already starting at a disadvantage. Build up communication: announcement, sneak previews, hands-on sessions per department, and a launch that feels like a moment, not an IT notification.
Measure and adjust usage per target group. Monitor logins, training progress, and usage per team and location. If adoption is lagging, make targeted adjustments, not with a generic reminder email, but with a conversation within the team.
Phase 1 – Stakeholder analysis and project organization. Identify who is involved: Works Council, IT, DPO, HR, management, L&D. Put together a project team with representatives from each domain. Define responsibilities.
Phase 2 – Inventory and basic setup. Analysis of the current situation, retrieval of data from the departing supplier, basic setup of the new platform.
Phase 3 – Learning pathways and training profiles. Which training courses will be included, which will be rebuilt, and how are training profiles structured for each position?
Phase 4 – Technical links and privacy. SSO, AFAS link, DPIA documentation, processing agreement. This is also the time for works council coordination, if this has not yet taken place.
Phase 5 – Pilot with a representative group. Test with a department or location. Process feedback. Adjust where necessary.
Phase 6 – Phased rollout and adoption campaign. Step-by-step scaling up, with communication and support for each phase.
Phase 7 – Aftercare and handover. Intensive hypercare period after go-live, followed by handover to regular SLA support.
A project team, not just one person. In a large organization, implementation requires a core team: an internal project leader with a mandate, representatives from HR/L&D, IT, communications, and line management. Expect an average of 8–16 hours per week for the project leader, plus part-time input from the other team members during the process.
Involve the Works Council from the outset. Do not wait to do this. A Works Council that is involved at an early stage is an ally; a Works Council that has to give its approval after the fact is a risk to the planning process.
IT department and DPO as active participants. Not as gatekeepers at the end, but as co-designers of the setup. This prevents surprises later on.
Willingness to clean up data. You must assess and harmonize outdated course structures and inconsistent learning histories yourself. The larger the organization, the more extensive and important this work is.
If there is one organization that demonstrates that even a complex transition can be managed effectively, it is Bartiméus. The healthcare organization has over 2,000 employees, works with three different collective labor agreements, and serves both internal employees and external clients and network partners. Not the easiest starting point.
Bartiméus set five knockout criteria and 150 additional requirements for the selection process and chose Procademy its partner. The result is more than just a replacement system: after the migration, Bartiméus continued to build step by step, creating an internal learning platform, an external learning environment for clients and partners, and the joint platform Kennis Over Zien (Knowledge About Seeing) with Koninklijke Visio and the Robert Coppes Foundation. Within a year, this grew from two to forty joint training courses.
Better data led to better decisions: based on insights into training frequency, Bartiméus adjusted its offering. And the collaboration: "At Procademy , we don't Procademy like just a number." For an organization of this size and complexity, that's not something that can be taken for granted.
Read more about the collaboration with Bartiméus here.
An LMS migration at a large organization sounds complicated, and it is, if you underestimate it. But with a structured approach, the right stakeholders involved early on, and a phased rollout, it is manageable.
Procademy organizations in healthcare and education through this entire process. More than 160,000 participants from over 100 organizations, including Visio, Bartiméus, Timon, Nidos, and Cito, have already taken this step.
Are you considering making the switch and want to know what that means for your organization in concrete terms? Contact us for a no-obligation consultation.
