LMS RFP Template

Most LMS RFPs leave too much room for vendors to quote in different shapes. This scaffold forces every vendor into the same answer format, so you can compare apples to apples.

• Total registered learners today and projected at month 12 and month 36.
• Active-user rate (monthly, yearly) under your own definition.
• Learner segments (employees, partners, customers, association members).
• Geographic distribution and language requirements.
• Mandatory accessibility standard (WCAG 2.2 AA is the current baseline).

• Ask for the rate under at least two of: per-registered-user, MAU, YAU, RAU.
• Pin the definition of “active”: login, content launch, completion, or partial completion.
• Confirm how admin and manager accounts count, and at what rate.
• Confirm how mobile vs web users count (some vendors count each session separately).
• Ask for the monthly-billing rate and the annual-billing discount.

• List requirements as must-have / should-have / nice-to-have. Force the vendor to answer per item.
• Specify standards (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, xAPI, cmi5, AICC, LTI 1.3).
• Specify accessibility audit posture (VPAT, ACR; date of last review).
• Specify reporting and analytics needs (dashboards, exports, native BI connectors).
• Specify multi-portal needs if any (number of portals at launch and at month 24).

• SSO (Okta, Azure AD, OneLogin, Google Workspace; standards: SAML 2.0, OIDC, SCIM).
• HRIS (Workday HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, BambooHR, ADP, UKG).
• CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics) and PRM if relevant.
• Video (Zoom, Webex, MS Teams) and video-engagement (Brightcove, Vidyard).
• Content libraries (LinkedIn Learning, Skillsoft, OpenSesame, Coursera).
• Authoring (Articulate, Adapt, Lectora) and live-learning platforms.
• For each: confirm native vs middleware vs custom; one-time vs ongoing cost.

• List AI capabilities you actually want (authoring, tagging, playlist curation, assessments, AI assistant).
• Ask for each priced as a separate line so it can be removed at renewal without renegotiating the base.
• Ask about model provenance (which underlying foundation model, customer-data isolation, retention policy).
• Ask about regional availability and data residency (AI features sometimes lag base product on EU/UK regions).

• Implementation scope as a fixed-fee statement of work, not time-and-materials.
• Acceptance gate and deliverables list.
• Customer success manager (named or pooled, included or extra).
• Support tier (response and resolution SLAs by severity).
• Admin training and end-user training (included hours, per-additional-hour rate).
• Migration assistance if moving from another LMS.

• Term length: 1, 3, 5 years. Discount at each.
• Renewal cap on price escalation: pinned to CPI or hard percentage (3-5 percent ask).
• Seat true-up cadence: annual is fair; semi-annual is the negotiation middle ground.
• Termination-for-convenience: notice period and any pro-rata refund.
• Data ownership and export terms (formats, retention period, fees).
• Service credits for SLA misses.

Score on three axes: total three-year cost (subscription + implementation + content + integrations + AI uplift + projected renewal escalation under the cap clause), functional fit against the must-have list, and vendor risk (ownership, financial health, recent leadership churn, customer references at your scale). Weight cost at 30-40 percent, fit at 40-50 percent, risk at 10-20 percent. Avoid a single all-in number; the components matter.