Burden level. While it's not out of the question for companies to host learning management systems behind their firewall, you'll lessen your IT department's burden by implementing a cloud-based LMS solution designed for maximum scalability.

Time to deploy. Your employees may be learning new, complex skills but that doesn't mean the platform they're learning on them needs to be equally complex. Look for an LMS option that's flexible enough to meet your unique learning needs, but doesn't require so much customization that the content you bought is out of date by the time you're up and running.

Flexibility. The more diverse, mobile and strapped for time your employees are, the more you'll need an LMS that can deliver a variety of timely, relevant content that's quickly and easily transferable to their current jobs in the media formats your learners respond to best.

Ease of Use. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it doesn't matter how many bells and whistles your LMS has if your end users have trouble accessing or navigating the system.

Ability to Customize. All customization requires some effort, but once you've invested in creating the custom content you need for your industry, you'll want an LMS that makes it easy to integrate that content onto its platform.

Reporting. The burning questions companies ask e-learning almost always center on usage and ROI. Without a good set of metrics to rely on, you can't get the fullest picture of your learners' progress you need to measure and report on performance.