As a learning and development professional, you know the importance of meeting employees where they are. In a post-pandemic world, employees are more accustomed to – and expect – a robust corporate learning ecosystem.

L&D decision-makers must cater to the learning styles and expectations of employees and help them capture, share, and access valuable knowledge – and one way to achieve this outcome is through video. Benefits of video learning include:

1. More effective employee training 
2. Reduction in cost of employee training
3. Increased access to on-demand learning
4. Improved consistency in training materials and experiences
5. Extended training across internal and external audiences
6. More effective reporting and analytics insights
7. Increased accessibility

To effectively and efficiently manage your video content, you’ll need a Video Management System (VMS). A VMS brings your training tools and video content together in a user-friendly ecosystem. Think of it like a “Corporate YouTube” – but more secure. 

The increase of video content in learning and development departments resulted in a variety of platforms to choose from. It’s important to weigh all options to ensure you are choosing the best VMS for your needs to help create, manage, and distribute video content.

In this guide, you will learn

• What is a Video Management System?
• Video Management System: Panopto
• Video Management System: Kaltura
• Video Management System: Vimeo
• Video Management System: Microsoft Stream
• How to Choose the VMS for Your Needs

What is a Video Management System?

A video management system (sometimes called video libraries, video platforms, video content management systems) is an asynchronous video technology for creating, hosting, searching, and streaming videos online. A VMS enables the easy capture, management, and viewing of video content for the purposes of communicating, educating, or entertaining. Different from synchronous real-time video conferencing technologies that support live, two-way video conversations, video platforms offer a range of solutions for on-demand video and, increasingly, live, one-to-many streaming video.

 

📣 “Previously, all training was in-person, time-consuming, and somewhat inefficient. We would have to pull front-line team members out of the branch, find someone to cover for them while they were out, and take them on-site to our Resource Center for training. Now, we have a hybrid model. We pre-record the training that we know we will consistently need, and provide it on-demand. We also have trainers record their live sessions so people who aren’t in attendance can revisit them later.”

Jayme Bicknell, Marketing Manager, American 1 Credit Union

Enterprise Video Management System: Panopto

Panopto was purpose built for learning. Panopto is a comprehensive video platform that comes out-of-the-box with a complete set of tools for secure video management and video creation. Panopto provides global businesses and universities with an industry-leading video management system, along with integrated tools for creating online presentations, recording screencasts, webcasting live events, delivering online training, and more.

Panopto provides a highly secure, searchable video management system where you can professionally capture presentations, demos, training, meetings, and events, including a host of integrations with LMS and web recording platforms, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx. With a video content library, employees can instantly review recordings and play them back on demand.

Recommended for: securing and sharing videos and meeting recordings, secure live streaming,  remote video communication & collaboration, and online and blended learning

 

Enterprise Video Management System: Kaltura

Kaltura offers video recording, webcasting, storage, and sharing options à la carte with support from a professional services team to design your own platform for implementation. Kaltura is a highly customized video platform as a service designed for those looking for a build-your-own video solution. Kaltura also offers automated captioning services with a searchable index of words, terms, or phrases.

Recommended for: OTT video streaming, video monetization, and creating a customized video platform with components tailored to your needs

 

Enterprise Video Management System: Vimeo

Vimeo is an external video distribution solution that offers basic video hosting and streaming solutions for content creators. Vimeo’s tools include a video player that can be customized for brands, video monetization solutions, collaborative tools and workflows, live streaming, video analytics, and some private video sharing options. While a free version is available, premium subscribers offer a few more capabilities including live streaming and certain privacy settings. 

Vimeo is a video management solution primarily for marketers – meaning it may not be as effective for securely recording training, tutorials, lectures, demonstrations, and presentations. 

Recommended for: monetizing creative video content, creative video production and collaboration, and content marketing

 

Enterprise Video Management System: Microsoft Stream

Microsoft Stream is an enterprise video hosting and streaming solution used by Microsoft Office 365 customers. Assembled from a suite of apps for uploading, encoding, securing, delivering, and streaming video content in the cloud, Stream is primarily a video content management system designed for internal collaboration.

Microsoft Stream integrates with other Microsoft Office apps, including SharePoint, Yammer, and Teams, but integrations with non-Microsoft systems are limited. Stream does not include options for public video sharing – every viewer is required to be licensed and authenticated via their Office 365 login in order to access content.

Recommended for: fundamental private video sharing and collaboration within the Microsoft suite of products

How to Choose the Best VMS for Your Needs

There are a variety of VMS technologies available, each with different capabilities and use cases. With so many differences between them, it can be daunting to unpack and compare all the various features and plans. 

To help you narrow your search, here are a few top features to look for in a video library for learning and development.

• Integrations: To ensure your current communication technologies are used most effectively, ensure that your VMS platform integrates with any other technology you need, such as video conferencing and LMS. With integrations to a video conferencing system like Zoom or a LMS used for training, all communications can easily be uploaded to your video platform and readily accessible.
• Features: A VMS doesn’t typically just store videos – many systems include features to increase user engagement and accessibility such as video analytics, search capabilities within the video library and each individual video, broad device and file format capability, live video, in-video quizzing, and automatic captioning. Stay up-to-date with trending technologies by confirming that the video library you choose offers advanced features.
• User experience: For content creators, viewing, uploading, capturing video, live webcasting, and managing video content all must be intuitive to learn and simple to perform. For employees, video quizzing, searchability, captioning, and broad device and file format capability must positively affect their learning experience. 
• Scalability: The ability to scale out easily and based on demand can be critical to the success of your VMS. Asynchronous video is one of the most effective ways to scale your learning and development program, giving you ample opportunity to increase employee engagement and learning outcomes. 
• Company reputation: Feel confident in your decision on a VMS by choosing a company with a positive reputation. Look for customer service reviews, company viability, and a trusted brand that is used by some of the top businesses in the world. 

 

Try Panopto to see how easy it is to create video lectures

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