What Is IOMAD? A Complete Guide to the Multi-Tenancy LMS Built on Moodle
In simple
terms, while Moodle works best for a single organization or institution, IOMAD
is ideal when you want to serve multiple customers, companies, or
departments, each with their own users, courses, and reports, all managed
centrally.
Why
IOMAD Exists
Standard
Moodle is excellent for schools, colleges, and internal corporate training.
However, it becomes challenging when a business wants to:
- Sell courses to multiple
companies
- Manage users by company or
department
- Assign licenses instead of
individual enrolments
- Offer white-label training
portals
This is
where IOMAD comes in. It solves these challenges by introducing a Company-based
structure, making it a strong choice for training providers, SaaS
companies, and enterprises offering learning as a service.
Key
Features of IOMAD
1.
Multi-Tenancy Support
Multi-tenancy
is the core strength of IOMAD. In standard Moodle, everything exists in a
single shared environment. IOMAD adds a Company layer at the top level.
Each
company can:
- Have its own users
- Have access to selected
courses
- View company-specific reports
- Manage departments internally
This makes
IOMAD perfect for businesses that work with multiple clients under one LMS
installation.
2.
Built-in E-Commerce Capabilities
IOMAD
includes native e-commerce functionality, allowing organizations to sell
courses directly. Instead of relying heavily on third-party plugins, IOMAD
enables you to:
- Create paid courses
- Assign courses to companies
via licenses
- Sell training packages to
organizations
This
feature is especially useful for training companies and online course providers
who want to monetize their content.
3.
Licensing Management
Unlike
Moodle’s traditional enrolment model, IOMAD supports license-based learning.
With
licensing, you can:
- Create licenses for courses or
course bundles
- Assign licenses to companies
or departments
- Control how many users can
access a course
- Track license usage and expiry
This
approach aligns well with real-world business models, where companies purchase
a fixed number of training seats.
4.
Advanced Reporting
IOMAD
extends Moodle’s reporting by adding company-level and license-level reports.
Additional
reports include:
- Company usage reports
- License allocation and
consumption
- Department-wise user activity
- Course completion by company
These
reports help administrators and business owners make better decisions and track
return on investment.
Company
Management Features in IOMAD
One of the
biggest differences between Moodle and IOMAD is Company Management.
Add and
Update Companies
IOMAD
allows administrators to create multiple companies within the same LMS. This
feature does not exist in standard Moodle and is the foundation of IOMAD’s
multi-tenancy model.
Each
company can have:
- Its own branding
- Assigned courses
- Dedicated users and managers
Department
Management
In Moodle,
departments are usually managed using user profile fields or metadata. IOMAD
improves this by offering a dedicated department management system.
With
departments, you can:
- Create departments under a
company
- Assign users to specific
departments
- Allocate licenses
department-wise
- Generate department-specific
reports
This
structure closely matches how real organizations operate.
Restrict
Capabilities
IOMAD
allows fine-grained control over what company managers and users can access.
You can:
- Restrict permissions at the
company level
- Control what managers can view
or edit
- Prevent users from accessing
content outside their company
This
improves security and ensures proper data separation.
Email Templates
IOMAD
includes customizable email templates for company-related communication.
This
allows you to:
- Send branded emails per
company
- Customize enrollment, license,
and notification emails
- Maintain professional
communication with clients
Company
Profile Fields
IOMAD
provides additional company-specific profile field management. This helps store
business-related information such as:
- Company details
- Internal identifiers
- Custom metadata required for
reporting or integrations
User
and License Management
User
management in IOMAD is more structured compared to Moodle.
Administrators
can:
- Create users under specific
companies
- Assign users to departments
- Allocate licenses instead of
direct enrollments
- Track user activity by company
License
management makes it easy to control access without manually enrolling users
into courses.
IOMAD
Competencies
IOMAD also
supports competencies, allowing organizations to:
- Map skills to courses
- Track learner progress against
defined competencies
- Align training with business
skill requirements
This is
particularly useful for corporate training and compliance programs.
Who
Should Use IOMAD?
IOMAD is
best suited for:
- Corporate training providers
- EdTech companies
- SaaS businesses offering
training
- Organizations selling courses
to multiple clients
- Enterprises managing multiple
subsidiaries
If your
learning platform needs go beyond a single organization, IOMAD is a strong
alternative to standard Moodle.
Disadvantages
of Using IOMAD
While
IOMAD offers powerful multi-tenancy features, it also has some limitations.
Compared to standard Moodle, IOMAD is more complex to set up and manage,
especially for beginners. Customization and upgrades may require advanced
technical knowledge. Some Moodle plugins may not be fully compatible with
IOMAD. The user interface can feel overwhelming due to additional company-level
controls. Performance tuning is important, as managing multiple tenants on a
single system can increase server load. Lastly, official documentation and
community support for IOMAD are more limited compared to Moodle.
Final
Thoughts
IOMAD
takes Moodle’s solid foundation and extends it to meet real-world business
needs. With built-in multi-tenancy, licensing, e-commerce, and advanced
reporting, it provides a scalable solution for organizations that deliver
training to multiple companies from one platform.
While
Moodle remains an excellent choice for single institutions, IOMAD is the better
option when managing clients, licenses, and revenue-driven learning. For
businesses looking to grow their learning operations without running multiple
LMS installations, IOMAD offers a practical and powerful solution.