Absorb LMS vs. SumTotal Talent Development

Our integration experience was very well managed. We launched on-time, and only had to do basic end-user training because the system is very user friendly and intuitive to use. The customer support is exceptional, we have an assigned Customer Success Manager we meet with and talk to regularly. They are very responsive and have helped us optimize our processes to get the most out of the system. Because the system is easy to use, we have very few user issues or tickets we have to support. 90% of user problems are resolved by using the FAQs we provided when we launched the system

Incentivized

Very good for learning and development and training of employees. For Applicant tracking, recuirement, onboarding, and enablement, I prefer SAP SuccessFactors or Skillate. I also found that the SumTotal app is not very friendly on android and crashes sometimes and it is not optimized for mobile. Hence I end up never using it.

Incentivized

• Customer Service - Our CSM, Kirsten Spak, provides friendly, timely and high quality help and has helps us to understand and efficiently use the system.
• Course Creation - We have been able to create custom courses with a wide range of features, including branding, audio, video and assessments.
• Reporting - Absorb LMS offers a robust reporting function which allows us to understand our users and meet the needs of our partners when user information is required for their projects.

Incentivized

• Assign complete learning plans to users so they don't have to spend time searching for courses.
• Export learner's transcripts so managers can easily see their employee's progress.
• Embed Social Media feeds that are relevant to their business.

Incentivized

• Reporting needs some additional help, especially the Course Activity Report. It would be great to see the description of the course on the header of the report.
• The courses on the smart devices look wonky and sometimes the videos don't show up, yet you can hear it.
• The Absorb LMS phone application also needs a lot of work. It does not show all the tiles that are available in the browser version.

Incentivized

• Reporting
• Mass importing of manual checks to be issued in California
• Ability to fund pay cards immediately
• Perform gross-up calculations within the payroll system automatically

Incentivized

We love the ability to have a user-friendly system that integrates well with our different HR interfaces (we have 3 systems that feed data/employees into the system). It makes it easy to track course completions and report out on metrics enterprise-wide. In addition, the ability to provide consistent education to staff who are geographically dispersed is a huge incentive for us, and Absorb LMS does this seamlessly.

I have transitioned from a position who supported the product to a position where I use the product. I continue to be impressed with the robustness of the product and how efficient it is. It is a user friendly software that can be used to navigate and accomplish tasks to meet organizational requirements.

Incentivized

Absorb LMS is easy to use from both a user experience and admin experience. For users, navigating the site to complete assignments or finding courses to develop new skills is very user-friendly. As an admin, the course creation tools walk you through each step simply, but have a ton of functionality to support any of your training needs.

Incentivized

I do not find SumTotal to be intuitive. I feel we need to adjust our needs to meet the functionality available in the tool.

Incentivized

The customer service team is top notch. They have always been readily available and quick to assist regardless of the day or time of the call

Absorb LMS's performance is very reliable and consistent. Pages load quickly. Report are generated within a reasonable amount of time (even with significant amounts of data), etc. Nothing seems to slow it down.

Absorb LMS's client service managers have been extremely responsive, efficient, and available. While we pay for a higher level of support, we have found it well worth the investment. We've been less pleased with the accounting side of the organization, but that has little impact on the delivery of training to our clients and employees.

Incentivized

We have our own IT support to assist in SumTotal issues, however, we have had to log in cases directly. Support is mediocre at best.

Incentivized

I meet and do training with my absorb support every week. and I have all my questions answered! it's great

hands down favorite in look, function, cost and service. Others were close but could not meet our external and internal cases. Our current one (we looked at them again) did not have 40% of the functionality or value, despite the bargain cost, it was not worth it to continue. Only new hires used our LMS for onboarding because they had to; no one went back for more training. With Absorb our classes are more dynamic and targeted.

Incentivized

When I came to my company, they had been using a "light" LMS called Articulate. It was cheap and bare bones; i.e. not a lot of features, really just a platform to launch eLearning from and not real interface for student to utilize. When I began to overhaul the training department, this was one of the first things I changed. Articulate would only run courses built in their software, and the software was not 508 compliant. In addition, we had no ability to create learning plans, house transcripts, customize the interface, or manage the students. I made the choice to select and LMS that was a true LMS with all of the features that were critical to our clients' needs. Thus far, SumTotal has been able to support all of our needs, except one; mobile learning that is media rich

Incentivized

This is one of the main reasons we chose Absorb as our LMS. It is a very user-friendly application that is able to be deployed across multiple departments in geographically dispersed locations. It works amazingly well for us.

• Absorb LMS's user-friendly interface and interactive learning features contributed to a 150% increase in learner engagement levels. The platform's ability to deliver engaging content and quizzes enhances employee participation and knowledge retention at retail
• With Absorb LMS, we are looking to streamline our remote employee onboarding process, and tracking to reduce the time taken for new hires to complete training modules by 30%.

• Clean front-end user interface for easier course catalog management.
• Reporting has been more difficult than previous LMS.
• Audience building has more variables making it more difficult to manage.
• Slower overall client turnaround due to admin side interface.

Incentivized