Likelihood to Recommend In an office where you're planning to do a large amount of module-based training, Articulate Storyline will prove useful. A consideration to make, however, is whether your team members focused on training design will have the capacity to learn the software enough to create interesting and effective training modules. The basic functions can be simple, but the more advanced capabilities of the software take considerable effort to master and employ to create the more visually appealing presentations/modules you see in much of the promotional materials. If you have a small training team (or even without anyone dedicated specifically to training and development), Storyline is not a wise choice as the cost and effort required to fully make use of the software would be far too much of a commitment to make it worthwhile.
Read full review Currently, we are only using Whatfix with Salesforce but are in the process of implementing on other systems. It is an excellent tool to organize and provide in-app access to training materials already created. It excels at providing guidance about tasks users don't complete often and, therefore, forget what they were trained about the process. The only sort of system it might not work well is one that provides its own robust in-app assistance. More than one type of tip icon being displayed, for instance, could be confusing.
Read full review Pros Storyline integrates with the Canvas LMS fairly seamlessly. There have been a few glitches, but for the most part, the interactions we have created will play directly in the Canvas LMS. Storyline is great for creating short drag and drop interactions for self-reviews or even graded assignments. Its many options for quizzes such as "answer reveal" or using tabs help the student get a different perspective on the content rather than just an "A, B, or C" answer. Storyline is great for tutorials or training sessions. There are many options to help guide the learner (or employee) through a process. it is not just linear, but you can branch the slides based on the answers. A great way to engage the learner or employee. Read full review Whatfix is a vendor that listens to their client, understands their business challenges, and works with them to achieve their goals. Feature enhancements are released every quarter, often with significant functionality improvements. The support and engineering teams are outstanding - responsive, helpful and nothing is ever too much trouble. Literally, second-to-none! Read full review Cons I wish that you could customize the UI ribbons to bring features you use frequently to the front and to hide options you rarely use. It would be great if there was a way for non-technical collaborators (SMEs, management, etc) to be able to open a *.story file directly and provide comments. You currently have to publish the course, load it to the LMS, update the LMS, and then hope that users can find it in the LMS. A Storyline Viewer/Previewer standalone application would be awesome. The price is too high for freelancers to purchase and use. I no longer contract and work exclusively for the firm, but even with our resources, the high price limits the number of licenses available to use. Read full review The possibility to select content/widgets at the time for "push to production" (some we would like to p2p for one single content, that is not possible at the moment). I wish the filters in the dashboard would stay when you choose a content, currently you have to filter again and again. In the analytics area, I would like the system to remember this for a certain time window after selecting the start date. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We are moving away from the standalone eCourse model, so depending upon when that shift happens, we might choose not to renew since we won't be supporting eCourses built in Articulate Storyline anymore. As long as we are still selling and supporting those eCourses, we will continue to renew the licenses we have.
Read full review [We feel like] even though Whatfix has its flaws, we are impressed by the speed of development [and] their openness about their future improvements, [but] most important their proactive customer service and customer success team. Whatfix acts more like a partner than a supplier of a 3rd party tool, and we welcome that experience.
Read full review Usability The basics are easy to learn but you won't get really robust activities from using just the basics. However, if you can invest the time in learning how to use all of Storyline's features, you'll have tremendous learning development power at your fingertips. I do have to say, though, that there is a beautiful logic to how everything in Storyline works. Once you learn a few of the advanced features, you can learn them all because there's a similar underlying logic. The interface is also very appealing and friendly.
Read full review While they've made a lot of improvements in the last year, there are still challenges with walkthroughs and how beacons can be created. They are aware of these limitations and are actively soliciting customer feedback to help them remedy these shortcomings.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Installed software so alway available
Read full review Performance Sometimes there is a delay to showcase all whatfix elements
Read full review Support Rating They are support-superstars and the software they use for support is excellent too (I don't know what it is). The model they use for support should be followed by all companies. It is a conversation/discussion forum model that shows everyone's questions in a knowledge base capacity so you can get the help you need in a speedy way.
Read full review Whatfix is THE best vendor I've ever worked with when it comes to supporting their customers. The support team is friendly, helpful and always willing to listen to your suggestions and ideas. This also applies to the Engineering team who I've spent several hours on calls with debugging a few of the more challenging scenarios we have in place. Nothing is ever too much trouble for Whatfix and they are truly best-in-class when it comes to their support model.
Read full review Online Training I love the fact that both a demonstration AND text version of the tutorials are available. Our firewall was blocking the demos until I requested my company allow them! Having the text version available still enabled me to learn from the tutorials. They are very well done and informative, and there is a tutorial for just about anything you need to learn to do with Storyline. I have always been more than satisfied with the support and training available to us for all Articulate products and I love the community!
Read full review While helpful, the feedback from our employee was, that [they felt] the training was very high-level - sometimes confusing. It would be great to have some kind of sandbox environment for new users to train certain scenarios.
Read full review Implementation Rating Outside of having to dedicate a powerful enough PC for the installation and having to update Flash in our browsers there really isn't much pain involved in using Articulate. For the most part this is an easy to implement and roll-out product. The installation occurs quickly and smoothly with no additional steps needed.
Read full review Although Whatfix make the process relatively straightforward (they will provide Group Policy Scripts to install a Google Chrome extension specific to your organisation) its important to ensure your network deployment teams (if you have more than one) understand their role and what they need to do to test deployment once they undertaken the work.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Articulate Storyline is the only authoring tool we have used with our LMS to date. We are seeing different platforms now, as opposed to LMS platforms. And, many of those have their own content. However, we will always need to create/author our own because of the nature of what we do and how we do it. I'm a big fan!
Read full review There is no comparison - Whatfix is the clear winner with us from the very beginning. As Whatfix continues to grow and innovate their product, engage with it's customers on a level beyond any I have every seen. They work as Partners with us, their teams from bottom to top are incredible - Customer Service, Collaboration Teams, Innovation, Sales, Success Mangers and everyone I missed are incredible. One team in particular I want to call out for there outstanding service, care and innovation to help us launch one of our systems is the Professional Services Team. Ganish, Joel, and everyone else who has been on our calls and worked behind the scenes to hit our incredible tight deadline in August - KUDOs for a job well done, You ROCK, THANK YOU words cannot describe how great you guys have been with us on this project, but on all of them. Whatfix's team definitely understands, the customer is first, they align with our values and we will continue to grow with them
Read full review Scalability It is easy to train new users and manage content. Being able to import older projects and PPT files makes it very easy to use for a lot of "moonlighters" in our department.
Read full review Return on Investment Allows for on-demand training that is accessible to anyone in the organization instantaneously. Heavily reduces travel expenses by eliminating the need for in-person training classes. Gives my department creative liberties in designing content that can be customized to each and every subject/business group in the organization. No two courses are ever the same. Read full review The hope is that it will make claiming expenses easier for employees which would allow them get on with their jobs and also take a number of basic queries away from the administrative team. Actual numbers are yet to be determined. Read full review ScreenShots