PiiQ by Cornerstone vs SmarterU.com

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for:

A busy environment where you want learners to be self-sufficient and to be able to access learning solutions at a time that suits them.
For anyone who wants to access learning using different platforms such as iPad, mobile, PC, etc
Anyone who needs a more in-depth learning solution rather than an overview of key learning points.

Verified User

Professional in Human Resources

Staffing and Recruiting Company, 51-200 employees

SmarterU works and is much more cost-effective than other LMS systems out there. Support was great in the beginning when creating initial training.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Finance and Accounting

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

Course authoring

Course catalog or library

Player/Portal

Learning content

Mobile friendly

Progress tracking & certifications

Assignments

Compliance management

Learning administration

Learning reporting & analytics

Social learning

Pros

Enables employees to draft work goals and collaborate with their supervisors on a final version - improves mutual understanding right up front.
Combines performance goal ratings with competency ratings and provides a blended score. Simplifies the goal weighting so you don't have to do any calculations.
9-box matrix provides useful definitions and descriptions so managers can prepare development notes or plans for individual employees.

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Gene Aldava, SPHR

Director, Human Resources and Administration

Abode CommunitiesReal Estate, 51-200 employees

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Software works on multiple devices: computer, iPad, iPhone, Chromebook, etc.
Easy to navigate

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Finance and Accounting

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

Would be good to have have a virtual "top level" (eg board) user built in to allow senior execs without a direct manager to be able to be set up with KPIs instead of having to create a dummy user
Reports have difficulty downloading if pop ups disabled or in some browser environments
When competencies are updated while a cycle is open, any changes don't effect that open cycle but only future ones. Would be nice to be able to have the option to apply changes to existing "open" cycles

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Finance and Accounting

Marketing and Advertising Company, 11-50 employees

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Software could be gamified better.
Should provide more opportunities for interactive learning.
Sometimes glitchy and logs users out in the middle of a training module.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Finance and Accounting

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

PiiQ by Cornerstone 3.0

Based on 2 answers

It's not that CSB isn't a decent performance management system, but we have decided to go with just one vendor (Workday) for an HRIS/performance management/payroll system so we can directly relate pay to performance. We are more interested in having just one system that "talks" to the other pieces instead of having to work with several vendors. It reduces the hassle of having to communicate with different support teams, having different contracts, and so on.

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Verified User

Employee in Human Resources

Marketing and Advertising Company, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Usability

PiiQ by Cornerstone 7.8

Based on 37 answers

There are specific things within the goals and competencies that are user-friendly. For example, the rating slider isn't great in my opinion. You can slide in between ratings which can create some odd scoring (if you use scoring). It seems a better solution would be a drop down where you select your rating.There are also some glitches in the system and have been told Cornerstone is aware of them but are focused on delivering new features. There are workarounds, but that doesn't seem to be a great answer.

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Verified User

Employee in Human Resources

Construction Company, 201-500 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Reliability and Availability

PiiQ by Cornerstone 10.0

Based on 1 answer

So far 100%.

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Verified User

Vice-President in Human Resources

Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Performance

PiiQ by Cornerstone 7.0

Based on 1 answer

The saving process slows it down. It doesn’t auto save. If you leave a page, it will sometimes warn you, but not always. When you hit the save button, a window pops up that says creating/saving packets. It feels very archaic.

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Verified User

Vice-President in Human Resources

Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

PiiQ by Cornerstone 8.1

Based on 36 answers

My assistant could better address this issue. My perception is that there is not immediate assistance, and that there can be a wait for help. That is not a negative, just a perception. I have not used support in two years.

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John Gwynn

Director, Human Resources

Viewpointe Archive Services L.L.C.Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

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SmarterU.com 8.0

Based on 1 answer

Really good support initially, now support is OK but we have fewer needs.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Finance and Accounting

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Online Training

PiiQ by Cornerstone 9.0

Based on 1 answer

We bought training provided by 3rd party – it was fabulous.

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Verified User

Vice-President in Human Resources

Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

PiiQ by Cornerstone 9.0

Based on 2 answers

I think we could have done a better job of rolling out the tool to our managers. We were under a tight timeline. In the training, we showed them everything and said go do it by this date. Looking back, I would have done it in pieces: for example, 2 weeks to write goals, 2 weeks to get sign-off from direct reports. I just let them go at it. Since then we’ve moved to agile development environment and are applying the technique to everything. In future would only do through change sprint. It is a big change I didn’t take it seriously enough.

I had a team of 3 project managing. You need a champion from every department to make sure you’re getting it right and to make sure what’s happening is communicated. It’s not something you can do without input from department heads

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Verified User

Vice-President in Human Resources

Telecommunications Company, 501-1000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Lesson.ly has been great to work with but it is a very clear and simple, user-friendly system that anyone can pick up with very little training as it is self-explanatory. It also has a great mobile interface and lots of different features that are easy to add for the admin but really impactful for the user.

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Verified User

Administrator in Other

Food & Beverages Company, 51-200 employees

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No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

It's tool and it's only as good as the person wielding it. The investment in PiiQ was accompanied by a quarterly cadence and manager feedback training. We feel like our employees are given regular feedback and bonuses are tied to objective accomplishment.

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Verified User

Executive in Manufacturing

Construction Company, 201-500 employees

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It has helped us to make sure our training is consistent across multiple locations and trainers and ensured less drift.
The course tracking and certification allows us to manage new hires and make sure they complete all required training to later achieve an RBT certification.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Finance and Accounting

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

$1,000*

* per installation

PiiQ by Cornerstone Editions & Modules

Edition

PiiQ Performance	$8.00¹
PiiQ Learning + Content & Performance	$15.00¹
PiiQ Learning + Content	$8.00¹

per user per month

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

SmarterU.com Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Rating Summary

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

PiiQ by Cornerstone

SmarterU.com

Likelihood to Recommend