Halogen TalentSpace (discontinued) vs. SilkRoad Learning

I think it's a good platform for tracking and monitoring goals, feedback, and development. We don't use the 1:1 meeting feature, however, I can see how that would be valuable for many organizations. I do like that it is very customizable, however, that also presents problems in that sometimes forms and/or processes can be a bit challenging to create easily and quickly.

It is very well suited as a web based LMS. They have excellent customer service and support. Ask about the reporting features - these are challenging in many LMS applications. The training they provided for administrators is also very good. Overall a great company, and they are constantly working to improve the product

Incentivized

• 1:1 agendas are easy to create, add comments to and prompt excellent conversation flow on the topics that truly matter to the manager and the employee.
• The system can be easily customized to reflect your company's language and culture. We did this in several areas of the platform (goals, development, learning), and it made a world of difference in the understanding and adaptation of our users. One example is that in each learning module, we added 3 questions in the course description so that managers would be automatically prompted to ask to follow up / learning transfer questions when their employees enroll and take a learning course.
• Halogen support is outstanding. Any question I have had has been answered upon the first contact or within 24 hours.

Incentivized

• GreenLight is very good at keeping track of employee requirements through the use of qualifications. It is the backbone of how courses, classes, requirements and activities are assigned and monitored.
• The content objects (development) portion of GreenLight is robust. It allows you to mix various content objects from different sources. For instance if you import a SCORM ecourse, an AICC ecourse and want to add an HTML page as an introduction, the software will allow you to combine all seamlessly into one course. In addition, the navigation and sequencing tools offer considerable functionality.
• The reporting feature of this software is very good (but not best of class). The number of standard reports is fairly extensive and cover most needs. Having the ability to output files for further analysis and manipulation in Excel takes care of a number of areas where the standard reports fall short.

Incentivized

• My organization does not use all of the functions/modules that Halogen offers, but I find that those modules still appear on the Halogen main page. I think a great area for improvement is to hide these functions so as not to confuse employees.

Incentivized

• 'my profile' has been a little glitchy for us but we are a very small team and don't use that element much, photos don't load or stay loaded
• Sometimes the main list with due dates, type of training etc. seems hard for people to completely understand some more customizable sections here would be useful for us
• On the whole, is not a customizable as other platforms we've used. Is good at tracking but not so much the kind of cataloging we need.

Incentivized

Implementing a new system and process company wide is never an easy task. We moved so quickly in such a short period of time that we were able to learn quickly but also have the opportunity to improve the Halogen experience. We will more than likely will renew our use of Halogen as we already are seeing a small impact which hopefully in the long run will lead to a greater impact

Incentivized

Our training director has determined that the customer service and ease of use is too difficult. She intends to check into other LMS systems and end our contract with Silkroad.

Incentivized

Halogen is very intuitive and provides very clean work-space ... lots of white space and modern layouts. There is more than one way to accomplish your action, too!

I have a better understanding of the system and so it is easier for me to use. The student side is very easy and simple for anyone to use.

Incentivized

There have been many times when the site was unavailable for a short time. Also, glitches and unexplained ed activity such as sending training notifications out to terminated employees.

Incentivized

It works well most of the time.

Incentivized

We only purchased the appraisal module and without the other modules offered, you are really limited in what you can do and the process becomes much more involved with needing to maintain information across multiple platforms. We found that they charge for everything and call it "consulting." We poured so much money and time into a system that was just overkill for what we really needed.

Incentivized

The questions regarding how to implement in the system are answered quickly and efficiently. If there is an issue with the technical side or integrations it takes forever to get results and after much escalating.

Incentivized

It is very easy to use and I can do my own programming instead of paying a technician and waiting sometimes days for them to program the changes.

some are thorough and others are not. I like that they are available for review.

Incentivized

Get to know your CAM - Customer Account Manager! They are a lifesaver! (Thanks Jorie Basque!)

I have used other systems in the past and I like that Halogen provides everything in one space. I would like to see a more developed way to report training, not in the LMS, but I think that for the most part that Halogen is a robust system that is superior to its competition.

Incentivized

SilkRoad Learning is much easier to customize and roll out globally. The Skillsoft product was expensive, cumbersome, and required a large ramp up time. When working with clients on Skillsoft, too much had to be predetermined, the languages were not fully developed and learners had to pay each time they accessed a module and get reimbursement from the company - it was not effective.

Incentivized

The system went down/offline for 5 or 6 days in January. This is the month we have 3400 employees taking annual required training. It had several glitches afterwards that took months to correct.

Incentivized

• We are able to get our reviews done in a quicker amount of time. Instead of 4-8 weeks we were able to get it done under a month.
• Halogen has gotten better at given us a heads up when the system will be down. Most patches are done overnight so we can at least verify it was done, but their success rate of a patch not breaking something is not at 99%. So we do lose productivity when the system is down.
• The tool is easier to do so there are fewer questions from users outside the core team.

Incentivized

• GreenLight has provided an easy route for our users to receive training online and in-class. They can quickly and easily search and sign up for anything on the catalog. Being in healthcare, we provide a lot of training on a constant basis. GreenLight has provided a great foundation for our company to accomplish it's training needs and goals.
• Employees can quickly access and complete online trainings so that they can get back to their jobs.

Incentivized