Cornerstone OnDemand vs. Brassring

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cornerstone OnDemand
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Cornerstone OnDemand is a cloud-based application for talent management. Cornerstone offers suites for recruiting, training, performance monitoring and planning, learning, and HR data management. It is scaled for enterprises.N/A
Brassring
Score 6.9 out of 10
N/A
Brassring, formerly from IBM and part of the Kenexa Talent Acquisition Suite, and now sold by Infinite Computer Solutions, is an enterprise grade ATS and onboarding solution. It allows companies to find the right talent, track and manage candidates, and use candidate data to spot trends within the applicant pool.N/A
Pricing
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Considered Both Products
Cornerstone OnDemand
Chose Cornerstone OnDemand
We use BrassRing as our ATS and are currently considering implementation of their Onboarding module. The level of service provided by IBM is far superior to what we have seen at Cornerstone. For example, a BrassRing team recently came and spent almost an entire day looking at …
Brassring

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.2
132 Ratings
11% above category average
Brassring
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.369 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools8.0114 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance tracking and reporting8.4125 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.3
114 Ratings
13% above category average
Brassring
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting8.095 Ratings00 Ratings
Subordinate goal setting8.398 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting8.8106 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility8.194 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking8.1109 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.8
119 Ratings
13% above category average
Brassring
-
Ratings
Performance plans8.193 Ratings00 Ratings
Plan weighting7.480 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager note taking7.969 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.781 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking8.396 Ratings00 Ratings
Rater nomination workflow7.664 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders8.293 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow restrictions7.485 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.082 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting8.1113 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
9.1
58 Ratings
24% above category average
Brassring
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.449 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.349 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search9.352 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.249 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
8.6
66 Ratings
16% above category average
Brassring
7.5
11 Ratings
6% below category average
Job Requisition Management8.745 Ratings7.711 Ratings
Company Website Posting8.841 Ratings7.410 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.738 Ratings7.710 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting8.638 Ratings7.711 Ratings
Customized Application Form8.740 Ratings7.111 Ratings
Resume Management8.743 Ratings7.410 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention8.840 Ratings7.110 Ratings
Candidate Search8.641 Ratings8.310 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.841 Ratings8.310 Ratings
Collaboration8.836 Ratings7.18 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation8.638 Ratings7.46 Ratings
Email Templates8.359 Ratings7.710 Ratings
User Permissions8.360 Ratings7.49 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.355 Ratings7.710 Ratings
Reporting8.363 Ratings7.110 Ratings
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Cornerstone OnDemand
7.5
187 Ratings
6% above category average
Brassring
-
Ratings
Course authoring5.6138 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.4185 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal7.8172 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content8.2147 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly7.9135 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications7.4168 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments7.8181 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management7.5162 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration7.5184 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics7.7183 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning6.9116 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Small Businesses
Paycor
Paycor
Score 7.3 out of 10
Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Darwinbox
Darwinbox
Score 7.9 out of 10
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM
Score 7.5 out of 10
Vibe HCM
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Score 4.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(257 ratings)
8.3
(30 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(37 ratings)
6.0
(12 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(37 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(5 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
6.6
(36 ratings)
1.8
(2 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(10 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(10 ratings)
2.6
(2 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(115 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.9
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cornerstone OnDemandBrassring
Likelihood to Recommend
Cornerstone OnDemand
I feel Cornerstone OnDemand is a great solution for companies that have a large amount of compliance training that needs to be assigned and closely tracked. The features of dynamic groups (based on specific user criteria) allows you to target very specific audiences. The assignment functionality gives you great flexibility on when the assignment runs and how often, and also provides many options for due dates (static date or dynamic date - x days from hire date, date assigned, etc.). This has allowed us to have a clear and consistent user experience for both our newly hired employees and our seasoned employees.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
Kenexa is is well suited for any organization that has more than 3000 employees globally. I would not recommend this to startups or a growing organization with less than 3000 employees. But once you cross this number, Kenexa becomes useful and is a brilliant tool for global operations - recruiting. I would recommend this tool to any organization that has offices in many countries/geographies as well.
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Pros
Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Automatic recurring assignments are easy to get that refresher training out without needing to assign it fresh each time.
  • Reporting 2.0 makes it easy to write and share your reports with just selected filters. Making it easy for people receiving it to just change what they need to see.
  • Learning Admin Console makes it easy to peek at what is going on in your portal and open up connected reporting when needed.
  • Success Center is a great resource for getting peer answers to questions and learning about the releases and suggesting changes that should be added to the roadmap.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
  • Kenexa allows Boolean key word search within a particular requisition so it makes sifting through a high number of applicants manageable and effective
  • Kenexa can be tailored to meet individual business needs. During the time we’ve had Kenexa here I’ve used it in support of a few different business segments and for each the way the system was used to “position” candidate statuses have varied based on the individual need of the business. One example is when interviewing a high volume of applicants internationally, we were able to send qualified applicants through to the “event manager” and it would enable the candidate to select his/her interview date/time based on previously submitted options inputted by our Kenexa users.
  • Kenexa allows one to customize and score questions for each open requisition that applicants complete as they apply. The system then sorts applicants according to the score of candidate answers allowing for easy sorting of top qualified candidates.
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Cons
Cornerstone OnDemand
  • Sometimes finding the right answer to your support question can be a bit more difficult than it should be.
  • I would like to see more OSHA related courses.
  • At times, the administrative interface seems to need to be updated, but the tradeoff honestly might be the absolute rock-solid stability of the platform.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
  • BrassRing's application system for candidates is prone to freezing and crashing in the middle of the application causing potential candidates to lose all progress. I filled out the application myself and witnessed these issues first hand, on top of several complaints I received via phone and email from candidates attempting to apply via the BrassRing service. Also, the Parsing system within the application is not capable of pulling any meaningful information out of text documents.
  • Each user must be added to each job in order for that job, and the candidates in it, to show up in relevant searches. This becomes a problem when a new team member joins the account and needs access to all of the previous openings just so that they can find candidates already in the system. The account I was working on involved literally hundreds of new openings a month, meaning that any movement of personnel on or off the account would mean having to update potentially thousands of old positions just to allow them to be able to mine the ATS for candidates. I don't see any particular reason why someone with access to the system should have to be given access to each individual job. If a particular position needs to be kept confidential for whatever reason then that individual position should be able to be set to only show to authorized recruiters. The rest of the positions should automatically be searchable by anyone with appropriate access to the ATS to allow for basic level candidate mining and movement.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cornerstone OnDemand
As long as pricing stays reasonable, we will likely stay with Cornerstone for at least one more contract renewal. It would be a large task to migrate all of our content to a new system. However, the LMS landscape is diversifying with new startups that are showing some real innovation.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
I am confident that the Kenexa product will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our business in an ever changing work environment. The affiliation with IBM also plays a factor as we have a long standing successful relationship with IBM products. We will be looking to integrate other Kenexa products in the near future to streamline our HR processes.
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Usability
Cornerstone OnDemand
Easy to use, easy to learn, lots of support during the learning process. There are a few parts of the system we don't use and I'm hesitant to begin using because other clients have said they're difficult and cumbersome (certifications) or outdated (libraries)
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
I feel like I am pretty decent with computers and systems. It was fairly easy to use it after about a week or two . But I have seen people struggle with it as well as some people not use it at all. It can be slow at times and not work at times. But Its a fine system.
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Reliability and Availability
Cornerstone OnDemand
I haven't really had any major availability problems. The service is practically impeccable but it is true that at times, due to server and latency problems, the application has been slower. But these have been specific issues that have resolved themselves.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cornerstone OnDemand
Pages do not load quickly. Often times any action or selection of a box, drop down, check, pretty much ANY Javascript interaction causes the whole entire page to load/reload/start doing something in the background. This makes a nightmare for having to mass edit courses or upload ILT sessions. It's the one of the archaic web designs they use that really bugs me as an admin and makes working in the portal at times intolerable and insufferable
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
Just slow for what we are doing here
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Support Rating
Cornerstone OnDemand
Its always important to have support when you are facing problems and when you are the main admin of the organization. Cornerstone Support is very supporting when you have not found the answer in the help guide. its very useful to have a team support to guide you.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
It is a very basic system. It may be OK for entry level positions only. The practice of removing CVs while the recruitment process is ON is disturbing and there is no one to explain or to inform why it is being done. Even a routine mail is not sent to the client/consultant. I am surprised how this system is continuing without too many complaints.
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In-Person Training
Cornerstone OnDemand
we use also to admin all our training in person events and sessions. Its easy to admin this kind of trainings and automatize some processes we have. Also de user experience and the integration with other systems helps to the employees to use more. All modules integrated oriented to develop people is the principal reason to have CSOD. The training administration is very complete and allows to automate many processes.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Cornerstone OnDemand
The online modules are pretty good. You can access them at any time, which we have done. You learn a lot in the beginning, but having the ability to retake short lessons when you are working on those items was very helpful.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Cornerstone OnDemand
The implementation was pretty difficult. We felt they (Cornerstone) didn’t properly allocate the resources to complete our implementation in the timetable we wanted.

For example, we worked on Workday and SSO integrations - work that we had specifically contracted for in advance. When we were ready to work on that project, they didn’t have the people ready to help us, so it took a lot longer than necessary. That was my biggest pain point.

The implementation approach we went with was a self-led implementation. We would speak to the implementation manager once per week, and self-trained. We met with implementation manager to discuss issues, review things that we’d learned for 1 hour. We found that wasn’t enough. Other things would come up outside that one hour window that we couldn’t get answers to. We didn’t have anyone to ask about those things and we had to wait to ask during our weekly meeting.

The advantage of the self-led implementation approach was that it was really inexpensive – significantly less than the implementation cost for the other systems that we looked at. I also liked that we could pace ourselves. There were however big roadblocks. We would have to make sure the right resources were available. We had an implementation/project manager with a lot of experience and felt that the person was knowledgeable but missed on a few things.

In hindsight, I would still go with the self-led implementation, but knowing what I know now, I would ask for the integration person to be available more. I would work that into the contract. With single sign-on, we needed deep linking to build direct links through a Single Sign-On tool, e.g. when someone gets an email, it directs them to training. But it has to go through SSO to get them to the correct link. Deep linking wasn’t turned on in our system and they had to activate it. We encountered little things like that – sequencing pre-requisites which were problematic. We tried to troubleshoot ourselves.

I recommend you consider contracting for some extra implementation hours and determine when they are going to be available. Work it into the contract that you have the ability to call tech support during implementation. In addition to weekly implementation meetings, they have technical webexes – 4 every week, but 2 didn’t apply to us – one as we were using SSO. The challenge is they were not always relevant – we had specific questions that didn’t fall into those categories
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
We purchased an out of the box solution and that worked well for us.
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Alternatives Considered
Cornerstone OnDemand
The user experience is a lot better than using SumTotal as an admin CSOD makes working easy. Without having workarounds. Reporting is a lot better than both platforms. Reporting in CSOD is complex however easy to manage and create when you understand the data points collected
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
SF ATS was not available at the time and Taleo was thought to be too expensive. In retrospect, given the amount of customization and leveraging of other vendor technology for things like analytics I suspect any cost advantage we realized evaporated
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Cornerstone OnDemand
It is important to be familiar with the terms and annual increases in licenses and other aspects of the contract. I recommend analyzing this from the beginning and the permanence is relevant because Cornerstone updates its modules and brings out new features that may allow you to leave a module to acquire another
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Cornerstone OnDemand
It's a great product with some pieces that are set but many things that can be customized as needed for individual needs
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Cornerstone OnDemand
As I have said before, I have no doubt that the services of the Cornerstone sales people were very good. In particular, our salesperson spent a lot of time in contact with us to make the process go smoothly. Perhaps being a large company in some cases the times were slowed down but it is something normal to take into account.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cornerstone OnDemand
  • We are in the process of trying to increase employee engagement through content expansion. We are in the early stages of this.
  • The Edge Import Tool, in conjunction with Reporting 2.0, has done a great job of helping to automate/semi-automate tasks for huge time savings.
  • Maintaining compliance. Achieved through dynamic/automated groups, assignments, communication, and reporting.
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Infinite Computer Solutions, Inc
  • Kenexa has assisted us in identifying top talent within our target market of applicants.
  • Kenexa may exclude potentially good associates that don't test well.
  • Kenexa clearly defines specific categories and general notes for training, development, & coaching of associates on areas of opportunity.
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ScreenShots

Cornerstone OnDemand Screenshots

Screenshot of A personalized, modern user experience and self-service capabilities to engage employees, ensure productivity, and centralize employee dataScreenshot of With Cornerstone Learning, go beyond compliance and training - truly develop an engaged and collaborative workforce.Screenshot of Cornerstone Recruiting takes care of all talent acquisition needs and provides candidates with an amazing experience.Screenshot of With Cornerstone Performance, benchmark your people's performance, align them with your strategy, and provide feedback that matters.Screenshot of Cornerstone HR offers a personalized, modern user experience and self-service capabilities to engage employees, ensure productivity, and centralize employee data.Screenshot of With Content Anytime, quickly deliver hundreds of eLearning courses covering key soft-skills such as communication, time management, leadership, teamwork, and emotional intelligence.