ELEARNINGFORCE in Edgewater brings learning management to Office 365 and SharePoint. LMS365 blends with the Microsoft infrastructure and is designed to eliminate expensive integration, time-consuming development, and unwanted complexity. Learners access learning plans, courses, personal progress reports, and certificates from within the SharePoint business process.
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VAIRKKO
Score 7.5 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
VAIRKKO offers a unique a-la-carte software eco-system offering both Learning Management and HR Products all from within a single platform. Users can purchase only the modules that they want, when they want them. Solutions to meet organizations' needs include Tracking Training, Learning Management Systems(LMS), HRIS (Human Resources Information System), Performance Management, Onboarding, Applicant Tracking, Policy and Document Management.
If a customer does not have SharePoint the entry in that kind of solution is a bit harder as the use of SharePoint can be so broad. It does not mean it is not the right solution as a company can use SharePoint LMS to start with and then expand to other functions and features. I strongly recommend to use SharePoint Standard or Enterprise and forgo the "free" SharePoint version as a) SharePoint's core functions and features are greatly enhanced in these two premium versions and b) more and more SharePoint LMS functions make use of these core Standard and Enterprise features in the future, like taxonomy, user profiles, etc. In general with all project it is as well recommended to have the full buy in by upper management and that the project initiative is fully supported. Adding such a solution (SharePoint LMS or any other LMS solution) will require the team not only to have a good plan on how the requirements can be achieved from a technical point of view, but how a training program can be rolled out to an organization of 5, 500, 5.000 or 50.000. The technical deployment of SharePoint LMS is measurable (I would say between 1-4 weeks based on the complexity, scale of the environment). 1-2 weeks of training (depending on the base knowledge of SharePoint in the company and the need to add knowledge of SharePoint LMS). That's it. Technically you are ready. If needed, any custom work, integration and development work comes on top. Where customer struggle is the availability and dedication of their own teams. Course content needs to be created, how should a course look like, what are the parameters, what are top ten things needed moving a course which was taught in a class room, but now to be delivered online. Buying the licenses is one thing, getting the solution up and running form a technical point of view is another, making it YOURS is the challenge!
VAIRKKO is very well-suited to track HR information and scheduling. It is a bit more difficult to create training and disseminate it to employees, but once you get past the learning curve, it works nicely. It's easy to track your employees' certifications and credentials, with reminders for recertifying and the ability to update certs as needed. Scheduling is not difficult, and one can track staffing issues easily.
When I update an employee's general information page - if they do not have Custom User name listed - it puts my name in there and my password - when this happens the information I added is not going to be saved. If I am working on the top of the page - I don't see this unless I remember to check. Please don't let this be an automatic fill in.
Too many search tools - highlighting the most used would be great
When a person's schedule is changed - you lose their previous schedule. So when we need to look back and see when a person worked but realize they changed shifts and we no longer have it in Vairkko - it becomes very challenging.
The few times we actually needed support generally were during major upgrades of the system and getting a quick handle on how the configuration changed were the primary reasons.
Throughout my career I came across many different solutions for Knowledge and Collaboration and LMS systems. This includes Lotus Notes, Documentum, Live Link, LMS solutions from Oracle, ADP, another SharePoint based solution. Many years back, with the intro of Microsoft SharePoint, I was drawn to that product and solutions based on SharePoint. SharePoint is very powerful and in it current version, 2013, it is the without a doubt the most feature rich and broad solution platform out there. SharePoint LMS is in my eyes a killer application and if a company, institution or educational entity looks to create, expand, change up their training efforts for employees, customer, partners, students, SharePoint LMS is the tool to look at. If you have SharePoint already installed, it is a must look at, period. SharePoint LMS became the tool of choice, I recommended when I was a consultant, when I worked as a Director for Learning Management Systems at a local University. I am now part of a team which not only sells, but as well consults around SharePoint LMS.
