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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Vector LMS and Industrial Manufacturing Training
Score 7.9 out of 10
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Vector LMS (replacing the former Convergence LMS) is a learning management system designed specifically for the needs of industrial & manufacturing facilities. It is designed to identify skill and compliance gaps, deliver consistent training, and build a stronger workforce, and is delivered from Convergence Training, a Vector Solutions company (acquired 2018).
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!
A good scenario for this program is when you need to roll out more customized and specific content that is targeted to a specific department or group. Each leader or department can create their own content that makes it easy for their own employees to complete and finish it at their own pace and on their own hours. It is not that great for leaders or administrators that want to create and upload custom content, this process is not easy and takes more time than it should.
The user interface and command are fairly self-guiding and self-explanatory. It's not that difficult to know or figure out where to go next or what to click next.
The lesson progression and tracker are clear as well. You know easily where you are in a module, how much is left, etc. It also is easy for managers and those on the backend to track progress and see completion.
It reaches all employees virtually which is crucial since we are fully remote now and have employees in all time zones across the country.
Customizing the [Vector] LMS content can be difficult sometimes on the backend, it is not intuitive and our [Vector] LMS administrators have to get involved every time - even for simple customizations.
Improving the experience on the backend when loading or curating content needs improvement. Once it's uploaded it's fine, but getting to that point is cumbersome.
Platform stability is questionable at times in terms of timing out, glitches, having to restart modules, etc. This should be looked into and made more stable.
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.
I was not involved in the selection process for [Vector] LMS; however, from my experiences with other platforms, this one seems to be solid. It's not perfect as no platform is, but it seems to get the job done especially for those on the user end. As mentioned, if you want to upload custom content it can be a task that requires more time and effort than it should.
I cannot speak to the cost of the platform as I wasn't involved in the process, but it seems to be a good investment. Most features are logical and easy to use unless you're on the backend.
The negative impact is most felt by leaders that want custom content to be created or uploaded. This is not a quick turnaround and can cause delays or issues.
The positive impact is it allows people to complete it at their own pace and can be reached by all employees. Especially in the virtual environment, it is really useful.
