SumTotal Learn is used by the entire organization and also to help with SumTotal implementations. SumTotal Learn is the only corporate learning management application that links both skills and competencies. It has gamification features in-built which stimulates the users to learn more by themselves. It addresses learner engagement, social learning and extended enterprise learning (through marketplace) as well. I like all the advanced features in this application and would highly recommend this for all industries especially for Life Sciences. We get great support from SumTotal support team as well as from the community.

Pros and Cons

Enterprise Search - which is a global search where you can search and filter the courses, people, navigation links, reports, etc. This can also be customized based on the organizations' needs
Administration - Administration / Configurations available for Administrators and Managers are highly commendable. It has help manual as well to refer in case if we stuck somewhere. It reduces the efforts to reach out to support team or SumTotal technical team. This can be customized, meaning, the permissions and restrictions can be customized based on the security role.
Gamification - Awards & Ba and the leader board are the stimuli for the learners. This helps improving self-motivated learning.
"Self" Tab for the user profile is very impressive. It has the users' profile, learning widgets, leader board, reports, etc.
"My Team" Tab almost manages the entire team's learning activities and the levels, etc
"Library" Tab helps accessing the entire catalog with advanced filters
Reports and Analytics help the organization to analyse the overall performance.
The application can be integrated with other 3rd party applications such as Work Day, Enterprise Document Management System, Collaboration tools, UI Framework such as Drupal, etc.
Complies with all standards for Life Science Industry and in compliance with GDPR regulations as well

Using Library Tab and Learning link (under Self Tab) are always confusing, sometimes we miss the track
License cost is comparatively high
Its a SaaS product and could not be customized to the level organization wants

Likelihood to Recommend

SumTotal Learn is well-suited for Life Science industries (based on my experience) from the compliance perspective and also in dealing with GxP document management. It has GDPR regulations as well hence can be used in EU regions as well.
If the organization is small or medium-sized, then the license and implementation cost would be slightly high. However we get the value for the investment.

Support Rating

I am supporting SumTotal Learn because I have been using the product since 2015 as a user and as an implementation consultant. The application provides the overall learning solutions to large organizations. It is in compliance with GDPR, CFR 11, and other regulatory requirements hence suitable for industries having mandatory compliance requirements. From value for money to customer support, SumTotal earns good credits for its performance, features, etc.

August 28, 2019

SumTotal Core Review

Verified User

Manager in Finance and Accounting

Entertainment Company, 10,001+ employees

Score 1 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Currently SumTotal is being used by HR, Payroll, Compensation, Tax. It is our only source for payroll and human resource records.

Pros and Cons

Calculates pay and taxes

Reporting
Mass importing of manual checks to be issued in California
Ability to fund pay cards immediately
Perform gross-up calculations within the payroll system automatically

Likelihood to Recommend

I personally, am not a fan of SumTotal. I have worked on several different HRIS and Payroll systems which outweigh all aspects of SumTotal (Lawson Interface Desktop, Ceridian Dayforce, ADP Enterprise, and Ultimate Software's UltiPro). As antiquated as Lawson felt, it had more functionality than SumTotal. Of course, all others I worked on were for the most part cloud based and had modern functionality to go with it.

Support Rating

We have our own IT support to assist in SumTotal issues, however, we have had to log in cases directly. Support is mediocre at best.

January 28, 2019

A developing, unrefined LMS

Verified User

Employee in Human Resources

Hospital & Health Care Company, 10,001+ employees

Score 2 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Where to begin.....It's been a long and slow process to get everything up in running in this software. It has way too many features with 20 clicks to get to anything. We were promised big things with SumTotal Learn but have received something that is more messy and complicated to use than we ever thought. We're slowly making progress with SumTotal and unlocking the features we need but this is very much a developing piece of software that is unfinished.

Pros and Cons

Clean front-end user interface.
Custom layouts for front page and individual users.
Flexibility on user roles.

Navigation (too many clicks to get anything done).
Reporting is complicated.
Buttons everywhere that don't do anything.
Features enabled that don't fully work or function the way they should.
Support for the product is lacking.

Likelihood to Recommend

SumTotal Learn is an LMS that is slowly developing into a finished product. I can't recommend this to anyone until it is a more finalized product. We have a large number of users in our database and the product seems to run fine even with 10,000+ users. If you're looking for an easy administrator user interface, this is also not for you. It has a very steep learning curve for admins.

June 24, 2014

Providing a solid platform to deliver education

Kimberly Barricklow

Revenue Application Analyst

Spectrum Health (Hospital & Health Care, 10,001+ employees)

Score 9 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are able to deliver mass education through the LMS as well as track completion and competency of our employees. It enables us to communicate consistently and effectively across our campuses as well with those that are spread throughout the state. Staff can rely on a constant and consistent source to find new communication, education or track their educational experiences.

Pros and Cons

It allows for simulations to address complex scenarios in the healthcare setting.
We can quickly review reports to see completion rate of an activity.
We have empowered our upper managment to utilize the tracking functionality to have quicker compliance on education modules.

Staff would like to see the links of assigned training to allow users to launch into an activity
Offer more reports within the programs so users dont have to make their own

Likelihood to Recommend

I think the links not being active to send the users into the activity causes a lot of frustrations for our users.

March 23, 2016

Dated looking, but works.

Verified User

Employee in Corporate

Printing Company, 51-200 employees

Score 8 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use SumTotal Maestro across our franchise network for providing access to online courses for our owners, their managers, as well as their employees. Every manager looks for ways to on-board new employees as quickly as possible and online learning helps reduce that time. Online learning also provides easy access from anywhere with internet access, 24/7 to employees wanting to continue developing skills in their respective fields, as well as learning new subjects.

Pros and Cons

Assign complete learning plans to users so they don't have to spend time searching for courses.
Export learner's transcripts so managers can easily see their employee's progress.
Embed Social Media feeds that are relevant to their business.

I don't think we can build courses using Maestro. We rely strictly on third party software for course development.
Creating custom reports can be challenging.
Since we have to manage our total number of monthly active users, many of our manager's accounts go inactive. Once they're inactive, they stop receiving any notifications from their employee's course completions.
The user interface is dated looking. Many of the newer LMSs have more of a Windows 8 look and feel, which is what newer users are wanting.

Likelihood to Recommend

It works well for just uploading SCORM compliant courses. We don't use it for managing ILT courses as it was complicated when we last tried it. We also do not sell courses, but I don't think that it's capable of doing that.

Support Rating

They always answer my calls and, in most cases, are able to help me.

March 18, 2015

Not Warm and Fuzzy

Verified User

Account Manager in Professional Services

Professional Training & Coaching Company, 1001-5000 employees

Score 4 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our company provides LMS Support for a large company using SumTotal. The whole company uses SumTotal as their primary LMS, about 80K users.

Pros and Cons

Easily customizable notifications
TMU tool allows for quick mass uploads
Configurable front end

JasperSoft Reporting - it is difficult to use and manage.
Exams could be more robust. Offering alternate types of questions.
Too many clicks on the administrator side. Adding new activities is not intuitive, you need to click through each section to determine what needs to be entered where. Would be better if it was guided for new activities, just prompting for 'required' fields.

Likelihood to Recommend

If a company requires specific functionality, SumTotal appears unwilling to be flexible.

June 24, 2014

LMS Shopping: Like buying a car, know what your money buys you

Verified User

Administrator in Other

Management Consulting Company, 201-500 employees

Score 8 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to provide eLearning asynchronous training to our clients. We decide what to develop, and our clients buy subscriptions to our training library. Our training supports their requirements to earn CLPs and certifications in their fields. Our employees also use it for the same purpose.

Pros and Cons

SumTotal has a very user friendly design, making it easy for non-programmers to configure their LMS interface, customize various environments for different groups, and to integrate numerous external web applications through iFraming, such as social media or news feeds. I was able to configure a custom environment for several different clients, making it feel like their own LMS, such as a custom color scheme and logos, custom widgets (which are section of any page), news feeds, training messages, and custom learning plans.

SumTotal can not yet support media-rich mobile learning. Our eLearning design use instructional video, text, interactions, pop-ups with course resources and other information, etc... The SumTotal mobile capability right now does not support our design; ie our pop-ups won't pop-up, even those that simply open a PDF or document, and non of the hyperlinks will work.

Likelihood to Recommend

When choosing an LMS, you need to decide what features are most important. Things like single-sign on, 508 compliance, ability to support mobile learning, price per user, ability to customize for various audiences, and technical support. When I chose our LMS, it was called GeoEngage because of price and all of the tech support was on the East Coast. The LMS was bought by SumTotal a few years ago. We originally wanted SumTotal, but it was too expensive for our small company. Now we get both, and we continue to get great customer support.

June 20, 2014

Sum Total- Does it add up as an LMS?

Verified User

Project Manager in Other

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

Score 5 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Review Source

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Sales training, onboarding and curriculum development

Pros and Cons

Curriculum development
Prerequisites
Calendar view

Usability- launching activites
Look and feel could be more appealing
Audience management/integration could be improved

Likelihood to Recommend

SumTotal Talent Development Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (8): 55%
5.5
Likelihood to Renew (6): 100%
10.0
Usability (2): 20%
2.0
Support Rating (6): 63%
6.3

Feature Scorecard Summary

Human Resource Management (7): 19%
1.9
Payroll Management (4): 33%
3.3
Leave and Attendance Management (2): 30%
3.0
Employee Self Service (3): 30%
3.0
HR Reporting (1): 10%
1.0

What is SumTotal Talent Development?

To thrive in an ever-changing world, individuals and organizations need adaptability, agility, and resilience. SumTotal aims to help develop these essential skills through powering a journey of learning and people development that is curated, compliant, predictive and generates measurable outcomes.

SumTotal states learning-centered talent development is the heart of HR and HR Technology and that now, more than ever, building a culture of learning is critical to growth and business sustainability. SumTotal provides a unified Talent Development suite delivering measurable impact across the entire employee lifecycle. The solution delivers the following modules:

SumTotal Learning Management
SumTotal Recruiting
SumTotal Onboarding
SumTotal Performance
SumTotal Succession
SumTotal Compensation

SumTotal works in partnership with users to configure a solution that matches customers' unique needs and processes for learning and talent management, with satisfaction and business success as the primary objective.

SumTotal brings a team of dedicated customer success, support and professional services experts to help users achieve their learning and talent development goals; they state they aim to be a true partner to help organizations thrive in a changing business landscape.

SumTotal Talent Development Features

Show Unsupported Features

Leave and Attendance Management Features

Supported: Approval workflow
Supported: Email notifications
Supported: Balance details
Supported: Travel absence management

HR Reporting Features

Supported: Report builder
Supported: Pre-built reports
Supported: Ability to combine HR data with external data

Integration with other HR capabilities Features

Supported: Additional HR capabilities (talent management, LMS, etc.) supplied by same vendor
Supported: Additional HR capabilities (talent management, LMS, etc.) supplied by different vendor

Performance Management Features

Supported: Performance plans
Supported: Performance improvement plans
Supported: Review status tracking
Supported: Review reminders
Supported: Multiple review frequency

Succession Planning Features

Supported: Create succession plans/pools
Supported: Candidate ranking
Supported: Candidate search
Supported: Candidate development

Onboarding Features

Supported: New hire portal
Supported: Manager tracking tools

Performance and Goals Features

Supported: Corporate goal setting
Supported: Individual goal setting
Supported: Line-of sight-visibility
Supported: Performance tracking

Recruiting / ATS Features

Supported: Job Requisition Management
Supported: Company Website Posting
Supported: Publish to Social Media
Supported: Job Search Site Posting
Supported: Duplicate Candidate Prevention
Supported: Applicant Tracking
Supported: Notifications and Alerts

SumTotal Talent Development Screenshots

SumTotal Learning Management: Deliver the learning your organization needs including skilling/upskilling/reskilling, career planning & development. All delivered with our engaging learner experience across all modalities (desktop, tablet & mobile) and in the flow of work

SumTotal Onboarding: Foster learning before day one with our robust onboarding solution. Build culture, complete necessary paperwork and begin the path to productivity for all your new and returning employees.

SumTotal Performance: Performance management that meets the needs of today’s forward-thinking organizations. Align the goals and performance of your entire workforce with those of the broader organization for better business outcomes.

SumTotal Succession: Make succession planning an organizational strength. SumTotal allows you to better understand your workforce now and better plan for your future with our intuitive succession planning tools.

SumTotal Recruiting: A modern recruiting solution that delivers a powerful candidate experience, recruiter productivity, job matching and internal mobility.

SumTotal Compensation: SumTotal makes compensation planning easier and less time consuming. Build a pay for performance culture that meets your organizations goals and objectives while keeping you competitive in the ever-changing marketplace.

SumTotal Mobile: Full suite functionality for your workforce to deliver your Talent Development solution wherever and whenever they need it.

SumTotal Talent Development Competitors

SumTotal Talent Development Pricing

More Pricing Information

SumTotal Talent Development Customer Size Distribution

Consumers	0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)	0%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)	25%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)	75%

SumTotal Talent Development Technical Details

Deployment Types	On-premise, SaaS
Operating Systems	Windows, Linux
Mobile Application	Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Supported Countries	Global
Supported Languages	English (US), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, French (Canada), German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, Slovakian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SumTotal Talent Development?

The SumTotal Core Platform (formerly elixHR) is a human resource information system (HRIS) integrable with the SumTotal Talent Expansion Suite of software: SumTotal (LMS), and the SumTotal Work workforce management and payroll system. All SumTotal software is now offered and supported by Skillsoft since the October 2014 acquisition.

What are SumTotal Talent Development's top competitors?

Cornerstone OnDemand, Workday Human Capital Management, and SAP SuccessFactors are common alternatives for SumTotal Talent Development.

What is SumTotal Talent Development's best feature?

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 6.3.

Who uses SumTotal Talent Development?

The most common users of SumTotal Talent Development are from Enterprises and the Unknown industry.