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Successful first LMS for our Company
May 26, 2023

Successful first LMS for our Company

Marie Graichen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Absorb Engage
  • Absorb Analyze
  • Absorb Amplify

Overall Satisfaction with Absorb LMS

Our company implemented Absorb LMS less than a year ago as our company's first-ever LMS. We reviewed several LMS systems and found that Absorb offered the features that we desired at a lower cost than other competitors. Prior to adopting an LMS, our training courses and records were decentralized and difficult to manage. Many of our prior training materials were PowerPoint presentations and not interactive for the audience. Adopting Absorb's LMS allowed us to centralize training records, provided easier access to training on-demand, and provided a more modern platform using video-based training. We were also able to create custom content with quizzes to confirm that learning objectives were met. Having the training records centralized in the LMS enabled our company to more efficiently confirm competency requirements for various industry and customer audits. We were much more efficient in transitioning repetitive training that had been instructor-led to video-based.
  • Easy to use interface for users
  • Implementation team very supportive
  • Absorb continues to improve on their tool with new releases
  • Ability to collaboratively suggest modifications to the platform in a forum and vote on other suggestions
  • The manager experience needs further development, including how access the manager experience from the user experience
  • There needs to be an easier search feature to find a course without having to use the filter option.
  • There seems to be a slight delay when completing a course before it shows as completed in the transcript.
  • Increased compliance
  • Improved learner engagement and accessibility to training on-demand
  • More streamlined employee onboarding
  • More efficient delivery of training to users
  • Better access to user training records
  • Content Libraries (Absorb Amplify or 3rd Party Libraries)
  • Reporting & Insights (Absorb Analyze or Absorb Amplify Direct)
  • Ecosystem Integrations (Absorb APIs or Absorb Connectors)
We have used many of the Absorb Amplify courses and have also integrated custom created content and third-party libraries. Being our first LMS system, this was a HUGE improvement over how our company had previously managed training delivery and record-keeping. We are much more compliant with mandatory training and have made good use of the training transcripts to demonstrate competency requirements for many of our industry, quality, and customer audits.
Absorb help desk has many resources available to help troubleshoot problems. The implementation manager was very helpful and supportive as we were setting up the LMS. Our account manager is more focused on billing and sales, and not able to provide technical support, so for that, we go through Absorb's Help Center. Absorb Academy, (accessed through the Help Center), is a great learning resource to become familiar with the platform. There is also an "Ideas Portal" for requests from administrators for how to improve the LMS.
The main reasons why we chose Absorb LMS was:
1) Best overall features for the cost
2) Easy integration with our HRIS, (ADP WFN)
3) Platform has the ability to add Skill Assessment levels
4) Professional look with easy interface for users

Do you think Absorb LMS delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Absorb LMS's feature set?

Yes

Did Absorb LMS live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Absorb LMS go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Absorb LMS again?

Yes

Absorb is a great LMS for most applications. It was fairly easy to learn to configure and looks very professional. Our employees adopted the system fairly quickly and we had mostly positive feedback. The base Absorb platform provides basic reporting, so if you are going to need more customized reporting, then you will need to purchase the additional module for Absorb Analyze. The Manager Experience is still evolving, and managers may want to have more ability to do things in this part of the system than what is currently available. There is a connector that can be purchased from ADP to connect it with Absorb's LMS, although our company chose to develop our own API connector. We are currently using third-party course authoring software. The Absorb Amplify courses are good if you want to add immediate content to the system, although the courses are very basic.

Absorb LMS Feature Ratings

Learning Management
8.5
Course authoring
Not Rated
Course catalog or library
9
Player/Portal
9
Learning content
8
Mobile friendly
8
Progress tracking & certifications
9
Assignments
8
Compliance management
9
Learning administration
9
Learning reporting & analytics
7
Social learning
8
Gamification
8
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning
10

Using Absorb LMS

750 - Our business is a mix of Sales, Manufacturing/Design, Distribution, and Shared Services within the Semiconductor Industry.
2 - Familiarity with LMS systems or comparable system administration experience. Understanding of how our company uses the LMS to deliver training, both from a compliance view as well as to meet the needs of users for job skills training or career development.
  • Delivering compliance training
  • Access to training transcripts for audits or compliance needs
  • Ability to offer career development learning opportunities for our employees
  • Documenting read/acknowledgement policies or procedures
  • Centralized place to house reference documents
  • Platform to upload custom-created (SCORM) files to replace in-person training
  • Expand company-specific courses to streamline access and delivery of training
  • Appeal to a next-generation audience and make leaning a more modern digital experience
  • Eliminate manual processes that were previously used to track/monitor training
We have just invested a lot of effort into setting up our first-ever LMS with Absorb. It seems to be successful so far, so we are planning on keeping it barring any unforeseen problems in the future.

Evaluating Absorb LMS and Competitors

  • Cloud Solutions
  • Scalability
  • Integration with Other Systems
  • Ease of Use
  • Other
Absorb LMS offered us the best features for the cost. It has an intuitive user interface and will allow us to expand our internal course offerings with custom content. We really liked that it had the ability to add competencies and rate competency levels for employees.
The limits of the basic reporting feature were somewhat frustrating. We ended up adding Absorb Analyze in order to get reports broken out in the way that we needed. I feel like Absorb should include more customization in their basic product with regards to reporting. I also feel that the "Manager Experience" needs further development. We were under the impression that managers would have greater abilities to assign courses, etc. than what they actually had, although I know that this feature is continuing to evolve.

Absorb LMS Implementation

  • Implemented in-house
Yes - Using Absorb Academy to learn about system implementation
Weekly meetings with our implementation manager over approximately 8 weeks
Configuring the system using the options available in the platform
Adding in profiles manually and testing the system
Selecting Amplify courses to add to the library
Working with our IT department/ADP to develop a custom API connector
Introducing the system to users with live demos and explaining the benefits of using an LMS

Change management was a minor issue with the implementation - The biggest obstacle that we faced was internally with our Quality/Document Control staff. Prior to the implementation of an LMS, training and review of "spec changes' were all tracked in one spreadsheet. Our internal department struggled with differentiating "training" and "spec reviews", and how to track that employees were up-to-date on the current specifications for processes on how to do their jobs, (mostly in manufacturing/warehouse areas), which was a requirement for ISO and other industry audits. We did not want to "re-invent" a document control system in the LMS and needed to create a process for tracking "spec" reviews.
  • Working internally with quality/document control to find solutions for tracking revisions to 'spec' reviews and getting this into the LMS
  • Getting reports broken out the way that we needed them to monitor compliance
  • Because we developed a custom connector/API to connect ADP, (we didn't purchase ADP's connector), we had to manually update changes in the LMS until the custom connector was fully developed, which took 2.5 months to complete.