Cornerstone OnDemand: A solid, fresh, and powerful alternative for LMS needs.
August 07, 2020
Cornerstone OnDemand: A solid, fresh, and powerful alternative for LMS needs.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Modules Used
- Learning Suite
- Connect
Overall Satisfaction with Cornerstone OnDemand
I lead the selection and implementation of CSOD for the entire organization. We have over 14,500 employees in 52 departments but had no clear strategy for learning and other compliance issues of all types. Everything from Courts to Public health, to road construction to the sheriff's department. This required a very flexible, robust system that was still straight forward to manage. We also needed stringent permission settings that could deal with the variety of department issues.
Pros
- Outstanding Customer Service. Very responsive and reasonable--especially for a software company
- Forward-looking design and development approach. But they still make changes based on customer needs and not just to have more bells and whistles than their competitors.
- User-friendly on the front-end without sacrificing the power and flexibility on the administration side.
Cons
- Reporting has come along way but Reporting 2.0 needs to be completed
- More transparent when issues arise. As customers, we already know issues will arise. More transparency would save us the effort and time of trying to figure out if the issue is on our side or theirs.
- Positive impact on compliance alone. Our exposure to legal issues has dropped significantly.
- Our safety issues have decreased since we are able to track the safety expertise of our employees - especially in high-risk areas.
- We have been able to automate much of our employee learning requirements, which has lessened the load on our managers. We also know that many managers didn't know how or want to manage employee learning. This product has helped us overcome this issue.
I have used and been involved (at other organizations) with other software products in this category. Some have been difficult to implement, some have been stellar in one area but failed in others. None of the other products have had the personal touch that CSOD has exhibited. In fact, several were downright snarky after implementation (yes, I'm talking to you Saba!). Some products are disjointed and feel like the modules were just "bolted" on (hang your head Oracle). Others didn't seem to want to bother with an organization of "only" 14,500.
Cornerstone OnDemand Feature Ratings
Using Cornerstone OnDemand
14500 - We are the 4th largest county in the US. We have 52 departments that vary greatly. Sheriff's office to County Attorney, to Courts, to Public Health, to Correctional Health, to Assessor's office, to Treasury, to Air Quality, to Department of Transportation - and everything in between.
4 - We have two IT types, and two Administrator/Instructional Designer types
- Sheriff Office has unique needs due to audits and reporting required by federal and state oversight. Due to having both sworn and civilian employees, training was difficult to manage quickly and correctly.
- Correctional Health deals with the licensure of both internal and external agency workers. Additionally, they must meet court compliance requirements outside of normal credentialing.
- Transportation and Flood Control departments required remote solutions and on-the-job observation and certification. They also deal with less computer-savvy users.
- Performance. We had Performance but had just started getting it set up when I moved companies. Love what we did work with.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using | Requires technical support Lots to learn |
- loading and administrating Learning Modules
- Email settings are vast and flexible. Almost too vast.
Yes - The new app is strong. the old one was poor at best
Yes - It was an old product and really has no bearing now since they have been acquired by Saba
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
- Analyst Reports
- Third-party Reviews
The People.
I felt our selection process was extensive and complete.
Cornerstone OnDemand Implementation
- Third-party professional services
CSOD uses third-party implementors that they recommend and work with. It felt like we were working with the same organization. We worked with Bluewater.
Yes - Core configuration
Usability testing
Department-specific configuration
Roll-out
Usability testing
Department-specific configuration
Roll-out
Change management was a major issue with the implementation - Despite CSOD's recommendations to us to have them help with the change management side of things, we went it alone. We would have them do it if we were to go through this again. We were too busy with implementation to notice some of the change management issues.
- Change management (our mistake)
- Data migration (our old system had been used in different ways over the years and so our data was inconsistent.
- Learning the Admin side of the system. We would get more training prior to implementation if we were to do it again. I am now at another company that is using CSOD and we made Admin training a priority. It has paid off significantly.
- Buy in. We took nearly a year to meet with each of our 52 departments to understand their needs and concerns. It saved us in the long term.
Cornerstone OnDemand Training
Relationship with Cornerstone OnDemand
Be open about your needs and be forthcoming about your concerns. Don't play games with them and they won't play games with you.
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