Great product, but it can always improve!
Updated January 24, 2022
Great product, but it can always improve!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with PowerDMS
PowerDMS is being used as our primary document management system. Within PowerDMS we are housing all training documentation, orders, past shift schedules, and anything and everything to do with our department policies. PowerDMS has helped us to address major document management and retention issues within the department and it has helped our Training Unit become more effective in our daily work. We are now able to pull records within seconds instead of needing hours at a time to review paper files. It has helped us streamline the training process by allowing us to offer courses online that once had to be reviewed in a classroom setting. Instead of being out of compliance we are now fully in compliance and that in itself makes the product worth every penny. This has also helped us to address other document management needs within the department. All of our files are kept in one place and it's helped us keep things much more organized.
- PowerDMS makes collaborative policy writing easy. It allows you to have multiple sign-off options which help to ensure that users agree before a policy is fully approved. The notes section allows for changes to be suggested without multiple people accessing the document at a given time.
- Training and Documentation Storage is wonderful inside PowerDMS. The folders feature allows you to sort material and different types of documentation as if you had a copyright in front of you. The different file type uploading option for documents makes it so we can also store videos.
- Accreditation assessments are a breeze with PowerDMS. I love all of the features of the assessment. I am able to schedule task reminders to pop up for standards that are coming due. You can choose a file that you've already uploaded on PowerDMS as a proof and this feature is also very nice.
- PowerDMS does not allow you the ability to reassign a document or policy to an individual without republishing an already signed off document. This makes remedial training very hard and cumbersome because everytime one individual needs to review a policy we have to republish it for the entire department.
- Users cannot receive individual notifications for documents or policies. This is a big issue when it comes to our Personnel Orders which are stored within PowerDMS because people only receive a group notification. If the developers would create this it would make the product much more user-friendly.
- As of right now, PowerDMS is a very functional, but basic software. The lack of customization, outside of website photos and material, is very problematic for end users. If users had a place to store and manage their own records it would be very helpful. As of right now, our training team is storing them under each user's file tab, but the users themselves do not have access. When we are in a situation where we need a person's entire file it makes it difficult to have to go through and print every certificate individually.
- Accessibility
- Training Management
- Forms
- Organization
- Accreditation
- Easier management of training documentation. It is now stored in one place.
- Unable to customize dashboards or individual users views of items within PowerDMS. If it was customizable than everyday users may be more likely to log in.
- We are 100 percent compliant with all training requirements versus when we started we were about 40 percent in compliance.
- LinkedIn Learning (Lynda.com)
PowerDMS is a lot different than Linkedin Learnings. In PowerDMS you have to create your own courses versus in Linkedin Learnings they provide extensive content on a wide variety of subject matter. Linkedin Learnings is what we have used in our organization for Bias Training and Ethics Training. PowerDMS is the repository for documents and Trainings, so the systems work very differently.
Do you think PowerDMS delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with PowerDMS's feature set?
Yes
Did PowerDMS live up to sales and marketing promises?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of PowerDMS go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy PowerDMS again?
Yes
Using PowerDMS
100 - We use PowerDMS for Training, Analytics, Disseminating Information, and Tracking documentation. As a whole our organization uses this system to release all important announcements called Personnel Orders. PowerDMS makes this process relatively easy since we can list the personnel orders and make changes as needed. The system works well for what we use it for.
2 - I am the Master Administrator and we have other functional administrators, but others are not familiar with the product.
- Training
- Archives
- Assessing
- Personnel Orders
- Document Management
- Video tracking
- Training Requests
Evaluating PowerDMS and Competitors
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
Product Usability was the biggest hurdle we had to overcome because we have many seasoned officers who were not familiar with the use of Online Trainings.
I would re-evaluate the newest products on the market against DMS.
PowerDMS Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Knowledgeable team Immediate help available | Not kept informed |
Not that I know of.
Yes - yes
PowerDMS was incredible when I first started using the product five years ago because they helped me to completely set up the system and came to train my entire staff.
Using PowerDMS
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | Lots to learn |
- Document viewing
- Document Comparisons
- trainings
- Replacing old documents
- Replacing policies
- Starting a new accreditation cycle
Yes - It's okay for what it is, but the app has a lot of bugs.