Cornerstone Learn Reviews

Cornerstone is always on the cloud. We are a consultancy company, so we also implement Cornerstone for clients. There are different types of use cases. It can be digital learning, it can be classroom training, it can be blended learning, it can be certification management, it can be social learning. There are different kinds of use case that depend on the client's priorities.

It is a complete suite of solutions and features. Compared to other solutions which are more niche solutions, which may be as good as Cornerstone or even better in certain parts of it, like discerning user experience. You will not find another solution that has the same completeness of features in all different areas of learning, beit classroom training, digital learning, learner experience, content curation, blended learning, certifications etc

They're working on the mobile app. It's a lot better already, but it can be improved. Another thing that can be improved is the whole reporting. The online reporting, visual data, visualization dashboards are also improving, but it's not there yet.

In the next release, I would like to see improvement in the dashboards and reporting. 

The user experience should be a bit more configurable in terms of recommending training to specific users. Now it's either quite hardcoded or based on machine learning. It would also be good to have some kinds of intermediate features that allow organizations to propose training based on the criteria they choose and not just based on machine learning.

It is quite safe stable. 

It's quite scalable. We have clients using it with a population of fewer than 500 people and we have the clients using it with 180,000 users, so it is very scalable depending on the complexity of the organization. Scalability is one of this solution's advantages.

The initial setup is relatively straightforward. The complexity will depend on the complexity of the organization, the requirements and the decision process at the client's site that can make it quite complex. If you go for a simple setup then you can do it relatively fast. For example, we recently installed with one client who wanted to just go live with a limited set of e-learning features than the essential. The setup features are about making sure that the training is visible and assigned to the right people.

We are the integrators. Most companies who use Cornerstone use an integrator, that's the implementation model of Cornerstone. You cannot really do it completely on your own, you need an integrator.

I would definitely recommend Cornerstone. It's one of the best learning solutions on the market.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. Not a ten because in specific areas there are some products that have similar or better features. It is the best as a whole, but ten would mean it's a perfect solution but there are always things that can be improved.

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• I value the mobility: Anytime and anywhere
• Ubiquity of technology: Accessible via browser, tablet, or smartphone

It has provided the ability to build cross-functional teams. It enables collaboration across a globally dispersed organization.

The mobile app needs improving. The product roadmap indicates that the improvements being released this year will put the mobile app and browser version at the same level.

I have used the product for two years personally, and for four years in my current organization.

The platform itself is very stable and secure. Just like with anything cloud, however, you are always going to encounter issues that are not common and resolved within minutes.

No issues with scalability were encountered. One of the platform benefits is the ease of scalability.

I would give technical support a rating of 7/10.

At our current organization, this has been the platform of choice.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

Ask the vendor to arrange to engage you with customers who are the same size and see how they implemented the solution. Ask them what challenges they encountered. Find out what licensing options were considered and reflecting on their initial decision, if they would change anything now.

As mentioned, I was not involved in the initial setup

Do your own research, speak to current customers, get access to the platform and test it for the months. Test everything: ILT, VLT, Web, Video, Mobile, Communities, etc.

Learning management and reporting are the most valuable features.

We replaced our previous Learning Management System (LMS) for improved e-learning delivery. From an organizational point of view, it allows for a federated, single-system, learning management practice across different countries and companies (of the same group).

Its flexibility allows different configurations for different areas of the company while keeping it all together. Reporting and data delivered to the end user is also much improved over our previous reality.

There is always room for improvement. I would like to see improvement in notification management and administration.

Notification management, while it has improved a bit in the past years, is still a bit cumbersome and error prone. E-mails are tied to triggers, and while there are plenty of triggers available, each email template needs to be activated one by one, and each language is a different template. So that entails lots of clicks for the training administrators.

Several features could improve the situation markedly – from creating “mail packs” (instead of activating one email at a time, activating pre-defined groups) and, of course, creating multi linguistic templates, where the user automatically would receive the email version of his selected language.

We have used it for six years.

We encountered no deployment issues with the LMS itself.

There were no significant stability issues.

We did not have any scalability issues. It handled the international expansion and the global deployment of quite large (500 MB) courses (10k+ users at the same time) without any issues.

I would give customer service a rating of 8/10.

Technical Support has improved. Sometimes one still receives inaccurate answers based on a misinterpretation of the question. There is no further input from the client restating the initial issue. It is usually fast and reliable.

The initial setup was fairly simple in a technical sense. It was a breeze. The organizational realities and culture are somewhat more complex.

Initial deployment was a mix between vendor and a third-party consulting company quite a few years ago. Afterwards, new deployments on an international level were done in-house. I would give them an expertise rating of 7/10.

We evaluated Saba, CLIX, SumTotal, and Moodle.

Start by getting training in the product so you can actually understand the options and impact.

Features such as the auto waitlist, prescriptive rules and team approvals are the most valuable in this product.

It allows the clients to do their customization within and outside of this product. For example, they can create external pages and can integrate them with Saba.

They can make it more simple in terms of UI. The UI is complex in regards to the navigation and functionality.

I have used this solution, i.e., the Saba Enterprise and Saba Cloud, for more than five years.

We did not face any issues while deploying the product nor did we encounter any stability issues either.

However, we may have faced some issues while dealing with enhancements.

• For the Saba Enterprise editions - Technical support is average.
• For the Saba Cloud platform - Technical support is good.

I have been working with Saba from the beginning of my career and I am still continuing to do so.

It was quite simple and straightforward.

It should be a mutual co-operation between the vendor and in-house teams in order to implement the product. No single team, i.e., neither the in-house nor the vendor team, can individually implement this product.

I would advise others to compare with other LMS products before they stick to any particular one.

They should consider other factors such as their user count, usability, budget, risk management, disaster management, the various types of functionalities that they are looking for and so on.

• Reporting!
• The user interface can be highly customized but the out of box, is really straightforward and easy for the learner to navigate to what they need to do. Its simple and clean. Admittedly I'm okay with an extra click for a user if the path is clearly marked and in CSOD it is.
• The analytics are very easy to use - it produces the data quickly and easily, and can be downloaded and scheduled. Whether it is a report on who has completed a course, or an entire manager's direct and indirect hierarchy against a single class or a list of courses. Super easy and flexible.

The organizations that we've helped implement CSOD are able to gain greater insight into the training completions of their organization through the LMS, track performance via the performance management module, gain insight into succession planning, attract and onboard the best talent through the ATS and Onboarding modules. However, its the streamlining of these processes going into the system that is the biggest advantage to the client.

The reporting for certifications is tough – the clients I’ve worked with want to be able to report on Learner progress against the individual learning objects that roll up into each certification section but it’s unavailable. You can report on the learner’s completion status but not on the status of the items themselves, i.e: Learner Jane has been assigned certification Y. She has completed these 3 learning objects of the 5 in the certification. I worked with a client last year that was building out 400+cert paths and they had to order a custom/back end report from CSOD to even get a listing of what LOs roll up into each cert.

The certifications themselves are great in terms of they allow ease of assignment – manual or dynamic – and the ability to renew/recert is easy too. But I’ve found build out isn’t always super intuitive for clients moving from other systems. It’s easy once you have the hang of it. I am told that certs has been a functional area CSOD is looking to improve upon soon so hoping an upcoming release will enhance the cert ability.

5 years

no

No.

6 out of 10

I've helped clients migrate from SABA, SumTotal, and a number of other platforms.

It all depends on the client's readiness - CSOD does not do a great job in prepping the client for the initial set up - they sign the contract and then throw some docs at them and wait. Can be overwhelming for the client org....which is where we come in!

Do your due diligence before you sign a contract! Be prepared with your current state processes mapped, have your requirements clearly documented, create use cases where appropriate to illustrate the desired functionality, understand the data model dependencies on your HRIS and how that impacts desired functionality. And, be ready to dedicate the time and resources.

The feature most valuable to me is the ability to track training through the analytics feature. Other features that benefit me in my role are the proxy enrollment function and the materials function. The analytics feature could be better: I have had instances of incorrect reporting in the past. Proxy enrollment allows me to assign training to an entire department. The materials function is useful to me because there are multiple ways that I can add content to a learning object.

An example of how Cornerstone OnDemand’s learning module has improved the way my organization functions is that we can now better respond to audit requests regarding training. Previously, audit requests for proof of training were difficult to fulfill because training records were added to a database on a monthly basis. Now training can be recorded in real time and, as a result, our records are more up-to-date.

This product could have more features and ways to deliver training. Some of the learning objects, such as the external training form, are very rigid in how you can interact with them.

My organization has used Cornerstone OnDemand for almost two years now.

So far, we have had no issues with stability.

So far, we have had no issues with scalability.

The technical support for Cornerstone OnDemand’s learning module is good enough. Problems get solved in a timely manner, although their representatives could use more soft skills.

My organization previously used a different solution. We switched because our corporate headquarters said that we were going to switch.

The setup appeared fairly complex. We spent many hours with our IT department before Cornerstone was ready to use; but I do not know whether the complexity was due to my own organization Cornerstone OnDemand. One of the complexities was that we had trouble getting a sign-in page for non-SSO users. Other than that, I was not involved in much of the setup process.

I have no advice regarding pricing and licensing. I was not involved in that process.

Be very thorough and get a consultant to come in and train you on how to use Cornerstone OnDemand. Be ready to dedicate at least one person to this project.

Cornerstone is a truly unified talent management solution. All of the features of Cornerstone equally provides me value:

• Social collaboration
• Performance
• Succession
• Compensation
• Recruitment
• Onboarding
• Learning

The best feature for me is the Custom Reporting Tool available to the user. This is an extremely powerful tool and in my opinion is the true power behind the platform. Clients are not held hostage by providers to produce and or update existing reports.

When I started with my company, we used very limited functionality of the platform. Four years on, we have evolved as Cornerstone has released exciting functionalities, which allowed us to move away from the more-conventional 360-degree performance reviews to that of a more social feedback and badge-based review between manager and employee, bringing in the coaching element.

In terms of functionality, no areas for improvement come to mind. However, there is more room for improvement in the area of user interface redesign.

I have been using the product for four years now.

I have not encountered any stability issues to date.

I have not encountered any scalability issues. Cornerstone can accommodate user growth and content increases with ease. Since it is a SaaS platform, it can add additional server space to its swimlanes with no interruption to existing services and clients.

Technical support is 10/10; the support and feedback is provided with expertise and speed.

All Cornerstone support staff and implementation consultants must be certified every two years; this means being upskilled and trained at all times of new and existing functionality.

I used SABA before at my previous employer. I implemented across 150 dealerships and was responsible for the system administration and support of these 150 dealerships.

As the implementation partner, we have streamlined our implementation methodology to allow for either long and complexed implementations, or help the client with smart and easy implementations to help them to meet their go-to-market initiatives.

Be very clear about the vendor, and their pricing and licensing model. If something seems too good to be true, or cheap, it normally is. Cheaper is not always better.

Before choosing this product, we did not evaluate other options; it was a clear choice for us as a company.

• Stick to the implementation methodology of the vendor.
• Be present when scoping workshops are conducted. Provide as much information as possible to the implementation consultant.
• Bring your existing processes to the workshop, and be open to change.
• If you are not ready to change your existing processes, you are not ready to automate and to move to a world-class platform such as Cornerstone OnDemand.

Administration side is very user friendly and with lots of online help available

UI/UX can be improved, although CSoD is very responsive to customer's feedback and does implement many new features suggested by customers

2 Years

This is probably the most stable solution I have worked with, very few down-times or unexpected behaviours

The most challenging part of the implementation is understanding the customer requirements/objectives, if those are clearly elaborated and documented, implementation can be seamless and straightforward

Best in class solution with frequent updates/new releases

The quarterly release schedule is good in a way as it provides frequent new features and improvements, but it can be challenging to keep up with all those updates.

My main recommendation would be to make sure to do lots of testing before making anything live to ensure it's configured and works as expected.

Also, functional testing and UAT should be carried out on each new feature released which is implemented. If you required any further recommendations on testing please feel free to get in touch.