Cornerstone LMS Reviews

Pros

I like that CSOD is an integrated HRIS system. It has a great end-user experience and a nice interface.

Cons

Some of the file size limits are an issue. and some of the functionality does not work as one would assume. However, there are a lot of tools and resources to find ways to make the functionality work for your company.

Pros

I think that the recent changes have made the system more user friendly, but it is still not the most clear system. It manages transcripts fairly well.

Cons

I assume (as I was hired after implementation) that you need to request it, but our permissions are more limited than I would like. We can't run reports like utilization metrics, or who is in what security role which really limits our abilities. We also don't have backend design privileges and as a web developer that is infuriating.
I would say usability is less than desirable as there are HTML issues, and Transcript functionality confuses people.
There isn't a natural or logical way to set up accommodation requests even when using custom forms, which in my opinion is a very bad issue. We of course have text in the email, but it's insufficient and has caused issues.

Alternatives Considered

Moodle and Blackboard Learn

Reasons for Choosing Cornerstone LMS

I can't guarantee I selected the right product we switched from but we switched due to the very limited functionality.

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

We chose it for functionality as Cornerstone offers a lot. I will say that the scope of what we need has shifted and I am not sure that it would have ended on the same decision if we were making it now.

Pros

I like that Cornerstone is constantly releasing new tools and features to enhance the LMS. They really listen to their customers and take in all advice to make necessary upgrades.
The software is easy to navigate and use. Making ILT sessions and events is straightforward. I also like how you can add badges to a learning object so that way learners feel good when they accomplish something. Also, the reporting capabilities are great and there are a number of reports you can generate to analyze how the system is being utilized.

Cons

The Quiz functionality of the system is not good and not easy to use.
Its not modern and every test you make has to be out of 100. Also, you can drag and drop questions in whatever order you want them to be. The tool is limited and needs to be upgraded for easier use.

Alternatives Considered

Brightspace

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

Approval Workflow - we needed managers to get notified whenever an employee registered for an event through the system for scheduling purposes.

Pros

Cornerstone was an improvement over the LMS platforms we were using 5 years ago. It handles large amounts of learning objects and dynamic assignments well if its simple. It doesn't like complicated assignments. The system works well with a simple set of learning objects assigned to a simple group with a due date. If you need to build a complicated group (one with many parameters), it may not work as well. Also the removal of items is a challenge when you are removing from a large number of transcripts.

Cons

the administration of cornerstone is not straight forward. There are a lot of nuances that come up when you are completing various activities. There is also the inconsistencies with various screens throughout. In some areas you can click check all or uncheck all to select multiple objects. In other areas you cannot and have to click individually, which is time consuming.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Learning Manager and Docebo

Reasons for Choosing Cornerstone LMS

Company had expanded number of users. We wanted a standardized system.

Switched From

HealthStream Learning Center

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

Cornerstone presented an impressive list of features including automation.

Pros

Cornerstone offers one of the better LMSs that I've managed in my career. They continue to update the system with new features and evolve it with emerging technology like machine learning and mobile compatibility. It supports all of the content we use and user management is relatively painless. Each area of the system integrates with the others. This allows for a very cohesive performance management suite.

Cons

The weak spot of Cornerstone is their customer service. It has been a pain point for several years. They say they are working on improving it and sometimes they do, but it still has a long ways to go. I also wish the system had more robust mobile compatibility. This is something they have been working on, but they are behind some competitors. They also need further support for multimedia, specifically video.

Pros

Cornerstone OnDemand - It's a complete HCM Suite including an advanced Learning Management System. Most admirable features are:
- Learning Admin Console enhancements
- Edge Import
- Reporting 2.0
- Integration feasibility

Cons

Customer support is not up-to the mark. The response time and the resolving time for any tickets will take lot of time. Otherwise the product is a complete solution for any type of industry.

Alternatives Considered

Moodle and SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

It's Edge Import and Data Load Wizard are impressive. It has a HCM suite and well-suited with industries require compliance.

Pros

I love the integrated Cornerstone suite of products for ease of use with system management. We started with the implementation of Performance Management and it was so easy for our managers and employees to adopt, and we have recently moved over to Cornerstone LMS, which has been great.

Cons

Not much! It was a great value for a wonderful product. The implementation was a lot of work to coordinate internally for our company wide team, but it was worth it.

Pros

A major pro is the customer service that cornerstone provides. They have rapidly developed how they consume cases in order to provide timely responses. They also provide in-depth documentation, webcasts, beta groups and live trainings around every release cycle of new features. Cornerstone really allows the clients to drive the future of their system.

Cons

I wish their was more opportunities for customization. For example you are able to create custom pages but you are restricted to Cornerstone's layout and HTML/CSS scripting.

Pros

There is a tremendous amount of flexibility in the tool to address various audiences. We are able to use our PeopleSoft user data to funnel what is seen by whom, assigned to whom, etc.

Cons

With the flexibility comes a lot to learn. It takes quite a while to become proficient in all the areas of the tool.

Alternatives Considered

Absorb LMS, Brainier LMS and Docebo

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

Cornerstone can do all the customization we need!

Pros

There is a great underlying structure to Cornerstone Learning. The functionality is there and they are some very powerful features to help with automation and managing learning for your organization.

Cons

The presentation is not great. The front end is serviceable, but the back end needs some coordination and simplification to be a really great product. They are addressing some of this with Xplor, but since it's an additional cost, be prepared for that.

Pros

The user community is the beast thing about this product. It's huge and people like to share. Cornerstone is a great partner for the community as well.

Cons

The inconsistent support experience. Most of the time it's great, but too often it is slow or not responsive at all.

Alternatives Considered

SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite

Reasons for Choosing Cornerstone LMS

Growing company, and needed a new product to meet our needs

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

Best in class, and we already used the other modules of the product.

Pros

This is a flashy LMS. It looks great to the user. For a large organization, this was helpful with tracking regulatory trainings and more. It has all the bells and whistles.

Cons

The reason I would never recommend this to a colleague is because of the price and admin functions. First, the price. We were shown from the beginning, everything the system could offer, which we obviously loved, but shame on us for not asking additional questions. What we saw and what we got were different. For additional pricing, we could add on. Even customer service hours were charged. In the end this costed triple what we originally thought.

Furthermore, my second issue was the admin functionality. It was extremely complicated. We had 12 trainers working on the back end to get it implemented, on top of that we eventually hired 3 full time employees to work on the admin part for upgrades, running reports, etc. That is obviously another cost.

As much as the system was user friendly... It wasn't worth the cost when there are plenty of learning management systems that are user and admin friendly, for less.

Pros

Range of functionality and ease of implementation. Does more than most LMSs out there. Initial setup and integration was outsourced and great whilst support lasted.

Cons

Expensive and some features hidden behind paywall. Customer support varied dependant on who your CSM was.

Alternatives Considered

Kallidus Learn, Moodle and Fuse Universal

Reasons for Choosing Cornerstone LMS

Business need, data insights

Switched From

Fuse Universal

Reasons for Switching to Cornerstone LMS

Features and additional suites

Pros

The software is user friendly and pretty adaptable to fit our business needs. Most of the screens are modern in design (some need updating) and the workflows are able to be flexed so that the process is not clunky and hard to navigate. It works well for our internal recruitment team and for the most part our candidates, although some improvement could be made to restricting views to some of our managers as they for our process we dont need them to see some of the status's or have the ability to change them. Overall it is one of the better recruitment systems out there for flexibility and functionality. The fact that we are able to track candidates source is crucial to our business and supports our budgeting strategy really well.

Cons

The helpdesk support could be better and more efficient in responding. Having the ability to share screens in real time to highlight issues or discuss improvements that could be made would be better.

Pros

Excellent UI and End User experience. Great product and customer teams, quarterly updates that always add meaningful, high quality new features.

Cons

Lots of configuration, you really have to know what you want to achieve, rather than just take it off the shelf.

Alternatives Considered

Workday HCM

Pros

1. Quarterly releases with a transparent road map
2. Offers a Client Portal to connect, ask questions & make suggestions, which actually gets used & is useful
3. Scheduled down times are limited
4. Recent updates have added a more modern UI/UX

Cons

1. Global Product Support
2. Global Product Support
3. Global Product Support
4. If you plan on using CSOD's other modules (e.g. Performance, ATS, etc) keep in mind that there is no consistency & the UI/UX will be different depending on where the user is in the system. Although you cannot consider this a con of their LMS.

Pros

Cornerstone has created and outlet for users across varied companies to collaborate and advocate for new and/or improved features. I have seen requested features come to fruition in their regularly scheduled feature updates that are rolled out several times a year.

Cons

In regards to training and support, Cornerstone definitely prioritizes some functionality over others. When working in the Certification Management area, I have rarely communicated with anyone who I would call an expert. I have often gotten the odd look and the blow off when I expressed my need for assistance in this area.

Pros

I have been in the HRIS world for awhile, and touched many different products. CSOD has been one of the best, the logic and function makes sense, it is intuitive, and the improvements always bring excitement and enthusiasm to the group.
Looking for amazing dynamic software - that can handle either a push or a pull type learning experience, you have found it.

Cons

GPS - struggles. Developers tend to QC live with the early adopter and client community... they are truly Agile in that sense.
GPS is undergoing change, and it has improved drastically in the past 2 years- there is a lot of work left to do.

Pros

Cornerstone LMS (and other features) is extremely versatile and can handle everything that we throw at it. We operate with a co-op sort of set up with many different business units in the same LMS, and it works beautifully.

Cons

Some aspects are a bit "steppy" to create, such as building performance tasks. It would be extremely handy to be able to create a review process all in-line, instead of having to build each subsequent piece separately before putting the whole task together.

Pros

Learning Assignment, Skills, machine learner, admin roles, manager's reporting, content rating, search engine, publishing easy

Cons

Points and badges is very basic. Leaderboard has points for all content so not easy to use for specific divisions. Dashboard (would be helpful to put constraint on data shared on Dashboard, i.e. manager to see their direct reports but when in a reporting role that is global, not possible to share a Dashboard for direct report . Cornerstone should work more on gamification, reinforcement knowledge questions integrated in their content or custom content.

Pros

Full functionality for an LMS. Can integrate with many other Enterprise systems. New learner experience features are bringing a modern approach to corporate learning. They have started to support xAPI.

Cons

Their Global Product Support has had issues for several years. Response times on tickets are bad.

The cost can be quite high compared to other LMS companies. They demnd a certain percentage increase each year even if it isn't justified.

Pros

There is so much we can do to improve our employee education / training with the system.

Cons

We are not using the software to it's full extent so there is a lot of clean up to do. We are also part of a larger corporation so I'm not able to use some of the new features without assistance from the lead organization.

Pros

Course upload, assignment, and display is all great

Goal setting and performance reviews look great on employee side

Cons

Certifications are complicated to set up and use, but they have their place, Test Engine is not intuitive but they say they are working to update it

Pros

The ability to create groups and assign training to those groups systematically.

Cons

This may just be the way our company has set it up, but for me, reporting is not always intuitive. When you assign training as part of a bundle such as "New hire", "Annual recertification", ect. the individual class inside the bundle doesn't pull in report by that course name. You must select every bundle in which the course is assigned to get an accurate report of completions.