A Comparison of the 4 Biggest Corporate LMSs: Which is Right for Your Business?

You wouldn’t feed chocolate to your dog, would you?

Chocolate’s a people-food; designed for human consumption. I’m also guessing you probably wouldn’t give dog food to your six-year-old (at least, on purpose).

Both dogs and kids do best when eating the food that is suited for their unique bodies.

So why would you buy an academic LMS if you plan on using it in a corporate environment?

Corporate LMS

You need to find something geared for your distinct situation; something that recognizes the challenges and requirements unique to a for-profit institution.

Below I’ve compared the four largest and most popular LMSs aimed at a corporate audience to help you make that decision.

1. SuccessFactors

Review it here!

Blowing every other choice of corporate LMS out of the water, the most popular corporate LMS you’ll find today is SuccessFactors. It comes in fourth place out of all the learning management software Capterra ranks, and it’s corporate as well as academic. SuccessFactors is used by over 28 million people, a clear favorite choice.

Some of the reporting options for SuccessFactors

Stand out features

SuccessFactors is fully cloud-based, allowing you and your users to access their training from anywhere with an internet connection. The software also bridges the fine line between talent management software and training software, making SuccessFactors ideal for onboarding. You can train your employees, track their compensation, arrange performance appraisal, and help them set goals, all within the same app.

Pros

Easy to use and responsive, it isn’t hard or time consuming to pull up any information you need from reporting. Reviews mention how intuitive and user-friendly SuccessFactors can be. It’s also a hugely customizable system, so your company’s specific needs are seen and catered to.

Cons

According to some other reviews, mass uploading can make the system run slowly. While SuccessFactors is extremely customizable, going too heavy on customization may make it difficult for their help desk to assist you quickly.

Cost

SuccessFactors clocks in at $84.53 per year per user, making it a good choice in the typical LMS expense range.

2. SkillSoft

Review it here!

Skillsoft is known in the corporate eLearning space mainly for their content, and their library of training courses and certification programs is massive.. Skillsoft’s LMS, Skillport, is a cloud-based solution which is very well-integrated with their content library, but which also supports the deployment of bespoke and non-Skillsoft eLearning content. Current customers include Visa, Virgin Media, and the US Army.

Searching content in Skillport 8

Stand out features

Skillport was designed from the ground up to be mobile and accessible on tablets and smartphones. It is social learning-enabled with profiles, scores, comments and colleague course recommendations, and it’s fully integrated with Skillsoft’s massive content library.

Pros

Skillport is simple and straightforward, and it’s easy to quickly deploy. It also has an attractive and easy to use UI. Finally, integration with Skillsoft’s existing content library means corporate trainers have a wealth of already existing courses and training to fall back on if they don’t have the resources or desire to create their own.

Cons

The other side of the coin of Skillport’s simplicity is that it is an inflexible corporate LMS. This also means it may not meet all the needs of a complex enterprise-level organization.

Cost

Skillport is typically bundled as an addition to Skillsoft’s content products, and includes the option to pay for extra modules for things like instructor-led training, advanced reporting, and hosting. As far as the big corporate eLearning players go, Skillport typically comes out on the lower-end of the cost spectrum.

3. Cornerstone OnDemand

Review it here!

Like SumTotal, Cornerstone OnDemand’s LMS usually is integrated with their entire talent management system, providing an end-to-end solution for HR needs. The product is used by clients like Walgreens, TGI Friday’s, and Virgin Media.

Cornerstone’s LMS dashboard

Stand out features

Cornerstone Learning makes use of a content library of over 30,000 courses, and also supports instructor led training, social collaboration, certification, compliance, and course authoring.

Pros

Learning Cloud’s multi-tenant SaaS architecture makes deployment fast and relatively easy. The software itself is also highly configurable for organizations wanting to tweak things just so. Deep integration with Cornerstone OnDemand’s wider talent management suite also makes this a great fit for companies wanting to centralize these processes.

Cons

The back-end UI for Learning Cloud has been described as outdated and difficult to navigate, but a recent update in June of this year (2013) may have changed that (and more recent reviews suggest that is the case). Additionally, because the software is SaaS, no deep customization is possible (though white-labeling configuration options are certainly present). Cornerstone OnDemand has also been making an effort to deal with complaints of a lack of local resources for implementation and support.

Cost

Learning Cloud fits right in with the other LMS offerings on the enterprise level, but is by no means the cheapest. It’s more middle-of-the-road as far as corporate enterprise LMS pricing goes.

4. TOPYX

Review it here!

One of the most comprehensive learning management systems on the market for the corporate world, TOPYX slides into place as the tenth most popular option on our list. Used by Morton Salt, Tupperware brands, CSX, and Intel, TOPYX has diverse capabilities and seriously hearty reporting, so you won’t ever need to wonder what other features might be out there.

TOPYX has extremely robust reporting

Stand out features

TOPYX is fully web-based and offers full mobile accessibility. Integrations include Microsoft Office 360 as well as Salesforce. It supports xAPI as well, so you won’t struggle to make your content fit within TOPYX’s confines.

Outfitted with full social learning options including chat and blogs, fully white labelled, and with robust reporting functionality, TOPYX is a lot of features for one price tag.

Pros

For a large company, you’ll be hard pressed to find more features for less money. TOPYX functions on a flat-fee model with no additional add-ons or charges, which is great if you’d like a full package with no fuss.

Cons

At a 4.5/5 star rating in Capterra’s listing, TOPYX doesn’t have too many cons. One common complaint highlights  TOPYX’s slow help desk turnaround time.

The other major potential downside to TOPYX is the high flat fee, which makes it a prohibitive system for many small businesses, though more on that below.

Cost

At $27,500 a year, TOPYX is on the pricer side. This expense may make TOPYX a hard choice to justify for small or mid-size businesses. However, given that many pay-by-the-user learning management systems can easily get up to this price for a large company, TOPYX is a steal for the big guys.

What else?

What are your thoughts? Have you had experience with any of the above systems? Share what you liked and didn’t like about them below! After all, that’s how we know what to review next.

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