TrustRadius Insights for SumTotal Talent Development are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
User-Friendly Design: Several users have mentioned that SumTotal has a very user-friendly design, making it easy for non-programmers to configure their LMS interface. This has allowed for customization of various environments for different groups and integration of external web applications through iFraming, such as social media or news feeds.
Customizable Features: Reviewers have appreciated the customizable features offered by SumTotal, such as custom color schemes, logos, widgets, news feeds, and training messages. These features have allowed them to create a personalized environment for several different clients, tailoring the LMS to each client's specific needs.
Clean Front-End User Interface: Many reviewers have highlighted the clean front-end user interface of SumTotal, which makes it visually appealing and easy to navigate for both administrators and learners. This intuitive interface enhances the overall user experience and simplifies navigation within the system.
We use SumTotal Maestro across our franchise network for providing access to online courses for our owners, their managers, as well as their employees. Every manager looks for ways to on-board new employees as quickly as possible and online learning helps reduce that time. Online learning also provides easy access from anywhere with internet access, 24/7 to employees wanting to continue developing skills in their respective fields, as well as learning new subjects.
Pros
Assign complete learning plans to users so they don't have to spend time searching for courses.
Export learner's transcripts so managers can easily see their employee's progress.
Embed Social Media feeds that are relevant to their business.
Cons
I don't think we can build courses using Maestro. We rely strictly on third party software for course development.
Creating custom reports can be challenging.
Since we have to manage our total number of monthly active users, many of our manager's accounts go inactive. Once they're inactive, they stop receiving any notifications from their employee's course completions.
The user interface is dated looking. Many of the newer LMSs have more of a Windows 8 look and feel, which is what newer users are wanting.
Likelihood to Recommend
It works well for just uploading SCORM compliant courses. We don't use it for managing ILT courses as it was complicated when we last tried it. We also do not sell courses, but I don't think that it's capable of doing that.
VU
Verified User
Employee in Corporate (Printing company, 51-200 employees)
We use it to provide eLearning asynchronous training to our clients. We decide what to develop, and our clients buy subscriptions to our training library. Our training supports their requirements to earn CLPs and certifications in their fields. Our employees also use it for the same purpose.
Pros
SumTotal has a very user friendly design, making it easy for non-programmers to configure their LMS interface, customize various environments for different groups, and to integrate numerous external web applications through iFraming, such as social media or news feeds. I was able to configure a custom environment for several different clients, making it feel like their own LMS, such as a custom color scheme and logos, custom widgets (which are section of any page), news feeds, training messages, and custom learning plans.
Cons
SumTotal can not yet support media-rich mobile learning. Our eLearning design use instructional video, text, interactions, pop-ups with course resources and other information, etc... The SumTotal mobile capability right now does not support our design; ie our pop-ups won't pop-up, even those that simply open a PDF or document, and non of the hyperlinks will work.
Likelihood to Recommend
When choosing an LMS, you need to decide what features are most important. Things like single-sign on, 508 compliance, ability to support mobile learning, price per user, ability to customize for various audiences, and technical support. When I chose our LMS, it was called GeoEngage because of price and all of the tech support was on the East Coast. The LMS was bought by SumTotal a few years ago. We originally wanted SumTotal, but it was too expensive for our small company. Now we get both, and we continue to get great customer support.