SumTotal is a proficient LMS tool

Pros

SumTotal has grown leaps and bounds within the last two years. Upgrades to the user interface and the addition of new features have made SumTotal much more proficient as an LMS provider.

Cons

My one complaint about SumTotal is customer support, which has honestly gotten better within the last few years. Customer support communication is slow and usually causes issues.

Good Program, Not For Our Company

Pros

I like the set up and ease of use of the program. Our company only used a small part of it's functionality so in the end it did not fit our needs.

Cons

It is promoted as having great mobile access, but our traveling team struggled to use the mobile version.

Cumbersome

Pros

Our account manager is very responsive and accommodating. There are many reporting options to choose from.

Cons

Admin system is not user-friendly and requires more clicks than necessary to navigate and more work than necessary to complete simple tasks. Learner interface is difficult to use and understand. Pulling reports is slow and cumbersome. The system is very limited in what it can do. We currently use this system for learning and performance management and is unreliable on both fronts, for example we currently have to use a back door site to be able to complete fundamentals learning functions such as add learning plans, courses, etc with no resolution eta on a resolution.

Hard to Handle

Pros

The product seems robust at a first sight but it is really hard to operate. I like the domain-concept to manage users and descentralize administration.

Cons

Not friendly for administrators, unflexible for a few types of activities, lack of full integration between different modules, need to rely on technical staff to setup basic things.

Difficult to use, lacking functionality

Their sales pitch and communication at first was great. I don't know if the company was maybe going through some change. It didn't work out for us.

Pros

Initial customer support and the sales pitch sure sounded great. As we got closer to contract closing, things changed.

Cons

lacking desired functionality which was originally promised, customization that was advertised and promised was not there. High startup and implementation cost. We ultimately did not close on the contract and moved on to a different solution.

SumTotal Performance

Pros

There isn't much to tell, I do not really like this vendor. The system is very powerful, but not user-friendly. They are a large company, and have been in some acquisitions, which has changed the system.

Cons

Poor customer support. Very inflexible system. They don't tell you, but you can't even create your own performance appraisal form. You have to pay for that to be done each year, even if it is exactly the same as a new year.

Difficult Administration Functionality

It's easy for staff and most supervisors to use this solution, but the administrative user roles are complicated. It seems like they took pieces of functionality from other systems and smashed them together. I have a gut feeling they are not experts in their code.

Administrator Review

Pros

Search aspect for classes, syncing with webinars. Option to make an event private.

Cons

Reporting features and landing page layout need improvement.

Needs an update

SumTotal seems like a clunky, outdated software to use. User experience is awful and frustrating, but I suppose it at least works.