Unlocking the powerful potential of your Cornerstone through outsourced support

Last week we attended the Convergence conference for the first time. Indeed, it was where we officially launched Northern Star. Exciting, we know. We were there! Amongst amazing speakers and the buzz of the event itself, we were struck by the many conversations we had with Cornerstone platform clients – and how similar many of them were.

Many people we spoke to highlighted the common wish to make more of their platform, but lack the resources and time to do so. For them, this results in an inability to harness the powerful potential of this amazing platform. From our experience, these challenges are rarely linked to the actual technology. More often than not the culprit is a lack of governance and maintenance; indeed updates and unruly data can often have more of a hindering effect on the tech than the tech itself. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know, right?

This is good news because that means these issues are entirely fixable.

There’s no doubt about it, Cornerstone On Demand is a highly robust platform. It’s got all the capabilities required by any organisation when it comes to talent needs, but many lack the in-house resources to keep it running at maximum performance. There are hard-working people behind this powerful platform, doing their absolute best to deliver on the high expectations of their business and their learners – but due to skills gaps and a lack of resources, they are struggling to keep pace.

So what’s the solution?

Could a lack of support be hindering your platform’s performance?

Imagine your Cornerstone platform when you first implemented it. It was brimming full of relevant content (you probably did an audit and subsequent cull before launch), all your employee data was in order and you were ready to roll. Naturally, after years of use, these systems can get cumbersome and full of latent, outdated information if left unmaintained. Nevermind the fact that technology becomes outdated as new advances are introduced, but not updated. It’s just what happens.

Conversely, many organisations do not have the internal resource to invest fully in the necessary upkeep, modernisation and maintenance which is really needed to keep the brilliance of CSOD shining – be that because of major skill shortages, problems sourcing and recruiting permanent staff or a distinct lack of internal resource. This lack of maintenance and admin support is causing problems and poses real risks to both the business and its people.

Skills gaps or lack of time: maintenance is key

We all know that our learners expect more these days. Exceptional user experiences with technology outside of working life has led to an extremely discerning audience who are difficult to please. Here are just some of the potential impacts of running a learning platform which is not regularly maintained:

• Drains on time: When technology is not maintained, learners are likely to spend more time navigating admin tasks than they actually do with learning content. This is not a value add and is certain to disconnect people over time. Admins will no doubt share the same frustrations.
• You can’t keep pace with business changes: Keeping up with rapid technological changes is not easy for any L&D department, but if you rely on outdated tech you’re likely to be even further behind and will struggle to ever compete for learners’ attention. And once it’s gone, it’s super hard to get back.
• You are less nimble: When technology is outdated or overwhelmed with legacy information and content, your ability to adapt and adjust to the ongoing changes within your business is greatly diminished (see point one).

If the above challenges are being experienced by your people, it could have a drastic impact on the engagement, retention and productivity of employees. But, fixing these problems is really as simple as getting some experts in to help.

SaaS doesn’t mean stand alone

Of course, when you feel as though a piece of software you’ve purchased is no longer serving you, it’s natural to blame it. After all – you’re paying for it and it’s not doing what you want it to, right? It is curious that many organisations buy tech thinking it will be evergreen and brilliant forever. But unfortunately, without maintenance, upkeep and important admin tasks, even the most sophisticated technology can fall down. And let’s be honest, replacing tech rarely solves the problem either – because you’re just going to replace it with another system which also isn’t kept up-to-date.

If you aren’t looking after your systems or technology, they’re going to struggle to perform over time. Replacing them because they’re not working is rarely solving the real problem at hand.

This idea of software servicing us for all eternity, without any on-going upkeep, is a notion many of us would do well to dismiss. In fact, Cornerstone does their best to modernise and update their platform, releasing new updates, bug fixes and more to enhance and extend its capabilities. But without consistent admin support, users can miss these opportunities for improvements and the result is that the power of this great platform lessens as it becomes more anchored down. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Outsourced support and assurance

Without the time or expertise in house to truly meet the ongoing demands on their Cornerstone platform, many organisations are turning to outsourced solutions to help them keep their platform modern, up-to-date and clean and clear of defunct content.

Here at Northern Star, we have a dedicated in-house team which can support your learning platform with a range of services, completely designed to suit your requirements to help you have the best possible experience with this powerful platform.

So, how does your Cornerstone perform? Is it in need of a tune up? Why not speak to us about how we can help you make more of what you’ve got and drive better performance from your learning platform?