7 great solutions to consider
Remembering the Dreamforce 2019 Keynote, I hear the vibrant words of Leah McGowen-Hare’s (Vice President of Trailhead Evangelism, Salesforce) on innovation: „If the tech industry has the freedom to innovate, they also have the responsibility to create — create pathways to new professions, pathways that are inclusive of everybody, pathways that are equitable and accessible, because it’s going to take all of us to close the skills gap.“
And it is not only the tech sector which must relentlessly improve their ways and tools to keep up with the pace of the ever-changing world which requires every single one of us to gain new knowledge, skills, and experiences every day. This also becomes even more relevant in times of a global pandemic when mankind is put under a great test of readiness and flexibility to be able to fight back with weapons of mass transformation.
It all comes down to the most burning question, how fast and well we are able to collect, codify, organize all the new information, and finally, how efficiently – as the Trailblazers say – we skill up for the future. What we all need is the right tool to help us succeed, no matter whether you are a teacher learning to set up a videoconference with your pupils, an entrepreneur redesigning your whole business model to accommodate social distancing requirements, or a world leader facilitating a fiery discussion on the current state of the international trade while sitting in your children’s bedroom.
However, selecting The One and Only platform can be sometimes as difficult as finding Prince Charming. The good news is that I have already done some work to help you get an idea of what is worth considering. When assuming you have a Salesforce-based company infrastructure, it obviously makes sense to evaluate primarily Salesforce product offering and Appexchange apps. The list below is surely not a complete one, every business has different objectives, needs, and requirements, yet it can serve you as the first orientation point before you get your hands dirty and start your own research.
Salesforce Knowledge
A good old Salesforce Knowledge included in every Service Cloud license gives your website visitors, clients, partners, and service agents space to get assistance through articles. They can be used both internally and externally to share information on various processes, products and services, issue resolution scenarios, and much more.
Unlike other solutions in this list, its use case is fairly limited to customer support. While it offers quite some interactive elements to simplify the lives of agents, the value proposition in terms of features for the end-users is basic. The article is the only format that can be used to store information and even though it supports rich text, making it any more appealing than applying italics to your subtitle is close to impossible. However, if you are looking for a quick fix to your customer support challenges, this is definitely a tool to look into.
Price: included in Service Cloud licenses
Discounted for non-profits: Yes
Components for Community Cloud: Yes
Link on Salesforce website
myTrailhead
Reinventing their learning flagship, Salesforce introduced myTrailhead to the world in early 2019. Companies now have the ability to empower their employees with a white-labeled customizable version of the legendary Trailhead. Upon purchasing an add-on license to Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or Platform, you get a chance to create your own engaging, interactive learning journeys, in order to scale your employee onboarding, supercharge productivity, increase Salesforce adoption or to cultivate company culture.
The package offers a series of new objects as well as Lightning Components which makes it very easy to diversify learnings for various user groups. Unfortunately, there are some limitations at this moment, too, limiting custom permission settings and targeted content management.
Unfortunately, the price tag which doesn’t differentiate between learners and publishers either, makes the myTrailhead unaffordable for many smaller and medium enterprises.
Price: starting at 25 USD per user per month as an add-on Sales Cloud, Service Cloud or Platform licenses on Enterprise Edition and above
Discounted for non-profits: No
Components for Community Cloud: Yes
Link on Salesforce website
Appinium: LearnTrac & ViewTrac
Two independent Salesforce native apps come with a wide range of features aiming to inspire engagement and increase uptake of training offerings. Instructor-led training, quizzes, surveys, resources, Zoom integration, gamification, certification courses, you name it. As data-driven platforms, all data is accessible in Reports and Analytics to give you powerful insights, no matter if your users access the content in Salesforce, Community, Chatter, or email. You also get an ability to target it to the right people, making the learning journey extremely accessible.
Therefore, it is fair to say that these two apps are a great solution to various business use cases such as employee onboarding and training, marketing generation, partner certification or customer success service.
Price: LearnTrac is for free, ViewTrac starts at 6.5 USD per user per month
Discounted for non-profits: Yes
Components for Community Cloud: Yes (2)
Link to AppExchange separately ViewTrac & LearnTrac
Impact Learn
Simple, yet true enterprise learning management system manages training to employees, customers, and partners as a flexible solution that can be embedded in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Communities, Salesforce Mobile App, or some custom applications. It supports personal and informal learning, mobile access, video, and a bunch of other content formats, designed for modern digital learners.
Hence, it is a strong choice for organizations that want to improve their employee onboarding experience, offer cohesive leadership development, or boost channel enablement.
Price: 12 USD per user per year
Discounted for non-profits: No
Components for Community Cloud: Yes (23)
Link to AppExchange
Cornerstone for Salesforce
Completely redesigned integrated learning solution is coming back to Appexchange from one of the world’s most successful companies in HR software development. It allows sales, customer service, external partners and clients, to consume training as they are working in Salesforce or in Communities. Users can browse, search, and launch courses either from our embedded user interface that is housed in a learning tab in Salesforce or within different Salesforce objects like Opportunities or Accounts. With integrated reporting, you can analyze learning metrics alongside sales metrics to understand outcomes.
Price: 2 USD per user per month
Discounted for non-profits: No
Components for Community Cloud: Yes
Link to AppExchange
SAP Litmos
An award-winning platform for customer-focused enterprises, SAP Litmos can be utilized both for corporate workspace training as well as extended enterprise training. Deployment is fast and easy, with ready-made Lightning components that can land easily in any Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Community Cloud, or a mobile page.
Enabling rapid creation of the content itself, learning courses can be deployed in minutes and distributed to learners via all devices. While supporting 33 languages, SAML 2.0 and Oauth2 single sign-on, extended API limits, and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, it becomes a great choice for large demanding clients.
Price: 6 USD per user per month
Discounted for non-profits: Yes
Components for Community Cloud: Yes (10)
Link to AppExchange
Docebo
As the cherry on the cake, there is also Docebo for Salesforce. It is not a native Salesforce app, yet it is a very well designed integrated solution which is definitely worth mentioning. Learners are provided with the opportunity to inject AI-powered social learning in their CRM, supporting how they learn on-the-job every day: through interactive tasks and experiences rather than formal courses and training. Covered use cases vary from internal sales enablement, partner program management, customer engagement, improved strategy, or creation of a new revenue stream with paid content.
The integration can be easily set up thanks to their interactive guide and it works perfectly with Classic and Lightning, including Communities. The only downside is that it currently doesn’t support mobile devices.
Price: starting at 3 USD per user per month
Discounted for non-profits: No
Components for Community Cloud: Yes
Link on Docebo website
I know, there are so many of them and they look great, right?! If you are now contemplating how to proceed, let me share with you my two cents. When working on a project for an international non-profit in desperate need of an affordable and powerful platform to provide their various stakeholders with an opportunity to learn, I have personally preferred the LearnTrac & ViewTrac solution.
Their amazing sales team alongside an incredible CEO Steven Jacobson has been tremendously helpful as they are genuinely committed to making their customers successful by offering very reasonable deals, fast technical support and expert consulting. On top of that, the product itself is easy to use, has extensive well-thought-through documentation and very flexible settings, it follows modern principles of effective learning, and makes it all fun and cool.
So while being a huge Trailhead ambassador, I dare to say that the ultimate combo of ViewTrac and LearnTrac is totally trashing myTrailhead on every level apart from the confetti celebration thingy when earning a new badge which I will happily give up on!
- Certified Salesforce Consultant getting stoked about every new Trailhead badge, latest release notes, and cool Lightning components.
- Cross-functional tech project & product manager with 10 years of international experience.
- Excited never-settler continuously looking for opportunities to change the world.
- Passionate traveling photographer collecting extraordinary stories of ordinary people.
- Zero waste ambassador. Salsa dancer. Service dog trainer.