Acorn vs Janison: An LMS Comparison
Differentiating between LMS vendors is hard. Take Acorn LMS and Janison, for example. We’re both Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products, we both offer learning and assessment delivery and management, and we’re both Australian based, hosted and founded.
So, what are the differences between Acorn and Janison?
The biggest differentiator is what our platforms are trying to do. Janison’s focus is purely learning and assessment, and for a company that’s only in its early 20s, it’s leading the way in its field. Their target market is mainly schools and higher educational institutions, as well as certification, accreditation, performance assessment and capability development for enterprises and government.
Acorn’s focus has always been on continual professional development in the name of organisational success. eLearning, and all the trimmings that come with it, is the foundation for scalability, profitability, a healthy workplace culture, and attracting, developing and retaining the right talent for each clients’ structure and goals.
Need a little more? Read on for some of the technical and vendor differences between Acorn and Janison.
Janison vs Acorn: User interface
The real cost of LMS software is how easy it is to use, and how much work the average user must do in order to understand the system. That’s why Acorn is insanely intuitive, if we do say so ourselves. We know learners and admin want to get the most out of the system without any tech headaches, so each interface (from admin and learner to content creator and external facilitator) has the same low learning curve, with just a few minor variances in capabilities.
Both the Janison CLS and Acorn provide always-on learning so learners aren’t confined to a 9-5 that conflicts with other responsibilities. Janison’s UI is also responsive, but requires a number of plugins to reach the functionality Acorn offers as a baseline.
Janison vs Acorn: Ease of use
Janison knows learners are there for their education, not to figure their way around the system. They’ve got detailed video tutorials, a Support Services team, and run all maintenance and updates themselves. The Acorn wiki is segmented into different sections so there’s no scrolling through pages of irrelevant information to find what’s pertinent to you like you may find yourself doing with Janison’s Knowledge Base; with just a click, you’ve got a user-friendly DIY guide at your fingertips. Plus, you’ve got your own Customer Success Manager on hand 24/5 and the expertise of our dev, design and quality assurance teams behind your personalised platform.
We abide by an agile development process, so we can make continual enhancements that make the user experience smoother, easier and more intuitive—which you can see in our fortnightly patch notes. And while Janison provides release notes every fortnight, some users may find them a little heavy on the tech jargon side.
Janison vs Acorn: Features & integrations
Like Acorn, Janison is Australian born and bred, so you can be sure they’re adhering to national security standards. Janison also supports SCORM 1.2 (good!), though the most current version is 1.3 or SCORM 2004 (so good, but not great). And while they offer gamification, you’ll need a social learning plugin to access that in the CLS.
SCORM and TinCan compliance, gamification, capability mapping, integration with your existing internal systems and third party content providers—all features you’ll find come ready-to-use within Acorn. While Janison gives you the opportunity to create learning plans for learners, Acorn empowers the creation of learning pathways, using individual proficiency levels, training progress and career history to upskill and hire employees.
Janison vs Acorn: Pricing
We’re not the keeper of secrets; we like to be as transparent as possible so our clients know what’s happening and why. Our pricing is available to view here. Janison’s pricing is a little harder to track down, so you’ll need to contact them directly for a quote. You might also find, if you choose to host with the IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) Microsoft Azure, the figure you’re quoted is bumped up. This is because you’re paying for that added subscription to another server, plus their support, on top of Janison’s services.
Bonus: Take home
Here’s a closer look at some of the finer points of difference between Acorn LMS and Janison CLS.
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