How Sodimac Colombia Overcame an Unexpected LMS Migration and Boosted Training Delivery by 25%
Sodimac is a successful home improvement and construction retail chain, founded in 1954 in Chile, and part of the renowned Grupo Falabella consortium. Its success has led to expansion across more than 100 stores throughout Latin America, with branches in Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Uruguay.With over 9,000 employees, the Colombian arm, Sodimac Colombia, faced a challenge that put the training programs of its corporate university, Mundo Eureka, at risk.
The Challenge: The Unforeseen Need to Change LMS and Concerns About a Difficult Migration
At the beginning of 2024, Sodimac Colombia faced a significant challenge when external circumstances forced the organization to move away from its Moodle™-based learning management system (LMS). This shift required a new LMS that not only ensured the continuity of its existing programs at Mundo Eureka but also delivered equivalent, if not superior, performance.Mundo Eureka comprises nine schools that cater to the educational needs of all Sodimac Colombia personnel, from front-line workers to top management. With divisions such as the Omnichannel Sales School and the Digital Transformation School, the corporate university ensures that everyone has the knowledge necessary to perform their duties and is prepared for future roles. However, Sodimac Colombia’s previous LMS migrations had been a negative experience:
“At first, we were anxious because other LMS migrations we had undergone were very slow, and complex. Also, we were concerned about losing all the features and configurations that we liked about the previous platform.”
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The Solution: A Highly Customizable Platform With Comprehensive Native Features and Top-Tier Support
After evaluating several LMS alternatives on the market, Sodimac Colombia chose Open LMS WORK as the new platform to manage its corporate training. Open LMS stood out for several key reasons:
- Seamless and Smooth Migration: Since Open LMS uses the same open-source code as Moodle™, content and settings migration was almost instantaneous. All the negative preconceptions about what a migration would entail were overcome.
- High Level of Customization: Sodimac Colombia was able to transfer Mundo Eureka’s corporate branding to the new platform with such precision that users didn’t notice the difference. This customization capability was crucial for maintaining employees’ sense of belonging and connection to their learning process.
- Comprehensive Native Features: Open LMS provided all the necessary tools to meet Sodimac’s educational objectives without the need for external solutions. Its innovative features even sparked curiosity about new educational possibilities to explore, such as using H5P to create interactive and engaging assessments, and forums to foster collaborative learning.
- Efficient Technical Support: The close relationship provided by the Open LMS team ensured that any technical or functional needs were quickly resolved, giving peace of mind to Sodimac’s training team.
- Robust Integration Capabilities: Integration with Microsoft’s Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) allowed for the automation of key processes, such as employee onboarding and offboarding, and role assignments, freeing up valuable time and resources for other important tasks.
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The Results: More Training Hours, More Trained Employees, and New Opportunities to Enhance Elearning Impact
The adoption of Open LMS not only allowed Sodimac Colombia to overcome the platform migration challenge in only one day, but also positively impacted the efficiency of its training activities. The centralization of processes on the platform simplified the work of team leaders, who could manage their collaborators’ training more efficiently. This was reflected in the company’s training delivery rates:
- In the first half of 2023, using its previous LMS, Sodimac delivered 176,000 training hours and trained 9,400 people.
- In the first half of 2024, with Open LMS, Sodimac reached 221,700 training hours and trained 11,000 people (total includes both workers who entered and left the company).
This represents a 25% increase in training hours and nearly 17% more trained employees.
Beyond the basic tools, Sodimac Colombia has begun experimenting with new functionalities within Open LMS to enrich the learning experience, both synchronous and asynchronous.
For instance, thanks to Open LMS’s SFTP integration feature, it has connected to an external solution to develop a custom dashboard. The goal of this dashboard is to visually and simply represent employee progress analytics. This way, team leaders and other stakeholders can monitor their collaborators’ training status without needing to be LMS analytics experts.Accessibility has also improved, as employees can use the Open LMS mobile app to complete their tasks from anywhere. Previously, they had to submit tasks informally through WhatsApp, leading to disorganization in the processes.
Luisa Herrera Torres added: "I am a big fan of lifelong learning, and I believe corporate learning is a beautiful way for people to be not just workers but humans who continuously learn. To achieve this, it is crucial that companies choose a reliable and highly competent tool. I find it incredible that solutions like Open LMS exist, capable of offering all this and much more."
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Are you also looking for a versatile and powerful corporate LMS? Open LMS offers endless possibilities to transform your training. Contact us or request a demo to see all its features in action.
