Cornerstone OnDemand Implementation & Managed Services | GroveDeck
An implementation your people never have to work around
When the first ninety days go right, your people find their training the first time and managers stop asking who’s enrolled. When they go wrong, everyone downstream pays: org structure that doesn’t match how the company works, permissions copied from a template, learning assignments nobody tested against real hires. The first build sets the ceiling on everything the platform does afterward.
We build Cornerstone with you from design through go-live and stay with you after launch. You get a system shaped around your org, your compliance requirements, and your data feeds, documented so the knowledge lives in the platform, not in one person’s head. Nothing resets with turnover.
How our own tooling shortens the build
Your people wait weeks for a working platform, not quarters. Tooling we built and maintain in house prepares the pieces in parallel where a manual build works through them one at a time: org structure, permissions, groups, learning assignments, curricula, email notifications, reporting templates. A Certified Cornerstone Expert reviews every decision and owns the go/no-go. Nothing reaches your live platform without a person approving that specific change.
What’s included
A system shaped to your org
Your people move through a platform that matches how the company actually works, not a template: org structure, permissions, groups, and learning assignments built around your reality.
Hire dates and role changes that just arrive
New hires enrolled before day one and role changes that flow through on their own. We map and prove your Workday, SAP, ADP, SSO, and content-library data feeds before go-live. See Integrations & automation.
Knowledge that lives in the platform
Your team runs on the guides we write: admin runbooks, learner-facing guides, and every decision recorded. The knowledge lives in the platform, not in one person’s head, so nothing resets with turnover.
How an implementation runs
Discovery and design. We work alongside your team to map your org structure, compliance requirements, and data feeds into a blueprint you approve before anything gets built. A five-business-day written assessment scopes it.
Build. Our own tooling assembles the platform in parallel while a Certified Cornerstone Expert reviews each piece against the blueprint.
Prove it in staging. Your team does UAT on a working system before anyone else touches it. Learning assignments tested against real training records, data feeds confirmed in both directions, nothing left to find out in production.
Go-live. Learners land in a system that works on day one, with the guides your admins need delivered alongside it. Cutover runs off-hours with a Certified Cornerstone Expert present, on a clean go/no-go.
Managed operation. After go-live, the same team keeps running the platform month to month. Our monitoring catches what only surfaces once real learners are in the platform, so your people don’t hit it first. We make the fix.
The build is weeks, not months. How many weeks depends on org complexity, how many data feeds connect, and how much history comes with you. The assessment gives you a real number before anything starts.
Three ways organizations handle an implementation
| GroveDeck | Consultancy | Internal team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cornerstone depth | Cornerstone is all we do | One LMS among many | Learned during the build |
| Timeline | We get you live in weeks | Milestones, staffing windows, and dependencies | Built around everyone’s day jobs |
| Tested before launch | Your team tests before cutover | Late-stage UAT checklist | Squeezed between existing work |
| After go-live | Same team, month to month | Separate support scope | Every issue joins the backlog |
| Documentation | Guides your team can use | Project-close deliverable | Written if time remains |
| When you need something | It gets done | It gets quoted | It joins the internal queue |
| Commitment | Project, then month to month | Project contract plus change orders | Ongoing internal capacity |
| Who’s accountable | Our Certified Experts | Assigned lead until project close | The team balancing regular roles |
Questions we hear most
We already bought Cornerstone. Doesn’t Cornerstone implement it?
Cornerstone’s own onboarding gets the system provisioned and the basics turned on. The design decisions that determine whether your people find their training and managers see who’s enrolled, org structure, permissions, learning assignments, data feeds, are yours to make. That’s the part we own with you.
How long does an implementation actually take?
The build is weeks, not months. A five-business-day written assessment gives you a real timeline based on your org complexity, how many data feeds connect, and data volume before anything starts.
Can you rescue an implementation that’s already gone sideways?
Yes. Whether it stalled mid-project or went live broken, we audit what exists, keep what’s sound, and rebuild what isn’t. Living with the workarounds for another year usually costs more.
We’re coming from another LMS. Is that a different service?
The implementation covers your new system. Bringing history from Saba, SumTotal, or another LMS is Migrations, and the two run together as one project when you need both.
What happens after launch?
Managed administration keeps the same people running the platform, so you work with the team that built it week after week. Month to month, no lock-in.
What we also do
Coming off Saba or SumTotal? See Migrations. Want the platform run for you after go-live? See Managed administration. Need courses built for launch? See Content development.
Start on Cornerstone the way you mean to continue
A Certified Cornerstone Expert working on your implementation within ten business days of signing. The project has a fixed outcome, not a ticket limit: when something changes inside it, we handle it. We see it through launch, and the same people stay with you after.
Send us your implementation scopeA Certified Cornerstone Expert, not a sales rep. Earned month to month. No multi-year contract.