Support & Customer Success

Successfully implementing and managing Acorn PLMS requires access to quality training materials, clear documentation, and ongoing support resources. This guide outlines the training and documentation resources available to help your organisation's administrators develop expertise with the platform.

Understanding Your Training Resources

Acorn PLMS is recognised as a top LMS provider by industry sources, and this reputation is built on our commitment to supporting administrators through every stage of platform adoption. Your organisation has access to multiple learning pathways designed to accommodate different learning styles and experience levels.

The training and documentation ecosystem includes formal certification programs, comprehensive knowledge base articles, interactive learning modules through Acorn Academy, and detailed help guides covering platform features and administration tasks. These resources work together to ensure you have the information you need, when you need it.

Acorn Academy and Structured Learning

Acorn Academy serves as your primary hub for structured learning. Through this platform, you can access:

• Role-specific training modules tailored for administrators managing user accounts, content libraries, and system configurations
• Interactive courses covering core PLMS functionality and advanced administration techniques
• Video tutorials demonstrating step-by-step processes for common administrative tasks
• Best practices guidance informed by 12 years of platform development and client feedback

Acorn Academy is designed to support administrators working with large-scale deployments. The platform handles workforces of 500+ PLMS users, and our training materials reflect the complexity and scale management required in enterprise environments.

Admin Certification Programs

Formal certification programs available through Acorn provide recognised credentials for your administrative team. These programs validate your team's competency in:

• Platform configuration and customisation
• User and role management
• Content administration and course delivery
• Reporting and analytics
• System security and compliance
• Troubleshooting and maintenance

Certification demonstrates your team's commitment to excellence and ensures consistent, best-practice administration across your organisation. For organisations managing large user bases or complex deployment scenarios, certification is particularly valuable for ensuring standardised administration practices.

Comprehensive Knowledge Base

The Acorn knowledge base provides extensive documentation covering every aspect of platform administration. Your administrators can search for specific topics, troubleshoot issues, and discover advanced features through:

• Detailed how-to articles with step-by-step instructions
• Feature documentation explaining capabilities and configuration options
• Troubleshooting guides for common issues and error resolution
• API and integration documentation for technical implementations
• Regular updates reflecting new features and platform improvements

The knowledge base is continuously updated to reflect platform changes and emerging best practices learned from our global client base.

Help Guides for Common Tasks

Dedicated help guides provide focused documentation for critical administrative workflows:

• User provisioning and management – efficiently onboarding and managing users at scale
• Course and content administration – creating, updating, and delivering learning content
• Reporting and analytics – accessing performance data and generating insights
• Integration and API usage – connecting Acorn PLMS with your existing systems
• Security and compliance – managing permissions, data protection, and audit requirements

These guides are written for direct application—you can follow them step-by-step to complete tasks in your system.

Industry-Specific Training

Acorn PLMS has deep experience supporting organisations across multiple industries, including manufacturing. This industry experience informs our training content, which includes:

• Manufacturing-specific scenarios and use cases
• Compliance training workflows common in regulated industries
• Shift-based learning management for round-the-clock operations
• Performance tracking aligned with production environments

If your organisation operates in manufacturing or similar complex environments, you benefit from training materials developed with this operational context in mind.

Supporting Your Organisation's Scale

Regardless of your organisation's size, Acorn's training and documentation supports your administrative needs. With 12 years of business experience, Acorn serves clients of varying scales—from smaller operations to large enterprises managing 500+ PLMS users.

This breadth of experience means the training materials you access reflect real-world scenarios from organisations similar to yours. Whether you're managing a team of 100 users or several thousand, documentation and certification programs scale to your requirements.

Getting Started with Training

To begin your admin training journey:

1. Access Acorn Academy to explore available courses and modules relevant to your role
2. Review the knowledge base for documentation on your immediate administrative needs
3. Consult help guides when executing specific tasks or workflows
4. Pursue certification to validate and standardise your team's expertise
5. Stay informed of documentation updates and new training content releases

Your success with Acorn PLMS depends significantly on your team's understanding of platform capabilities and administration best practices. The comprehensive training and documentation resources available ensure your administrators have the support and knowledge needed to effectively manage the system.

Ongoing Support

Training and documentation are just one component of comprehensive support. Your organisation also has access to customer success resources, technical support teams, and community forums where you can connect with other Acorn administrators.

Regularly revisit training materials as your platform usage evolves and your organisation's needs change. Acorn's training ecosystem is designed to support you from initial implementation through mature platform operation.

Community & User Groups Community & User Groups

Acorn PLMS recognizes the value of peer-to-peer learning and collaborative knowledge sharing. Through our comprehensive community and user group programs, your organization can connect with other Acorn users, exchange best practices, and stay current with system capabilities and industry standards.

Online Communities

Our online communities provide accessible platforms where you and your team can engage with other Acorn PLMS users across geographies and industries. These digital spaces enable real-time discussion, resource sharing, and problem-solving among peers facing similar challenges in performance learning management.

By participating in online communities, you gain access to collective expertise and can contribute your own insights to help other organizations optimize their use of Acorn PLMS. Community members regularly discuss implementation strategies, system configurations, compliance requirements, and innovative approaches to learning management.

Annual Meetings

Acorn hosts annual online meetings that bring together users, system administrators, and Acorn staff. These gatherings provide opportunities to:

• Learn about new features and system enhancements
• Hear from industry experts on performance learning trends
• Network with peers from your industry or region
• Provide feedback directly to the Acorn product team
• Understand upcoming policy changes and compliance updates

Annual meetings typically include keynote presentations, breakout sessions tailored to different user roles, and interactive Q&A forums. Your organization should designate key staff members to attend and report back to your team on relevant updates and insights.

Regional User Groups

Regional user groups organize geographically to serve organizations in specific areas. These groups typically meet on a regular basis—either virtually or in-person—to address regional considerations, share localized best practices, and build stronger relationships among neighboring Acorn users.

Regional groups are particularly valuable for:

• Discussing region-specific compliance and regulatory requirements
• Sharing solutions tailored to local market conditions
• Coordinating on common implementation challenges
• Building support networks within your geographic area

You can find your regional user group through the Acorn community portal or contact your account representative for information about groups serving your area.

Peer Forums

Peer forums provide structured discussion spaces organized by topic, role, or functional area. Whether you're an administrator managing system configurations, a learning coordinator deploying courses, or an executive reviewing performance metrics, peer forums connect you with users who share your specific responsibilities.

Common forum topics include:

• System administration and technical configuration
• Instructional design and content development
• Compliance and policy implementation
• Data analysis and reporting
• Integration with other organizational systems
• Security and data management best practices

Information Security and Compliance in Community Spaces

As you participate in community and user group discussions, it's important to understand Acorn PLMS's commitment to protecting your data and maintaining compliance standards.

Policy and Governance

Acorn maintains comprehensive policies reviewed and approved by our CTO/CEO, then communicated through annual online refresher training, internal communications systems, and community channels. All constituents—including community members—are expected to understand and comply with these policies.

Our acceptable use policy is detailed in Section 3 of our Terms and Conditions, which governs all interactions within Acorn systems and community spaces.

Risk Management and Security

Acorn operates under an approved risk management program overseen by management to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data. Our asset management program ensures efficient resource utilization while maintaining industry compliance standards. All information assets are classified and managed according to strict confidentiality, integrity, availability, and auditability requirements.

For detailed information about our security approach, risk assessment methodology, and business continuity planning, consult our Security Whitepaper and Risk Management documentation.

Physical Security

Acorn maintains a documented physical security policy and program approved and overseen by management. All Acorn staff and constituents who access your data work from physically secure areas, and we welcome onsite physical security assessments of our facilities. Our hiring process includes criminal background checks conducted through certified screening services, providing an additional layer of protection for your organizational data.

Compliance Standards

Acorn's hiring policies encompass background checks, data management protocols, disaster recovery procedures, and comprehensive security measures—all designed to protect institutional data and user information. Any non-compliance with information security policy is addressed through a formal disciplinary process that may include additional training or, in severe cases, employment termination.

Making the Most of Community Resources

To maximize your benefit from Acorn's community and user group offerings:

1. Identify key participants from your organization who should engage with communities aligned to their roles
2. Attend annual meetings to stay informed about system updates and industry developments
3. Join relevant regional groups and peer forums focused on your specific challenges and responsibilities
4. Share your experiences and solutions with other users to contribute to collective learning
5. Review security and compliance documentation to understand how your data is protected within community spaces
6. Report security concerns to Acorn immediately if you observe any policy violations or suspicious activity

Getting Started

Your Acorn account representative can provide details about community groups, upcoming meetings, and forum registrations relevant to your organization. By engaging with the broader Acorn PLMS community, your organization benefits from shared knowledge, best practices, and the collective experience of thousands of performance learning professionals.

Platform Updates & Upgrades Platform Updates & Upgrades

Acorn PLMS operates as a fully managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, which means you benefit from continuous improvements without requiring manual intervention or complex deployment processes. This article explains how our automatic update system works, what to expect from our bi-weekly release cycle, and how you can stay informed or request new features.

Understanding Automatic SaaS Updates

How Automatic Updates Work

Your Acorn PLMS instance is automatically updated as part of our managed service delivery model. This means you don't need to schedule maintenance windows, install patches manually, or coordinate with IT teams for platform upgrades. When we release updates to Acorn PLMS, they are deployed to your organisation's environment seamlessly in the background.

Our infrastructure is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using industry-standard practices and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform). This architecture enables us to deliver reliable, predictable updates with minimal disruption to your learning operations. All updates are thoroughly tested before deployment to ensure stability and security.

Zero Downtime Deployment

We prioritise continuous availability for your organisation. Our update process is designed to minimise any impact on your users' ability to access Acorn PLMS. You should experience little to no service interruption when updates are deployed, allowing your learners and administrators to continue their work without unnecessary disruptions.

Bi-Weekly Release Cadence

What to Expect

Acorn PLMS follows a consistent bi-weekly release schedule. This predictable cadence allows us to deliver new features, security patches, and performance enhancements on a regular basis. Every two weeks, you can expect that the platform may include improvements based on recent development work, user feedback, and security requirements.

The bi-weekly cycle means your organisation never falls far behind the latest platform capabilities. New features and enhancements are rolled out systematically, allowing your team time to adapt and take advantage of improvements without overwhelming change frequency.

Planning for Updates

While updates are applied automatically and should not disrupt normal operations, it's good practice for your organisation to be aware of the bi-weekly update schedule. This awareness allows you to plan any internal training, documentation updates, or change management activities around new features when necessary.

Accessing Patch Notes and Release Information

Understanding Your Updates

With each bi-weekly release, Acorn PLMS publishes detailed patch notes that explain what has changed, what new features have been added, and what security or performance improvements have been implemented. These patch notes are essential reading for your administrators and stakeholders who want to understand the evolution of the platform.

Patch notes typically include:

• New Features: Descriptions of functionality added to Acorn PLMS
• Bug Fixes: Issues resolved that improve platform stability and user experience
• Security Patches: Critical updates addressing vulnerabilities or compliance requirements
• Performance Improvements: Optimisations that make Acorn PLMS faster or more efficient
• Integration Updates: Changes to how Acorn PLMS connects with external systems or services

Staying Informed

You should regularly check patch notes to understand how the platform is evolving. This is particularly important if your organisation has customisations, integrations, or specific workflows built around Acorn PLMS. Patch notes help you identify when updates might affect your setup and allow you to plan accordingly.

Enhancement Request Processes

Submitting Feature Requests

Acorn PLMS is designed with your feedback in mind. If your organisation identifies features, capabilities, or improvements you'd like to see in the platform, we have a formal enhancement request process through which you can submit your ideas.

Enhancement requests allow you to:

• Propose new functionality that would benefit your learning programmes
• Suggest improvements to existing features
• Request integrations with tools your organisation uses
• Advocate for changes that align with your learning and development strategy

How Enhancement Requests Are Evaluated

When your organisation submits an enhancement request, our product team evaluates it based on several factors:

• Impact: How many users or use cases would benefit from this enhancement?
• Alignment: Does the request align with the Acorn PLMS product vision and roadmap?
• Feasibility: Can the enhancement be implemented within our technical architecture?
• Priority: How urgent is this need for your organisation and the broader customer base?

Enhancement requests that resonate with multiple customers or address significant gaps in functionality are prioritised for development and may appear in upcoming bi-weekly releases.

Technology Foundation Supporting Updates

Built for Reliability and Scale

Acorn PLMS is built on PHP using the Laravel framework, a modern web application stack known for reliability, security, and scalability. This foundation allows us to deliver updates confidently and maintain the performance standards your organisation expects.

Our hosting within Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides enterprise-grade infrastructure, redundancy, and security. Combined with our use of open-source technologies and infrastructure-as-code practices, this architecture ensures that updates can be deployed safely and consistently across all customer environments.

Integration Considerations

While Acorn PLMS integrates with Microsoft services such as Azure Active Directory for single sign-on, the core platform does not rely solely on Microsoft technologies. This architectural independence means you benefit from a flexible, best-of-breed technology stack while still maintaining seamless integration with the Microsoft tools your organisation already uses.

Best Practices for Your Organisation

To make the most of Acorn PLMS updates and the platform's continuous improvement cycle:

• Review patch notes regularly to understand what's new and changed
• Provide feedback through the enhancement request process when you identify improvement opportunities
• Monitor your learning outcomes after major releases to ensure new features are being leveraged effectively
• Train your team on new capabilities as they become available
• Plan major initiatives with awareness of the bi-weekly release cycle

By staying engaged with the platform's evolution, your organisation can maximise the value of Acorn PLMS and ensure it continues to meet your learning and development objectives.

Technical Account Manager (TAM) Technical Account Manager (TAM)

Your Technical Account Manager (TAM) is a dedicated strategic partner assigned to your organization to ensure successful implementation, ongoing optimization, and maximum ROI from your Acorn PLMS investment. TAMs work across your enterprise to understand your unique learning and development objectives, provide expert guidance, and resolve issues with priority attention.

What Your TAM Provides

Strategic Guidance

Your TAM brings deep expertise in learning management systems and organizational development to help you align Acorn PLMS with your business goals. They work with your teams to identify opportunities for skill development, create targeted learning strategies, and ensure your platform configuration supports your organization's performance objectives. This includes leveraging advanced features such as skills mapping through Acorn's Capabilities module to identify role-specific and leadership competencies tailored to your workforce needs.

Your TAM takes time to understand your current training environment, pain points, and success metrics. Whether you're transitioning from legacy systems with limited course libraries or seeking more comprehensive reporting capabilities, your TAM develops a roadmap that addresses your specific challenges.

Priority Issue Resolution

When technical or operational issues arise, your TAM ensures rapid escalation and resolution. Rather than navigating standard support channels, you receive expedited attention on critical matters affecting your learning operations. Your TAM coordinates with Acorn's technical teams to diagnose problems, implement solutions, and prevent recurrence.

This priority support extends to configuration questions, integration challenges, and platform optimization. Your TAM serves as the bridge between your organization and Acorn's internal resources, ensuring your concerns receive appropriate attention and expertise.

Proactive Optimization

Your TAM doesn't wait for problems to emerge. They regularly review your platform usage, learner engagement metrics, and capability adoption to identify optimization opportunities. This proactive approach helps you:

• Maximize adoption across your organization
• Ensure all stakeholders understand available features and best practices
• Identify underutilized capabilities that could address emerging learning needs
• Adjust configurations and workflows based on evolving business requirements
• Stay current with Acorn PLMS updates and new functionality

TAM Responsibilities and Activities

Your TAM typically engages in:

Onboarding Support: Guiding your organization through initial implementation, user training, and go-live activities to ensure smooth adoption across all departments.

Stakeholder Coordination: Working with multiple teams including Learning and Development, Change Management, Subject Matter Experts, and business leaders to align the platform with organizational needs.

Performance Monitoring: Regularly analyzing usage data, learning outcomes, and system performance to identify trends and improvement opportunities.

Training and Knowledge Transfer: Conducting sessions to help your teams leverage advanced features, improve reporting capabilities, and adopt best practices.

Strategic Planning: Collaborating on longer-term initiatives such as leadership development programs, skills mapping implementations, and enterprise-wide learning transformations.

Acorn Leadership and Expertise

Your TAM is supported by Acorn PLMS's experienced leadership team, bringing deep industry expertise:

• Blake Proberts (CEO, Cofounder) and Sam Garnett (CTO, Cofounder) each bring 10 years of LMS and learning technology experience
• Keith Metcalfe (President) contributes 25 years of enterprise software experience from SAP implementations
• Garrett Buckley (Customer Success) brings 25 years of customer success leadership from major organizations including SAP and McKesson
• Eloise Littlejohns (People and Operations) and Tanis Hoeltgen (Finance) provide operational excellence with backgrounds from KPMG and enterprise software platforms

This leadership structure ensures TAM support is informed by deep technical knowledge, enterprise implementation experience, and proven customer success methodologies.

How to Work Effectively with Your TAM

To maximize the value of TAM support:

Establish Clear Communication: Identify primary contacts from your organization and establish regular cadence for check-ins and strategic reviews.

Share Business Context: Help your TAM understand your organization's learning objectives, current challenges, and success metrics so recommendations are tailored to your needs.

Document Use Cases: Share how different departments plan to use Acorn PLMS, enabling your TAM to optimize configurations for maximum adoption.

Provide Feedback: Regular feedback on features, usability, and outcomes helps your TAM understand what's working and where additional support is needed.

Participate in Training: Engage your teams in TAM-led training sessions and best practice reviews to build internal expertise.

Identifying Your TAM

Upon implementation, Acorn assigns a dedicated TAM to your organization who becomes your primary point of contact. Your TAM will reach out during onboarding to introduce themselves and establish initial engagement. They typically work across all aspects of your deployment and remain your consistent resource throughout your relationship with Acorn PLMS.

Support Beyond Your TAM

While your TAM provides strategic guidance and priority support, Acorn maintains comprehensive support resources for day-to-day questions and technical assistance. Your TAM can direct you to additional resources including product documentation, community forums, and specialized technical support when needed.

Getting Started

If you don't yet have a dedicated TAM assigned or wish to discuss TAM services for your organization, contact Acorn's Sales and Customer Success teams. They can discuss your organization's needs and establish the right level of support to ensure your Acorn PLMS success.

Technical Support (Channels & Hours) Technical Support Channels & Hours

Acorn PLMS is committed to providing responsive, professional support across multiple channels to ensure your organization can access help when you need it. Whether you prefer email, chat, or phone communication, our support team is available to resolve technical issues and answer questions about your system.

Available Support Channels

Your organization can reach Acorn PLMS technical support through three primary channels:

Email Support

Email support allows you to document detailed issues and attach relevant screenshots, logs, or configuration files. This channel is ideal for complex technical problems that require investigation or for non-urgent inquiries. When you submit an email to our support team, you will receive a ticket number for tracking purposes.

Live Chat Support

Live chat provides real-time assistance for immediate questions and troubleshooting. This channel offers quick resolution for common issues and allows you to communicate directly with a support specialist without waiting for an email response. Chat is particularly useful when you need guidance on features or step-by-step assistance navigating the system.

Phone Support

Phone support connects you directly with a technical support representative who can provide immediate assistance for urgent issues. This channel is best suited for critical problems affecting your organization's operations or when you prefer verbal communication to resolve complex issues.

Support Hours & Availability

Acorn PLMS maintains 24/7 support availability to serve your organization across all time zones and regions. Our global support infrastructure ensures that you can access assistance at any time, regardless of when your peak usage occurs or when issues arise.

Response Time Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Our support team operates under clearly defined response time SLAs to ensure predictable and timely assistance:

• Critical Issues: Immediate response with escalated investigation
• High Priority Issues: Response within defined timeframe with dedicated support
• Standard Issues: Response within standard business SLA with professional troubleshooting
• Low Priority Inquiries: Response during standard support hours

The specific SLA tier for your issue will be determined based on the severity and business impact assessment conducted by our support team when your ticket is received.

Support Ticket Management

When you contact Acorn PLMS technical support, you will receive a ticket number that tracks your issue through resolution. This ticket serves as a reference point for all communications and allows you to monitor progress on your support request. You can use your ticket number to follow up on status, provide additional information, or escalate if needed.

Data & System Information

When contacting support, you may be asked to provide information about your Acorn PLMS implementation, including:

• Your organization's account details and environment (production, staging, test)
• User IDs or email addresses affected by the issue
• Description of the problem and steps to reproduce it
• Any error messages displayed
• Screenshots or system logs when applicable

This information helps our support team diagnose and resolve issues more efficiently.

Escalation Procedures

If your issue requires escalation or has not been resolved to your satisfaction, inform your support representative. Acorn PLMS maintains clear escalation paths to ensure complex issues reach appropriate technical resources or engineering teams when needed.

Remote Content Sharing Support

For organizations using Acorn's Remote Content Sharing feature to distribute SCORM content to partner LMS environments, dedicated support is available to assist with:

• Content package configuration and deployment
• Learner access tracking and usage controls
• Permission and revocation management
• Integration troubleshooting with partner systems

Detailed documentation for Remote Content Sharing is available in our help centre at https://help.acorn.works/help-centre/remote-content-sharing.

Getting the Most from Support

To expedite resolution of your technical issues:

1. Provide complete information when submitting your support request. Include context, error messages, and affected users.
2. Use the appropriate channel for your urgency level—email for detailed issues, chat for quick questions, phone for critical problems.
3. Include reproduction steps so our team can replicate and diagnose the issue accurately.
4. Reference your ticket number in all follow-up communications.
5. Test in a staging environment when possible before implementing recommendations in production.

Support Best Practices

Your organization can maximize support efficiency by:

• Designating primary technical contacts within your organization for consistent communication
• Maintaining accurate user and system configuration information
• Communicating system changes or planned maintenance in advance
• Reviewing Acorn PLMS documentation and training resources before contacting support for common questions

Contacting Acorn PLMS Support

To access technical support, contact Acorn PLMS through your preferred channel. If you have not been provided with specific support contact information for your organization, reach out to your account manager or implementation team for the appropriate support queue and contact details.

Acorn PLMS support is staffed by experienced technical professionals with deep knowledge of the platform's capabilities and common implementation scenarios. Our goal is to resolve your issues quickly and help your organization get maximum value from your Acorn PLMS investment.