Totara is a world leader in the learning and development space – here’s how it can support you to achieve your goals. 

Totara is a leading LMS provider. 

As an open-source platform, there are all kinds of iterations of Totara. 

BuildEmpire is one such iteration. 

We know what the key challenges are when it comes to learning and development. 

From learner engagement and better security, to spending less time on busywork, we’ve custom-built features and plugins that specifically solve these problems. 

Keep reading to learn: 

• Who BuildEmpire is 
• What problem-led solutions we’ve built 

Let’s get started. 

Who is BuildEmpire? 

First things first, let us introduce ourselves. 

If you’ve already heard of Totara, then you’ll know what we do. 

But in case you haven’t, we’ll quickly explain. 

Totara is an open-source learning and development platform. Partners around the world use that code as a base to build their own version of that platform. 

Totara has created a bunch of useful features within its platform that users can benefit from.

And of course, it offers three packages; learn, perform and engage.

Each of these has different benefits and use cases. 

We’ve taken the Totara basecode and used it to create the BuildEmpire Edition. We’ll go into more detail on what that includes exactly later on. 

But we’ve jam-packed it with extra features and plugins that only our users can benefit from. 

We’re a small team of developers and learning experts with over 20 years in the industry. We support a range of clients, but our speciality are those looking for something beyond an out-the-box solution. 

So what does our learning management system actually do? 

How our solution can help solve your biggest challenges 

We know what the biggest challenges in L&D are. 

We work with our customers to create custom solutions that can support: 

• Better learning experiences 
• Easier LMS administration
• Workplace skill development and progression 
• More engaged learner 
• Better security

Let’s look at how. 

Simple learning design 

Lots of LMSs out there are clunky and old-fashioned. 

We believe that your LMS should be streamlined and have user experience at its heart. 

We’ve heavily invested in creating beautiful learning spaces. 

The goal? Better engage learners, and attract their attention to where it’s needed most. 

You’re left with: 

• Streamlined tiles to promote learning content 
• Media-friendly content for videos, GIFs, images and more 
• Clean and uncluttered designs 
• Simple boxes that you can use to stack new and existing landing pages 

Using our simplified design, what we call Blueprint, you can completely style your LMS. Add branding elements to make it your own and create a unified space. 

eCommerce 

Want to sell learning content? 

We built a plugin that allows you to seamlessly integrate with Stripe to accept payments directly via your LMS. 

Once the user has paid, they will be automatically enrolled onto your learning content, meaning less admin for you. 

Some benefits of the eCommerce plugin include: 

• The option to have two separate catalogues, you could use one externally for example 
• Course landing pages to build SEO to be found by search engines 
• Key filters to help users find the right content 
• Recommendations section to send users other, related content 

💡 Pro Tip 

Want to see our eCommerce plugin in action? Book a demo to see the full suite of features and how you can incorporate it into your platform 

See eCommerce in an LMS with a demo

Security 

Security is of paramount importance to us. 

We’ve invested heavily in data security and training including ISO 27001 compliance and cyber security. 

That’s why we created passkeys. 

This new way to store login details is taking over other apps, so why not your learning platform? 

Gamification 

Learner engagement is an ongoing battle for L&D professionals. 

But getting a tool that offers gamification options as part of its core platform isn’t easy. 

Luckily for you, BuildEmpire does just that. 

We’ve created points and leaderboards that come as standard in our core platform. 

That means you can assign points to users based on their activity and build bespoke leaderboards across different pages to create a sense of competition. 

Linking learning and performance 

It’s vital to link learning and performance. 

But with some learning platforms, the two sit in siloes. 

With our platform, we can help you better connect the two by combining Totara Learn and Totara Perform.

You’ll be able to: 

• Assign competencies and skills to users 
• Build feedback into your LMS for performance and learning 
• Manage performance within your LMS 

In the workplace, learning and development, or performance, should work in a cycle. 

An employee speaks to their manager about how they can progress. 

The manager assigns them learning and puts in a date to review it. 

The user engages in the learning content, improves their performance and gets good feedback from colleagues. 

The manager can then use this information and data to positively reward the employee. 

And so the cycle begins again. 

Wrapping up 

We’ve barely scratched the surface with how BuildEmpire can support L&D professionals. 

We’re constantly adding features to our roadmap, to see how we can offer the best core version of Totara. 

If you want to get a taste of what we could do for you, then book a demo. Our team will show you the features in action and share insights on how we could support you.