Moodle can host a course, but it cannot run bilingual safety training tied to CNESST and a co-op intake

A custom learning management system for a Sherbrooke organization typically costs $35,000 to $100,000 CAD, driven by compliance tracking and integrations. A core bilingual LMS with certification starts near the bottom, while an LMS with CNESST compliance and HR integration reaches the top.

Yes. The system tracks safety training tied to CNESST obligations, issues certificates, and monitors expiry so renewals do not lapse. That compliance tracking is exactly where generic platforms like Moodle fall short.

Yes, defaulting to French with English available, delivered as native content rather than a translated copy. For a francophone Sherbrooke workforce, native bilingual delivery is what makes training effective and compliant.

Yes. The LMS manages cohorts so each co-op intake gets fast, consistent onboarding and the certifications they need before starting. That intake pulse is something generic platforms built for steady enrollment do not handle well.

Yes. We integrate the LMS with your HR and scheduling so certification records live with the employee and inform who can be scheduled for what. That connection keeps compliance visible where it matters operationally.

Plan for 3 to 7 months from discovery to launch. A core bilingual LMS is faster, while CNESST compliance tracking, cohort management, and HR integration extend the timeline.

Yes. The system tracks certification expiry and flags upcoming renewals so no one works past a lapsed safety certification. That proactive tracking is a core reason to move beyond a basic course host.

Yes, you own the code and the training and certification records outright. Those compliance records are important to keep under your control for audits and continuity.

A documented build can be maintained by Digital Heroes or a local developer, while your subject-matter experts keep the course content current. Budget for both ongoing platform maintenance and content updates.

No, most software projects run fully remote without any quality penalty, and what actually matters is 3 to 4 hours of working-hour overlap and a fixed weekly demo call. A team based in Sherbrooke earns its premium in specific cases: hardware installations, warehouse or clinic floor shadowing, and discovery workshops where watching your staff work beats any written brief. Choose for senior engineers and a track record first, and treat geography as a tiebreaker.

One page with five answers: your learner roles, headcount now and in three years, whether you use SCORM/xAPI content from tools like Articulate or iSpring, the systems it must connect to (HRIS, SSO, payroll), and the one report someone will pull every month. That page gets you comparable quotes instead of guesses, and on Digital Heroes projects it routinely cuts discovery time in half. You do not need wireframes or a technical spec; producing those is the agency's job.

A lean custom LMS for a small business usually lands between $25,000 and $50,000, covering course delivery, quizzes, certificates, and completion reports for one team. Below roughly 50 learners with standard training needs, custom rarely beats an off-the-shelf tool like TalentLMS, which starts free for 5 users and 10 courses. Custom starts earning its cost when per-user licensing, branding limits, or missing integrations cost you more than the build would.

Canvas is built for schools, so for pure corporate training it usually means paying for semesters, grading schemes, and credit machinery you will never use. Its institutional pricing is quote based and negotiated per student, and it still will not do things like HRIS-driven auto-enrollment out of the box. Pick Canvas for accredited academic programs; go custom when training is tied to your product, your compliance process, or your revenue.

Almost always yes, through CSV exports or the vendor's API, and migration should be scoped as its own workstream with field mapping, a dry run, and a planned cutover window rather than an afterthought. The real time sink is rarely moving the data; it is cleaning it, since years of duplicates, free-text fields, and inconsistent formats surface all at once. Pull a full export from your current vendor before committing to anything new, because some SaaS plans restrict exports on lower tiers.

Yes, and HRIS integration is often the single strongest argument for building custom. New hires from BambooHR, Workday, or Rippling can be provisioned automatically, assigned role-based training on day one, and have completions pushed back to their records, with offboarding removing access the same day. Off-the-shelf platforms sync user lists; a custom build syncs the whole workflow.

Plan on 10 to 14 weeks for a working first version and 4 to 6 months for a full corporate platform; those are the typical ranges across Digital Heroes projects. The items that stretch timelines are a SCORM/xAPI runtime, custom video pipelines, and single sign-on against a legacy directory. A phased launch with one department first gets learners into the system months before the full rollout finishes.

You should, completely, through a written intellectual property assignment that transfers everything on final payment; without that clause, copyright stays with whoever wrote the code by default. Insist that the repository lives in your own GitHub organization from day one and that hosting, domains, and third-party accounts are registered to you. Also check for licenses to the agency's proprietary frameworks buried in the contract, because those can make switching vendors practically impossible even when you own your own code.

Budget 15 to 20 percent of the build cost per year, which across Digital Heroes projects covers security patches, dependency updates, fixes when third-party APIs change (SSO providers and video services change often), and a steady stream of small improvements. Hosting for a mid-size LMS with video typically adds $200 to $800 a month. An LMS with zero maintenance does not stay free; it quietly accumulates a rebuild.

Digital Heroes builds custom LMS software systems for operators who have outgrown the off-the-shelf tools in their category. The work is delivered remotely: our engineers work from Delhi and Lucknow, leadership is in New York, and some team members live in London and Sydney and work remotely from there. We have no office in Sherbrooke. You can chat with the team directly, and every form gets an email reply within 24 hours.