Case Study: Powell's Books achieves personalized, scalable employee training with Totara

Powell's Books Uses Totara to Deliver a Personalised Training Experience for Employees

Powell's Books, the world’s largest independent new-and-used bookseller based in Portland, faced a failing homegrown LMS built in the early 2000s that relied on obsolete SWF/Flash content, offered poor instructor-led tracking and no vendor support. Needing a scalable, future-proof system, Powell’s evaluated options and selected the open-source Totara Learn with help from Totara partner eThink to replace their outdated platform and meet modern training needs.

eThink implemented and customized Totara to deliver features Powell’s required—robust reporting, certifications and notifications, hybrid web and instructor-led training, calendar/seminar management, enrolment controls, content integrations (e.g., LinkedIn Learning), hierarchies and user sync—while enabling a possible ecommerce paywall. The result is a modern, flexible LMS that provides personalized, audience-specific learning plans, better tracking and reporting, streamlined administration, improved employee training and customer service, and ongoing partner support.

Powell’s Books

Robin Fruitticher

Director of L&D