What is this thing called Banner?
John Strother
Director of IT Programming
The what…
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What is Banner?
◦ Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software
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SAP
PeopleSoft
Oracle Applications
Datatel
◦ What resources?
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Students
Classes
Faculty & Staff
Finances (i.e. money)
And the who…
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Who is SunGard Higher Education?
◦ Formally SCT (now SGHE)
◦ Part of SunGard, a software and technology
company (high availability and finance)
◦ SGHE provides software and services to over
1,600 institutions worldwide
◦ 2,600 employees
◦ PowerCampus, fsaATLAS, Infinity Process
Platform (business process engine)
Technology Stack
Banner runs on Oracle products
 Oracle has more than 370,000 customers
worldwide
 Industry-leading database
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◦ Performance, security, scalability
Tools (such as Oracle Forms) to build
applications
 Programming languages (PL/SQL, C,
Cobol)
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Banner is INB & EagleNet
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Banner functionality accessed in two ways:
◦ Internet Native Banner
 Method used by most business users
 Most - if not all - Banner functionality available
◦ EagleNet
 Self-Service Applications
 Used by most of us “non-Banner” users
 Student registration, grading, employee benefits, W2’s
◦ Different technology, different applications (think
upgrades, patches, functionality, testing, bugs)
◦ Banner system for each (Student, Finance, etc.)
Banner Systems
Organized by Function (student, finance,
HR, Finaid)
 Each system has many modules
 Separately purchased and licensed
 SGHE releases major version (i.e.
Banner8) with systems at individual levels
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Student 8.4
HR/Payroll 8.4.1
Finance 8.5
Financial Aid 8.10
Student
Comprehensive solution for student
administration
 Primary functions are scheduling,
registration, accounts receivable and
academic history
 One of the largest Banner systems
organized into fourteen modules
 Help with unused modules through PIA
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Student cont.
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Course Catalog, class schedule, general
person, faculty load, location management
and housing, recruiting, recruiting,
admissions, general student, registration,
accounts receivable, academic history,
CAPP, system management
Student cont.
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NWACC uses Banner Student for:
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Building catalogs
Creating class schedules
Adding student information
Recruiting students
Registering students
Admissions
Academic history (grades, academic records)
Student cont.
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New and future stuff
◦ DegreeWorks – comprehensive set of webbased academic advising, degree audit and
transfer articulation tools
◦ Online Admissions – allows prospective
students to complete and submit applications
for admission online (EagleNet)
◦ Enrollment Management Suite – technologyassisted recruiting and admissions, retention
and alumni relations solution
Finance
Comprehensive, integrated system to
track, maintain, and process all financial
data
 Includes eleven modules:
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◦ General Ledger, Finance Operations, Stores
Inventory, Purchasing and Procurement,
Accounts Payable, Budget and Position
Control, Fixed Assets, Cost Accounting,
Endowment Management, Accounts
Receivable, Research Accounting
Finance cont.
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New and future stuff
◦ Banner Travel & Expense Management
 Manage policies, authorize expenditures, process
reimbursements, manage approvals
◦ Purchasing and Procurement
 Requests for goods & services, ordering/buying,
receiving, bids/contracts
 e-Procurement (SciQuest HigherMarkets front end)
◦ Budgeting and Position Control Module
 Facilitates budget preparation integrated with HR
Financial Aid
Performs tracking, budgeting, need
analysis and packaging
 Components include:
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◦ Applicant record creation, requirements
tracking, student budget assignment, funds
management, disbursement, award
history/transcripts, direct lending, electronic
data exchange, reporting, loan processing and
return of Title IV fund information
Financial Aid cont.
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NWACC uses Banner Financial Aid for:
◦ Applicant Processing
 Day-to-day processing of student financial aid info
◦ Requirements Tracking
 Define documents students need to submit
◦ Packaging and Disbursement
 Group students by level and award as a unit
Financial Aid cont.
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New and future stuff
◦ Fully use Student Employment module
 Referral, placement, hours submission, and tracking
functions for student employees
 Work authorization and departmental time reports
Human Resources System
Includes Human Resources, Position
Control and Payroll
 Supports employment and compensation
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Budget preparation and monitoring
Position control and staffing
Payroll processing
Administration of benefits and leave
HR cont.
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Applicant tracking and Talent Management
◦ Using PeopleAdmin
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NWACC uses Banner HR for:
◦ Recruiting, compensation, benefits, evaluations
and FMLA
◦ View pay stubs, benefit information, update
office information and salary planner
(EagleNet)
HR cont.
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New and future stuff
◦ Faculty Load and Compensation (FLAC)
 Merges information in Banner Student and HR
(EagleNet) to help manage faculty workload
◦ Electronic Personnel Action Forms (EPAF)
 Accommodate a more efficient signature process
(INB and EagleNet)
◦ Web Time Entry
 Electronic approvals of time entered (EagleNet)
◦ Talent Management Suite
 Offered as SaaS
Banner General
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Contains modules common to all Banner
systems
◦ Job Submission – running of reports and
processes
◦ Population Selection – allows extraction of
people, vendors or organizations for use in
reports, processes and letters
◦ Letter Generation – Define extract variables,
build paragraphs, and merge data into a
formatted letter
General cont.
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New and future stuff
◦ Banner Enterprise Identity Service (BEIS)
 Support and automate user provisioning to/from Banner
 Provides a standard identity definition
◦ Mass Data Update Utility (MDUU)
 Business tool to quickly and easily develop batch
updating processes
◦ Supplemental Data Engine (SDE)
 Simple way to add data fields to Banner Forms (without
customization!)
◦ Web Services
 Supports a service-oriented architecture to facilitate
integration with external systems
Workflow
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A workflow automates a work activity
process
◦ Users determine the rules that affect the
process
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Creating a workflow involves five phases:
◦ Analyze, develop, implement, execute and
monitor
◦ Process must be formalized
Workflow cont.
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Some NWACC workflows:
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Technology Access Form
Technology Services Project Request
Employee Change Notification
Work Study Request
Name Change
Terminate Employee
Faculty Grade Change
Refund Appeal
Banner Advancement
Not currently being used
 Handles day-to-day activities of
advancement and development offices
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Tracks pledges
Records gifts
Program planning and evaluation
Volunteer management
Prospect tracking
Matching gift processing
Other Systems
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Banner is the source (central record) for:
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BlackBoard
Ad Astra Room Scheduler
AdvisorTrac (web-based advising system)
Advocate (student conduct)
NaceLink CSM (career services manager)
Koha (Library catalog system)
Clancy Systems (parking ticket system)
my.nwacc.edu (portal)
 CampusEAI
Other SGHE Partners
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Evisions
◦ SunGard Higher Education is reseller and
strategic partner
 Training and Installation
 Remote Report Development
◦ FormFusion – transforms Banner output into
digital documents
◦ IntelleCheck – securely supports check printing
and routing directly from Banner
◦ Argos – enterprise reporting solution for ad hoc
queries, advanced dashboards and data cubes
The Near Future
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INB get’s a new look – Project Horizon
◦ Why?
 Oracle Forms is starting to look outdated
 “Old” technology
◦ Oracle Forms = Proprietary product (Oracle)
◦ OpenSource Products
◦ Groovy & Grails
 Modern web based user interface
 Dynamic language for Java Virtual Machine (Groovy)
 Web Framework (Grails)
◦ Most functionality released in Banner 9
On the Horizon
Catalog and Schedule in Q3 2011
 Same screen names
 Similar keyboard navigation
 Quick Flow will be supported in future
releases
 Data Extract will still work
 NWACC in 2012?
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All things Banner…
Arkansas Banner User Group (ABUG)
 Hosted for first time at NWACC
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◦ September 27 & 28
◦ Call for presentations!
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SGHE Commons
◦ http://www.edu1world.org/commonsSunGardHE/
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Community Source Initiative
◦ https://csicode.sungardhe.com/gf/
Thanks!