Ellucian Banner

I use this software every day for my accounting job at a major Midwest university.

Comments: This software has allowed me to be very efficient with my work as I am able to identify any accounting issues that may arise. Additionally, the system makes it very easy to look at prior fiscal years, which is a very large benefit when our auditors are asking for that information.

Pros:

This software, and the newest update, has made accounting a breeze. The financial system allows me to easily see where any reconciling item may be, and allows me reference codes so I may gather further detail. The new capability of using Chrome is a great feature as well because our entire organization is comfortable with the format.

Cons:

My only con would be that on some screens I am not able to copy certain data, which requires me to manually input the data. This is a small complaint because it is minimal amounts of typing.

The best platform to manage employees data.

Pros:

This program provides a centralized database for storing all employee-related information, including personal details, employment history, benefits, payroll information, and performance evaluations. This centralized approach streamlines HR processes and ensures data consistency across the institution.

Cons:

The initial investment and ongoing costs associated with Ellucian Banner, including licensing fees, implementation services, maintenance, and support, can be significant. The fact that they don't provide a free trial can play against the small businesses.

Tries to do more than it can

Comments: The people at Ellucian are professional and direct. Their systems are . . . neither. Their Course Catalog system lacks keyword searching - a problem they acknowledge but cannot solve. Their SIS will not provide real-time updates to our LMS - a problem they acknowledge but cannot solve, despite the existence of 3rd party solutions that do the job.

Pros:

It brought together many disparate systems, saving a tremendous amount of time.

Cons:

The company promises more than it can deliver, and attempts to integrate into multiple systems it should not.

Banner Finance and related Ellucian products

Comments: Ellucian is a robust computer system. Data does not get lost unexpectedly. There are exception reports that allow us to keep the financial records in balance and control reports that allow us to keep the subsidiary ledgers in agreement with the control accounts.

Pros:

Implementing software systems is difficult but we had some excellent trainers when we went live with Banner Finance. The Ellucian support is very comprehensive. The various modules interface with Finance which eliminates duplicate data entry. And the current Banner product can be accessed from anywhere.

Cons:

The length of the fields in Banner 9 data entry pages do not correspond to the data being entered. I shouldn't have to scroll to see what I have typed into a single field. There are often huge spaces but only a limited number of characters are accepted and the rest are truncated.

Robust ERP system

Pros:

Banner Finance is a very robust ERP system that allows you to track your accounting entries.

Cons:

There is a large learning curve with any software that is this robust.

Candid Review from a Prior Fan

Pros:

Ellucian Banner was a single solution for all our primary university functions. At the pricing secured in 2005, it remains an incredibly high value product in the growing list of software tools used by Utah State University.

Cons:

Ellucian's technology maturity has been an incredibly bumpy road. There have been incredible wins like the Banner 9 Student Registration system. There has also been some major let downs such as the Higher Education Data Model and nearly incomprehensible Ethos API offering. The loss of Ellucian Customer Service Managers who were assigned to look out for and advocate on behalf of customers has perhaps been the biggest loss experienced by any software by any vendor. The rate at which Ellucian has changed their online community platform has been mind boggling and the loss of access to previous efforts by customers on each platform is huge. Ideas has finally been replaced, but most customers are already of the mindset that it's just another tool where great recommendations for product enhancements go to die.

Legacy Software That Has Not Been Modernized

Pros:

The only positive aspect of Banner is that it has a decent Student Information System.

Cons:

Nearly everything. To begin, the interface has not been modernized to current application standards. The term "lipstick on a pig" applies more to Banner than almost any other application I have ever come across.They do not seem to care about making the ERP side of their product function well. They have focused most on the SIS side, which is understandable, but the lack of functionality on the ERP side means it is basically useless for a modern campus. It is only working for half of the business.Their reporting functionality is poor and bordering on non-existent.For IT, this product is a nightmare. The releases are extremely difficult to install and maintain. The codebase is locked in 20 years in the past. They still use 8 character table names!!! The amount of technical debt means if you even wanted to deploy it as a SaaS product, it is nearly impossible, let alone trying to put it up in the cloud.In short, the company seems to be resting on their laurels as the market leader and they are falling far behind the competition.

Programmer / Helpdesk POV

Comments: ActionLine support has great subject matter experts(SME) and support. Cloud team seems to be lacking SMEs and doesn't seem to fully understand how all the modules relate.

Pros:

I am allowed to see all the DB, and make custom items. Shell jobs, Oracle Packages, Oracle Jobs, and they are coming out with improved interface coding by moving to GraphQL and React JS.

Cons:

The cloud team is consistent about missing deadlines. Cloud support is very disorganized. Communication from cloud techs to customers is very poor, black box.

Was a great product, not so much anymore.

Comments: Banner used to be great. Good support and a quality product but now there seem to be defects with every release and the move to the cloud has been a disaster. Things that used to take a few days now take weeks and we are constantly having to align with Ellucians timetables instead of them adapting to ours, the customer.

Pros:

It does most of the financial aid processes we need it to do.

Cons:

The customer service/support is awful. Maybe it's our cloud team but there are constant mistakes and delays to the point we are considering another SIS.

Banner Finance work well

Pros:

Integration with other modules. Full suite ERP solution.

Cons:

Student is Banner's strongest module -- Finance is not.

Best administrative software application to store data and manage users.

Pros:

1. User friendly. 2. Easy to execute and navigate the dashboard. 3. Excellent student database management system. 4. Grade entry made easy and customized as per the specifications. 5. Ellucian Banner faculty has features like students attendance tracking, class list approval, academic profile and detailed schedule making it easy to follow-up under one roof. 6. All data is secure.

Cons:

1. Report customization is difficult. 2. Restricted capabilities.

IBM for Higher Education

Comments: It is our system of record, the main database tied to everything on campus.

Pros:

ERP software is never quick or easy to implement but most people in higher education use this package so it is very well known in the industry.

Cons:

It is old and has the baggage of any old system and lots of training is needed for employees new to it.

Degree evaluation

Pros:

Students degree evaluation - really my comment is to short. lol... I like pretty much everything with Ellucian

Cons:

Our help guide isn't up to date with the new verse so sometimes going to the guide to figure out what you did wrong and why something will not save/update is a pain. But, I can usually figure out what I did.

Banner Review

Pros:

I was not involved in that process or I guess I'm not sure what I like best. Well, the S.O.S. page is nice and it's easier to perform journal vouchers usinig S.O.S.

Cons:

The fixed asset module is difficult to navigate and impute assets especially the accessories or parts that are less than $5K. There are too many steps involved to get these items capitalized and attached to the main asset.

My Review

Pros:

Ease of use once learning Shortcuts and ability to quickly obtain information.

Cons:

Having to log in multiple times on a daily basis.

Easy to Use for Budgeting

Pros:

The college uses Ellucian Banner for all kinds of things. We use it to keep track of employee records. My main use is budget and creating purchase requisitions. I also use it with WebTMA to integrate charges from the work orders to charge the other departments.

Cons:

My only issue with Ellucian banner is permissions are very restrictive so you have to be granted permission to a lot of different screens.

Good product

Pros:

I like the tracking of employees and you can easily see funds.

Cons:

The page names are very confusing and you have to know the names of them to get there.

Financial Aid User

Pros:

Ellucian Banner is the platform that I have used at my previous and current university, while working in financial aid. I have only ever used Banner so I do not have another platform to compare it to. This system has been very beneficial in automating the processing for financial aid. I have used this program for over 7 years. All student, and employee, related information is stored in one location and necessary processing can be handled with Banner. Financially and academic based, this program has helped be the "one-stop-shop" for all information for our large student base. Banner 9 has made the screens easier to use for new users (due to acronyms) but Banner 8 was the most efficient program I have ran.

Cons:

Banner 9 seems to have a lag between screens that has not yet been improved. Being web-based, it has really slowed down or processing. There are glitches that are quickly fixed but there seems to be more issues with this new Banner program than what we ever dealt with while using Banner 8.

Decent user experience

Pros:

The updates that came with Banner 9 have made it much more user-friendly, although there's still a long way to go in this department. It has become much easier to search for various Banner forms, a feature that was lacking in previous iterations of Banner. The overall look is sleeker than the previous version and navigation within the forms has been made somewhat simpler with the reorganization of the page and inclusion of tool dropdowns.

Cons:

Occasional glitches disrupt the daily workflow. Many processes are still not as intuitive as they could be, especially when it comes to entering multiple invoices with separate FOAPAL strings. There is some difficulty getting Banner to talk to other software programs. While exporting data is easier than in previous versions of Banner, some print screen attempts go better than others.

Banner Finance - A Highly Functional Financial Tool for Higher Education

Comments: Our overall experience with Banner Finance has been very positive. We are able to generate quarterly and annual financial reports that our auditors and finance staff can work with and drill down on to get detail behind the figures.

Pros:

Banner Finance offers a lot of great functionality but what I liked most about the finance platform was its ability to interface between six campuses with Banner Student to communicate tuition payments and student receivables with our system financial system and update all as though they were one.

Cons:

Because this financial platform is so big, when we have experienced problems with Banner, it has caused debilitating shutdowns that grind our finance and accoutning system to a halt and users are on standby until we can get traffic started again.

Banner Finance Review

Pros:

Amazing application with many features and modules. Banner Finance in particular is the industry leading software. Great community with exceptional services.

Cons:

Can be a little cumbersome and very little to no customization.

As a user can be frustrating

Comments: Overall I can't picture doing my job without Banner Finance, however, it can be a source of frustration too. But in the end it really is a powerful tool if you know how to use it.

Pros:

As a person who uses this for work, only as a user (not an administrator) it is nice to have everything in one place and all info is presented clearly and as is. Sometimes you do need to take a few minutes or a few steps to get what you need, but its all there.

Cons:

Transitioning from the last version to the latest has been cumbersome and challenging. Also, knowing the shortcuts for all forms can be like learning a new language.

Banner

Comments: Banner is really difficult to use. Especially if you don't receive formal training, it isn't intuitive like some softwares. We really struggle each time we need to do something in Banner, and we have written instructions for everything in case we forget a step.

Pros:

It has a lot of different features, which is nice, but we don't really know how to use them because the interface isn't intuitive.

Cons:

It's hard to know what you are doing, and it's very easy to make a mistake that could do a fair bit of damage.

Banner Finance - Higher Education Focus

Comments: Banner Finance allows our AP team to pull vendor data quickly and to export that information for closer review. Vendor management is a huge selling point for this software!

Pros:

Banner Finance forms allow users to export into excel, which makes research easy. The vast array of available forms provide almost any data across the organization. The form search features are excellent as well!

Cons:

The Banner 9 integration seems to make transitioning between forms sluggish.

Expensive and old-fashioned

Comments: It is a complete solution for a university management system.

Pros:

One thing you can say about Banner Finance is that it is complete. It can handle whatever a university throws at it.

Cons:

The interface is still forms-based, just like in the 1970s. There is a newer web-based interface, but it is just a webified version of the old forms. It could have been much better, but they are married to 50-year-old paradigms.