Following months of planning, the University has successfully upgraded to Banner 9 as part of the Student Records System Upgrade (SRSU) Project.
Completing the upgrade represents a key milestone for the institution – providing a solid, stable base to support a major programme of business change and improvement activity, aimed at enhancing both the staff and student experience.
“This was a faultless technical upgrade and that’s down to meticulous planning, testing and training plus exceptionally high levels of commitment and engagement from staff across the University,” says Project Sponsor, Professor Blair Grubb, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. “Now we are in a great position to take advantage of the new functionality within Banner 9 and improve how we collect and manage our student data.”
This highly complex systems upgrade required a large team of staff to work over an extended period as SRSU Project Manager, Andy Dolben explains: “Our student record system is integrated with over 100 other systems. These include Liverpool Life, Vital and Tulip, and we had to take into account and test a complex web of connections and interdependencies as part of the process. In addition, CSD’s Student Systems and infrastructure teams worked alongside software suppliers Ellucian, providing exceptional input to ensure that the upgrade was successfully completed as fast possible.”
Approximately 500 members of staff use the student records system and around 200 attended the SRSU Roadshows prior to the Banner 9 upgrade. “To secure such high levels of engagement and interest from staff was fantastic,” adds Andy. “Colleagues from schools and departments also played a crucial role in supporting User Acceptance Testing or UAT in the run up to the upgrade, testing around 250 different business processes.
“Similarly during the upgrade, a 27-strong team of staff conducted extensive Live Confidence Testing to identify and resolve any ‘bugs’ before the new system was rolled out across the institution. It’s thanks to their hard work and expertise – along with that of the core project team – that the upgrade went so well.”
The upgrade to Banner 9 marks the completion of Phase 1 of the SRSU project. Now work is continuing in earnest on Phase 2, focusing on forms transformation and planning to deliver on the business improvements and benefits identified by the Project’s various Implementation Groups.
New functionality, process improvements and forms will become available incrementally during this phase of the project, which is expected to take 3-5 years to complete, with further details to be released in the New Year.
Navigation training sessions
Banner 9 navigation training sessions are taking place for staff who are already with and use Banner 8. Due to high levels of demand, additional sessions have been scheduled to enable more staff to attend these practical, hands-on sessions, which build upon the SRSU roadshows which took place earlier this semester. The new training schedule is available here.
Further information and guides
- Watch this video (approx 16 minutes long) about how to navigate Banner 9
- Use this link to access guidance on using Banner 9, such as tips on logging on and new terminology.
- Access training materials for helpful information on using the new system