Text Box: Nashville State Community College

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Text Box: Banner News

Text Box: Issue 2, May 20, 2005 Text Box: What is Banner going to cost, and is it worth it? Text Box: The total cost of Banner includes software licensing, computer hardware, and training.  For Nashville State, the total cost will be close to three million dollars.  System-wide, the migration of all Tennessee Board of Regents schools to Banner will be around 75 million dollars.  It will likely take many years before Nashville State realizes three million dollars worth of cost savings and increased efficiencies from the conversion to Banner.  However, the benefit of converting to Banner goes beyond just cost savings and increased efficiencies.  As demand for convenience and access increases, those organizations incapable or unwilling to meet the demand will slowly become obsolete.  Imagine how long a large retail store would stay in business today if it did not accept credit cards.  The cost of accepting credit cards may not be offset by the efficiencies of accepting credit cards, but the cost of NOT accepting credit cards would be even worse.  For retail stores, accepting credit cards is simply a cost of doing business.  Likewise, a modern, always available and up-to-date administrative database is a cost of doing business.  A college that chose not to update their systems would find their students and faculty gradually migrating to other institutions which kept current.  The cost of NOT upgrading to Banner would be far higher than the cost to upgrade.

Text Box: In today’s world, access and convenience are king.  As our students, staff, and faculty become ever-more sophisticated, they expect access to information anytime, anywhere.  Banner is designed to be available 24 hours per day, seven days per week.  Because the user interfaces are web-browser based, Banner can be accessed from anywhere Internet access is available.  No special software will have to be loaded on the computer. The various modules of Banner are much more tightly integrated, yielding many positive benefits.  A single sign-on will allow access to all parts of Banner one has permission to access.  Only one record will exist for a person even if they have many different roles.  No more will separate records be kept for employees, students, and alumni.  Many currently manual processes will be automated.  Data will be updated in real-time.  Timecards, leave requests, and general requisitions will all be created online and routed electronically.  Class rosters and student enrollment will be updated as changes are made. For a more in-depth description, read this document.   

Text Box: What will Banner do for us? Text Box: Carl Dury is the co-project manager for the Banner implementation.  Carl is also the Director of Computer Services, and just joined us on March 1st.  He previously worked for Sungard Collegis and has many years of IT leadership experience, including 5 years at ETSU.

Text Box: Banner Implementation Team Spotlight Text Box: Next Issue! Text Box: Each of the Banner modules will be featured separately and in more depth in future issues of this newsletter.  Since the HR/Payroll system is the first system to convert, the next newsletter will start with it. Back issues of this newsletter can be accessed from the Computer Services website.