Case Studies

Executive Summary

A large state university operating across multiple campuses struggled with delayed financial reporting, fragmented accounting workflows, manual reconciliation, and inconsistent data across departments. Their legacy Banner Finance deployment lacked modern APIs, automated reporting pipelines, and audit-ready visibility – slowing month-end closes and increasing compliance risk. SystechCorp delivered an Ellucian Banner upgrade that modernized the institution’s finance architecture, stabilized data flows, and enabled real-time analytics without disrupting daily operations.

The SIS/ERP ecosystem was upgraded using a governed, stage-by-stage approach that ensured zero downtime during critical fiscal activities. SystechCorp restructured the Chart of Accounts mappings, modernized Financial Aid alignment, and automated reporting pipelines across General Ledger (GL), Accounts Payable (AP), Procurement, Payroll, and Grants. These improvements reduced reporting time by 60%, eliminated reconciliation bottlenecks, and delivered real-time financial data accessibility for leadership and auditors.

This case demonstrates how SIS/ERP modernization built on Banner Finance can significantly accelerate reporting cycles, strengthen compliance, and create a scalable financial backbone for higher education. Contact SystechCorp to explore a similar modernization roadmap for your institution.

Introduction and Client Challenges

The university’s finance division supports multiple colleges, research centers, grant-funded programs, and auxiliary services operating under a shared-service financial model. Their Banner environment, originally deployed over a decade ago, had accumulated technical debt, inconsistent extensions, and unsupported customizations. These issues amplified over time, slowing reporting cycles and making compliance increasingly difficult.

Leaders identified several core operational challenges:

• Finance reports generated from inconsistent GL data, resulting in misalignment between departments.
• Manual reconciliation between Banner Finance and sub-ledgers, especially for Grants, Payroll, and Procurement.
• Slow month-end and year-end closures, with finance teams relying on spreadsheets and manual data exports.
• Legacy database structures lack modern API support, preventing integration with new reporting tools.
• High audit risk due to unclear transaction lineage and outdated data validation checks.
• Fragmented reporting dashboards limited leadership’s ability to analyze spending, encumbrances, or fund utilization.

The university knew Banner was architecturally strong, but their outdated version lacked modern capabilities. Leadership approved an Ellucian Banner upgrade, but a critical concern emerged:

How could the university modernize Banner Finance without disrupting payroll, grant submissions, procurement cycles, or active fiscal operations?

SystechCorp was engaged to architect and execute a zero-downtime modernization model that aligned financial workflows, stabilized data, and delivered measurable improvements in reporting speed and accuracy.

Solution Overview

SystechCorp executed a governed, multi-phase upgrade strategy that modernized the university’s Banner Finance ecosystem with zero operational interruption. The upgrade included core Banner modules, database updates, security realignment, API enhancements, and reporting modernization: all engineered under one unified roadmap.

Key modernization components included:

• Upgrade to the latest Ellucian Banner release, re-enabling vendor-supported features and eliminating deprecated extensions.
• Refactoring Chart of Accounts (CoA) to enforce consistency across all divisions and departments.
• Building automated reporting pipelines using modern APIs and secure ETL jobs.
• Implementing data validation frameworks to ensure real-time consistency across GL, AP, AR, and Procurement.
• Optimizing Grant Accounting and Financial Aid alignment for audit readiness.
• Revamping security roles and privilege models to align with state-level compliance.
• Deploying real-time financial dashboards built on event-driven data flows and API orchestration.

The goal was not only a technical upgrade but a full SIS/ERP modernization that improved cross-department financial transparency, eliminated manual reconciliation, and accelerated analysis cycles.

This Banner upgrade blueprint now acts as a repeatable model for universities seeking a governed approach to modernization, visibility, and compliance.

Key Solution Components

Systechcorp’s approach consolidated finance data, automated key workflows, and introduced a modern reporting infrastructure that now supports real-time visibility for finance officers, auditors, and leadership.

How SystechCorp Solved the Challenge

SystechCorp initiated the engagement by conducting discovery workshops with the finance team, internal audit, IT leadership, and departmental stakeholders. The objective was to baseline existing workflows, financial dependencies, sub-ledger integrations, reporting requirements, and technical risks across the Banner ecosystem.

1. Target Architecture and Upgrade Strategy

SystechCorp designed a Banner architecture that:

• Separated custom code from core modules
• Introduced modern APIs to support reporting tools
• Enabled bi-directional data sync
• Improved security and workflow governance

A parallel testing environment ran continuously to validate every workflow—procurement, journal entries, F&A allocation, budget changes, and payroll feed posting.

2. Zero-Downtime Upgrade Model

To eliminate operational disruption during the Ellucian Banner upgrade, SystechCorp engineered:

• Dry-run cycles replicating fiscal workloads
• Parallel GL and sub-ledger validation
• Automated reconciliation checks
• Sync scripts ensuring up-to-date production data

Finance teams continued operations uninterrupted while the new instance absorbed and validated real-time transactions.

3. Reporting Optimization

A major objective was improving how Banner upgrades improve reporting. SystechCorp re-engineered:

• GL summary and detail extraction
• AP/AR reconciliation pipelines
• Encumbrance tracking
• Fund and grant financial reporting
• Real-time dashboards for leadership

The modernization introduced automated analytics pipelines that reduced reporting time by 60% and eliminated spreadsheet-based manual work.

4. SIS/ERP Modernization for Financial Accuracy

SystechCorp aligned Banner with the university’s broader SIS and state education systems:

• Student Financials sync
• Financial Aid cross-posting
• Institutional research and state reporting alignment
• API-driven data exchange with external systems

This integration ensured consistent, reliable, audit-ready data across the entire SIS/ERP ecosystem.

5. Security and Governance

Data governance was strengthened through:

• Role-based access control
• COA governance workflows
• Audit trails validated across databases
• Compliance with state-level reporting mandates
• Automated checks for data integrity 

The university now runs a more secure, controllable Banner environment with standardized reporting and consistent workflows.

Key Outcomes Delivered

• Finance reporting accelerated by 60%, eliminating month-end and year-end backlogs.
• Real-time financial dashboards support leadership review and budgeting decisions.
• Automated reconciliation reduced manual workload by 40% across departments.
• Data quality improved significantly through modernized COA and validation frameworks.
• Zero downtime during deployment, maintaining payroll, procurement, and grant operations.
• SIS/ERP modernization aligned all financial, academic, and research offices.
• Audit readiness improved, reducing reporting discrepancies and compliance risks.
• Full adoption of upgraded Banner Finance modules, improving campus-wide financial discipline.

This transformation demonstrates how Banner upgrades improve reporting when executed with strong governance, modern APIs, and structured financial architecture.

SystechCorp’s Precision Approach

SystechCorp followed a highly disciplined modernization cycle similar to the one used across its higher-education portfolio. The process included:

1. Strategy & Discovery

• Workflow analysis
• Reporting requirements
• Technical debt assessment
• Risk mapping and upgrade dependencies

2. Architecture & Validate

• Designing the target-state Banner architecture
• Mapping COA improvements
• Building new reporting pipelines
• Running dry-run financial posting cycles

3. Deploy & Stabilize

• Staged module deployments
• Parallel financial reconciliation
• API validation and integrity checks
• Live cutover with zero interruption

4. Operate & Improve

• 24/7 monitoring
• Dashboard enhancements
• Support SLAs and ticket triage
• Quarterly improvements aligned with fiscal cycles

This method ensures long-term stability, continuous modernization, and measurable improvements in financial performance for universities of any scale.

Strategic Outcomes

This case study highlights how a well-governed Ellucian Banner upgrade improves reporting accuracy, reduces operational overhead, and strengthens financial stewardship across the institution. By standardizing COA structures, automating reconciliation, and enabling real-time reporting, the university’s finance team now operates from a single, trusted source of truth.

The modernization unlocked:

• Predictable fiscal operations
• Higher user adoption of Banner Finance
• Improved grant management and compliance
• Faster decision-making through automated insights
• Scalable architecture for future Banner modules

As universities continue prioritizing modernization and transparency, SystechCorp’s Banner-focused delivery framework provides a proven, repeatable model for SIS/ERP modernization across higher-education financial ecosystems.

Contact SystechCorp for a zero-disruption Ellucian Banner upgrade and end-to-end financial reporting modernization.