by Alan Noble

Every time a Baylor student registers for classes, a Baylor employee submits a timecard or Baylor alumni donate through Baylor’s Web site, the university’s administrative suite, Banner, manages the data that makes these important interactions happen. During Fall Break, Baylor ITS will be implementing an upgrade to this crucial system, which will offer a few, minor changes and will allow Baylor to stay up to date with the latest government regulations.

Although faculty, staff and students will not immediately see any new features when the upgrade happens, Scott Huggins, Manager of Database and System Services for Baylor ITS, said that one benefit some users might see is the “globalization of the Banner product.  This means that the system will hold longer names, addresses, etc. and will handle international characters and symbols.”

According to Huggins, most of the changes to Banner will be technical, and the motivation behind the upgrade is to “stay current with the Banner product in order to maintain technical support from SunGard, the product vendor.  This support is critical in order to receive software updates for government compliance—in particular for Financial Aid, Human Resources and Payroll.”

The Banner 8 upgrade will begin on Thursday, October 15, at 1:00 p.m.  The upgrade is expected to take all weekend (Fall Break).  Banner and all other affected systems (such as BearWeb) will be down until Monday morning, October 19.