Colorado-based Metropolitan State University of Denver is currently searching for a new student information system with the end goal of improving accessibility and the user experience.
Currently, the university uses the Ellucian Banner platform to support the school’s most critical processes, including admissions, registration, financial aid and grading. However, the school says that a more modern student information system is long overdue. The school’s CIO Kevin Taylor said a new system will provide a more accessible, mobile-friendly, and cloud-based digital experience.
As part of a broader modernization effort, the school recently deployed Workday for finance and human-resources functions, which the school said was a success. As with the Workday deployment, the school said a new student information system is a massive undertaking. The school will apply what it learned from the Workday implementation to the student-information-system project, explained Chief Operating Officer Larry Sampler.
“As the Workday retrospective revealed, many of our administrative processes were decades old and didn’t translate smoothly to the new system,” Sampler said. “The lessons we learned from that implementation will be invaluable in ensuring a smooth and successful transition to a new student information system.”
A working group, made up of representatives from Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, the Bursar’s Office, Business Intelligence, the Student Advisory Council, and Information Technology Services, is currently evaluating two possible platform options: Workday Student and Ellucian Student. They hope to choose a system by the end of the year, and under the current timeline, the new system would be fully implemented by 2027.
The working group, led by Taylor and Chief Enrollment Officer Long Huynh, has already dedicated more than 2,000 person-hours to system demos, in-depth feature reviews, and collaborative conversations.
Compared with Ellucian Banner, both cloud-based systems would offer new functionalities and enhancements, including:
- Dashboards to enable faster, data-informed decision-making;
- Improved mobile support;
- Greater accessibility;
- Increased security and reliability; and
- Modernized processes that reduce manual effort for students and employees.
“To our knowledge, no other university has made a comparable investment in reviewing candidate platforms,” said Nick Pistentis, deputy chief information officer. “This gives us confidence that MSU Denver will ultimately make the best choice for the next generation of students.”
