• What is “Project ORBIT”? 

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has begun a multi-year, campus-wide effort to implement a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system to replace our current administrative systems (FRS, HRS, SIS), which are nearing obsolescence. In keeping with the university’s strategic plan, a major emphasis, while implementing the new systems, will be to reengineer administrative and academic processes to improve customer and student satisfaction. Hence the efforts to implement new ERP systems at NJIT have been branded as ‘Project ORBIT’ (Organizational Reengineering using Banner Information Technology). 

• What does ERP mean?

ERP is a legacy term that stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning”.  Today, an ERP system(s) is an integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise.  ERP systems typically include application modules to support common business activities, such as finance, accounting and human resources.  ERP systems designed for higher education institutions typically also feature modules to support admissions, records and registration, financial aid and student accounts receivable activities.  Learning management systems such as WebCT and Moodle would also be considered part of a higher education institution’s ERP systems.   

• What is Banner? 

Banner is the "successor"  ERP software suite to the Plus systems offered by SunGard Higher Education.  There are four primary modules of Banner that will support many of the university's core operations:

• Banner Finance (with accounting, budgeting, purchasing, payables, grants and research components)
• Banner Student (with admissions, student records and registration, and student accounts receivable components)
• Banner Financial Aid
• Banner Human Resources (including employee records, payroll and benefits components).

Banner is built on modern technologies (e.g. an Oracle database) and will integrate easily with other applications.  Most students, faculty, and staff will interact with Banner through Highlander Pipeline or a web browser.

In addition to the four Banner modules mentioned above, several additional Banner-related software modules will be implemented as part of Project ORBIT.  They are:

• Banner Enrollment Management -  A customer relationship management system to help admissions officers, deans, and department chairs develop targeted recruitment campaigns at the individual program level.
• Operational Data Store/Enterprise Data Warehouse (ODS/EDW) - Separate databases interacting with Banner that will be used for internal and external reporting, data analysis, longitudinal planning and decision-making.  Cognos, a reporting and business intelligence tool, will also be used with ODS/EDW.  
• Workflow - Am automation tool used to streamline operational processes across the Banner modules (e.g. purchase requisitions, grade changes, personnel actions).  Workflow allows business events to trigger notifications to process participants for specific action steps to take.  
• AppWorx  - An job scheduling system to automate batch production scheduling across all Banner modules and components, eliminating human intervention and improving efficiency. 

• Why are we replacing our existing administrative systems?

NJIT has been using a suite of products from SunGard Higher Education known as the “Plus” ERP systems. The three major Plus systems in use on our campus are SIS (Student Information System), HRS (Human Resource System), and FRS (Financial Records System). These systems have been in use since the mid 1980’s.  

Over the last 20+ years, the Plus systems have become, by necessity, a patchwork of logic changes and new web services that were required to support the changing academic missions of the university.  Overall, the Plus systems continue to serve NJIT, but they are built on old technology which is increasingly difficult to maintain and integrate with newer technologies.  In addition,  SunGard Higher Education has made the decision to stop supporting the Plus systems at the end of 2011.  Vendor support is critical for regulatory changes, system enhancements and bug fixes.

Practically speaking, the Plus systems are nearing obsolescence  and their continued maintenance has reached a point of diminishing returns.  Much of the university's core operations, business processes and practices are dependent on the Plus systems.  The university's senior management determined it was in NJIT's best interest to begin replacing the Plus systems prior to their announced "end-of-life" date in 2011.  Senior management also decided that SunGard Higher Education's Banner ERP suite offers the "best-fit" for NJIT's current and future ERP needs. 

• Why choose Banner?

Banner is used at over a thousand colleges and universities in North America and around the world, including a number of NJ schools (UMDNJ, Seton Hall, Ramapo, Stockton, William Paterson, Essex County, and Raritan Valley) and other technology focused research universities (e.g. Georgia Tech, RPI, Virginia Tech).  Gartner, a leading information technology research and advisory company, continues to rank Banner as the leading integrated administrative software suite for higher education institutions.  The university's senior management decided that Banner offers the "best-fit" for NJIT's current and future ERP needs.. 

• How will this project improve the University?

Banner is built on top of a single integrated database for the university's core student, financial, and human resource operations. The integrated database will eliminate a "silo" approach in many cross-functional university processes.  Modern technologies will help streamline data entry, record maintenance and decision making.  Students, faculty and staff will have easy access to information through web browsers.  New reporting features will provide improved access to the information that academic chairpersons, deans, and other department heads need to make effective decisions and efficiently manage their operations.

A data warehouse will also be implemented to streamline longitudinal planning and management reporting across the university.  . 

• When will the project be done?

Project ORBIT is a huge undertaking that involves detailed training on new Banner processes across finance, student, human resource and financial aid functions.  It also involves migrating a huge amount of data from the old Plus systems into the new Banner database.  The enormity of effort requires that Banner functions be phased in over the next three years. 

In general, Banner functions will "go-live" at natural starting points for the university business cycles for those functions. The current plans are as follows:

• Finance - Financial system business cycles are on a fiscal year basis.  The new Banner Finance system is scheduled to go-live in July 2009, at the start of the university's FY2010 fiscal year.
• Student - Student system business cycles are on an academic basis.  The new Banner Student system is scheduled to implemented for the start of the fall 2010 semester.  However, many of the business cycles supporting the fall 2010 semester start much earlier:
• Admissions - The admissions functions of Banner will "go-live" in September 2009 for recruiting and admission of the class entering in the fall 2010 semester. 
• Financial Aid - The financial aid functions of Banner will "go-live" in January of 2010 for packaging of awards for those entering in the fall 2010 semester.
• Student Records and Registration - The student records and registrations functions of Banner will "go-live" in April 2010, at the first registration for the fall 2010 semester.
• Student Accounts Receivable - The student accounts receivable functions of Banner will ""go-live" in July 2010, at the first billing for the fall 2010 semester.
• Human Resources - Human Resource business cycles are on a calendar year basis. The new Banner Human resource System is scheduled to be implemented in January 2011, at the start of the 2011 calendar year.

• Other components of Banner and Project ORBIT will be implemented over the same time period will the full project completed by July 2011. 

(Time-line PDF.)

• Will there be training in Banner?

 Absolutely.  Training for the primary university offices coordinating Banner processes (e.g. Purchasing, General Accounting,  Accounts Payable, Admissions, Registrar, Bursar, Human Resources, Payroll, and others) began in September 2008.  General university-wide training on new Banner processes will be delivered "just-in-time", as various Banner functions "go-live". 

For example,  Training for all departments on the new procedures for purchasing goods and services will be begin in June 2009, prior to the Banner Finance "go-live" in July 2009.   

University-wide training announcements will be made well in advance of training dates and schedules will be posted on this web site. 

•  What is the role of Collegiate Project Services?

Collegiate Project Services, a higher education project management firm, has been engaged to provide significant assistance in project management for the success of Project ORBIT.  Mr. Ismail Jama, a project manager from Collegiate Project Services, is on campus and working closely with members of the Project Management Steering Committee, Banner Implementation Team, and all project teams.

• What browsers are supported for Banner?

Banner supports standard Internet browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Moxilla and Safari (on Macintosh).

• What if I have additional questions on Banner or Project ORBIT?

Send any additional questions to projectorbit@njit.edu.  Answers will be posted at this site.