Tech Tuesday: Banner 7.3 coming soon
From Information Resources and Technologies
IRT announces an upgrade to Banner, coming in Jan 2007. Learn a bit about why we are upgrading, what will change for you as a user, how we are preparing for the upgrade, what is new, and what you can do.
Why are we upgrading?
SunGard Higher Education has released an upgrade for Banner that will update our system from version 7.2 to 7.3. This system upgrade will help ensure continued system stability and bring with it improved and extended functionality.
What changes for me?
If you use only Banner Self Service, very little will change for you. Most of the changes will be for those who use Internet Native Banner (INB). While the screen names and processes you run have not changed, they have been redesigned visually for better presentation and easier navigation. For everyone else, the screen and form names stay the same and the processing stays the same.
What is being done to prepare for the upgrade?
Currently, Banner project work groups are testing Banner 7.3 to ensure that business functions, and the new enhancements that are delivered with the upgrade, work as expected. The Banner steering committee has selected the weekend of Friday-Sunday, Jan. 5-7, to go live with Banner 7.3. This will result in a required Banner System outage Friday through Sunday.
What is new in Banner 7.3?
Banner 7.3 brings several enhancements for our users, including:
- More tabbed menus
Redesigned menus for easier navigation
- Race/Ethnicity
The Race/Ethnicity enhancement accommodates regulatory changes to include race in all of the applicable forms and ethnicity information to be stored separately from race information, allowing users to select more than one race category for an individual.
- E-Bill
E-Bill will allow students and staff to access billing statements, payment history and account activity since the last statement. They will be able to access a printable version of their statement.
- Masking
Masking in Banner allows full or partial masking of fields. This is especially useful for fields with sensitive data such as Social Security number, birth year and age. Partial masking would still allow for verification when identifying a person to prevent multiple records being added. A partially masked Social Security number would look like this: *****1111, displaying the last four digits. Full masking would look like this: *********. Only users that need to see the full data will have access to see the field.
- Common Matching
The Common Matching feature has been enhanced to improve functionality and rule setup. A new query form GOICMSS enables matching sources for a particular element. Field labels also have been changed to be simpler and clearer and more options were added for modifying rules.
What can I do?
If you have a current account in Banner and you have not looked at Banner 7.3, you can view Banner 7.3 by logging onto the DEMO Web page.
To learn more about changes that come with the Banner 7.3 upgrade, please visit the Internet Native Banner page on the IRT Web site. Documentation regarding both the upgrade and the project itself can be found there.
If you have questions about this upgrade, please contact the Tech Desk at IRTHelp@stthomas.edu or (651) 962-6230.
