Ellucian

The Ellucian Banner SaaS Platform

The Banner SaaS Platform is a powerful Student Information System designed specifically for higher education. It offers the most complete set of industry-standard capabilities to meet student needs and help institutions thrive. Our capabilities are built on an interoperable, efficient, and data-driven platform which forms the foundation for institutional success.

Features

• Complete Student Information System, Student Management System, Student Records System
• Full circle student lifecycle management - from enquiry to graduation
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ecosystem with automated upgrades
• Based on UK higher education best practice capabilities
• Comprehensive regulatory reporting
• Upgrade safe configurability using industry-standard tools
• Device-agnostic capabilities delivered through a modern, consistent UI
• Ability to integrate with third-party systems via a low-code tool
• Implemented by experienced UK higher education consultants
• Made for HE

Benefits

• Provides an excellent student and staff user experience
• Standard capabilities increase efficiency
• Streamlined integrations enhance interoperability and connectivity
• Unified data unlocks meaningful insights
• Ellucian managed best-in-class security protects against threats
• Faster deployment maximises Return on Investment (ROI)
• Reduced risk implementation by Ellucian’s in-house experts

£335,000 an instance a year

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at emearfp@ellucian.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

182234470153077

Contact

Matt Searles, Vice President
+447890 627355
emearfp@ellucian.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: N/A
• System requirements: Latest browsers installed

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Please refer to section 5 of the Terms and Conditions attached to this service.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: As an Ellucian customer, your team has access to our global customer support team, Action Line. This team provide answers to product-related questions your users have. Action Line aids in researching and troubleshooting your Ellucian software 24 hours a day, seven days a week.; ; You can reach the Action Line via our online Customer Centre. Cases can also be opened through email or phone. Target Action Line response times and procedures are in place to address each case based on the identified severity. The criticality of a case determines our response time. There is no additional cost to provide this service, which is included in the price of the cloud software subscription.; ; You will also benefit from the support of both an Ellucian customer success manager and a cloud service delivery manager.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Ellucian’s expert consultants use standard project management practices for a successful, on-time and on-budget implementation. The project is divided into sprints that deliver value in smaller intervals throughout implementation. Our consultants guide and support your project team through pre-defined delivery material and bespoke enablement, depending on your requirements. We offer training to specific audiences that provide different levels of insight into the capabilities of each solution. Formal training is delivered online, with some onsite enablement, and is supported by a comprehensive On-Demand self-service package.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: We will provide you a copy of your data in our possession upon contract termination or expiration if you provide us a timely request (at least five (5) days after the end of the Cloud Software Term). We will provide you a copy of all your data then in our possession, in a commercially reasonable format, at no additional charge. This will be done in accordance with the terms of the underlying agreement.; ; We will securely delete such data in accordance with our then-current data security, retention, and disposal policies.
• End-of-contract process: If at any time you decide to make a commercial decision to cease your use of Ellucian Cloud Software, you will be entitled to a copy of your client data at no additional charge – please see Section 10.3 of the Ellucian Supplier Terms and Conditions.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The entire interface is accessed through a web browser. ; ; Ellucian develops new modules with a 'mobile first' strategy. This means the responsive design is applied to automatically adapt the page layout to the screen size of the rendering device. The page layout is natively built and tested for small screens and can scale up on larger screens.; ; Functions are 'point and click' with graphics, promoting a visually appealing interface.; ; Users can download an app from their app store or use the responsive web interface to access it on mobile devices. The content for both is managed in a single place.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: The Banner SaaS Platform offers a comprehensive set of APIs (REST web services) to facilitate all types of data interactions from a basic level up to the most complex business process. These APIs support both read and write operations. The APIs include the education sector-specific Ellucian Ethos Data Model. It features over 500 individual data entities that describe the data flowing between higher education systems from all vendors, not just Ellucian systems. This central data model has enabled the adoption of an efficient centralised cloud-based integration hub platform. In addition to the Data Model APIs, there are also Business Process APIs that enable a business process in the Banner SaaS Platform to be executed via an API call. These provide the ability to accomplish actions taken by a user via an API call. APIs are extensible to support integration patterns and business process automation. Users can easily extend the APIs via an intuitive User Interface.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Extensibility is a core design principle of the Banner SaaS Platform. Where required, an institution can extend the platform (for example, by creating cards and pages specific to the institution) using a low-code extensibility toolkit. This toolkit includes out-of-the-box templates and a drag-and-drop form builder that incorporates a design path system to ensure a high-quality, consistent user experience that is intuitive and accessible to all users. ; ; With the extensibility toolkit, all aspects of the platform can be tuned to meet your requirements in an upgrade-safe way.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Environments hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) are designed to prevent customers from accessing computing resources that are not assigned to them. We also continuously monitor service usage to ensure its availability. Ellucian maintains a capacity planning model to assess infrastructure usage and demands at least monthly and often more frequently. This model helps us plan future demands and acquire additional resources based on current resources and forecasted requirements.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: We can provide cloud application availability and uptime reports upon request.
• Reporting types: Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: AWS adheres to independently validated privacy, data protection, security, and control processes.; ; AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud; Ellucian is responsible for security in the cloud. AWS enables Ellucian to control content (where it will be stored, how it will be secured in transit or at rest, and how access to the AWS environment will be managed).; ; AWS offers key management options and dedicated hardware-based cryptographic key storage.; ; Data, including backups, is encrypted at rest using a combination of AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS) and Amazon S3, benefitting from AES-256 encryption.
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data can be extracted in several ways:; - through a request for a database schema export.; - using the export functionality of the built-in ETL Toolset.; - using a CSV file from the reporting capability.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • XML
  • JSON
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • XML
  • JSON

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Environments hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) are designed to prevent customers from accessing computing resources that are not assigned to them. Ellucian provides customers ownership and control over their content by design through simple but powerful tools that enable you to determine how your content will be secured in transit.; ; You can open a secure, encrypted channel to AWS using TLS/SSL, IPsec, TLS VPN (if applicable) or through other means of protection you wish to use. API calls can be encrypted with TLS/SSL to maintain confidentiality.

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Please see the attached Ellucian Terms and Conditions document.
• Approach to resilience: Ellucian is responsible for contingency planning, training, and testing our systems hosted in AWS. AWS provides Ellucian with the capability to implement a robust continuity plan, including the utilisation of frequent server instance back-ups, data redundancy replication, and the flexibility to place instances and store data within multiple geographic regions across multiple availability zones.; ; AWS has developed a three-phased business continuity plan: The Activation and Notification Phase, Recovery Phase, and Reconstitution Phase. This approach ensures AWS systematically performs system recovery and reconstitution efforts to maximise effectiveness whilst minimising system outage time.; ; AWS maintains a ubiquitous security control environment across all regions. Each data centre is built to physical, environmental, and security standards in an active-active configuration, employing an N+1 redundancy model to ensure system availability during component failure. All data centres are online and serving traffic. In case of failure, there is sufficient capacity to enable traffic to be load-balanced to the remaining sites.
• Outage reporting: Outage notifications are provided through e-mail alerts from Ellucian and a public dashboard.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides user access control to AWS services, APIs and specific resources. Other controls include time/date, originating IP address, SSL use, and whether users authenticated via MFA devices.; ; API calls to launch/terminate instances, change firewalls, and perform other functions are signed by the Amazon Secret Access Key (either the root AWS Account’s Secret Access Key or the Secret Access Key of a user created with AWS IAM).
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication: Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: You control when users can access audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Schellman
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 26/05/21
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The scope of the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certificate is limited to the Information Security Management System (ISMS) that; supports Ellucian customer data, applications, systems, and/or services that are hosted in the Ellucian Cloud and managed by; Ellucian. The ISMS addresses the business processes and resources associated with the information systems used to deliver,; manage, maintain, and support the Ellucian cloud software and services that house customer data, and in accordance with; the statement of applicability version 2.2, dated January 20, 2023.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: Yes
• CSA STAR accreditation date: 25/02/2023
• CSA STAR certification level: Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
• What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: Ellucian has documented where its cloud solutions align with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) operationally. Ellucian publishes its self-assessment and alignment within the CSA Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ). This Level One CSA STAR self-assessment is published in the CSA registry and is available for review at https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/star/registry/ellucian
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • SSAE 18 SOC 1, 2, and 3 reporting
  • EDUCAUSE Higher Education Cloud Vendor Assessment Tool (HECVAT)
  • NIST 800-171

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Ellucian benefits from using a data centre and network architecture built to meet the requirements of the most security-sensitive organisations.; ; In addition to this, Ellucian maintains an Information Security Policy (ISP) and related standards that are based on the ISO 27001 framework and are defined, approved by management, published, and communicated to employees and relevant external parties.; ; Our Information Security Programme and policy ensure we continually improve information security controls and practices and comply with applicable law, regulatory and industry requirements, and contractual obligations.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: AWS service and feature changes follow secure software development practices, including security risk reviews before launch. Developer access to production environments is via explicit access system requests, subject to review and authorisation.; ; Teams set bespoke change management standards per service, underpinned by standard AWS guidelines.; ; All production environment changes are reviewed, tested and approved. Stages include design, documentation, implementation (including rollback procedures), testing (non-production environment), peer-to-peer review (business impact/technical rigour/code), and final approval by the authorised party.; ; Emergency changes follow AWS incident response procedures. Exceptions to change management processes are documented and escalated to AWS management.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: AWS performs vulnerability scans on their environment's operating system, web applications, and databases. ; ; Approved 3rd party vendors conduct external assessments. Identified vulnerabilities are monitored and evaluated. Countermeasures are designed and implemented to neutralise known/newly identified vulnerabilities.; ; Ellucian maintains a Threat and Incident Management Programme to respond to security incidents. We deploy network threat monitoring tools, rapid response technology, antivirus/antimalware and endpoint protection tools, Network Security Groups, DDoS protection, and a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution.; ; Patches are applied based on severity and their required planning and resolution timeframes in accordance with the Ellucian Vulnerability Management Standard.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: AWS deploys (pan-environmental) monitoring devices to collect information on unauthorised intrusion attempts, usage abuse, and network/application bandwidth usage.; ; Near real-time alerts flag potential compromise incidents based on AWS service/security team thresholds.; ; In addition to this, Ellucian maintains a Threat and Incident Management Programme to respond to security incidents within the cloud environment. We capture, index and correlate real-time data to identify potential threats and security events in our environments.; ; In the unlikely event of a security breach, Ellucian’s information security response team assumes ownership of the security incident response. A team is assembled on a per-incident basis.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: AWS adopts a three-phased approach to managing incidents:; ; 1. Activation and Notification Phase; 2. Recovery Phase; 3. Reconstitution Phase.; ; AWS conducts incident response testing, providing excellent coverage for discovering defects and failure modes.; ; Ellucian employs an Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) tool, which provides service incident management according to the best practices of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Users can report incidents to the Action Line support service. The Action Line support desk is available 24/7 to respond to reported issues.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Your solution will be hosted in an environmentally friendly platform provided by one of our main partners, Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS are committed to net zero carbon by 2040 as part of Amazon's Climate Pledge. Multiple studies conducted by 451 Research found that moving on-premise workloads to the cloud can lower customers' workload carbon footprints by nearly 80%. SaaS solutions provide additional environmental benefits as they are accessible from any web browser rather than installed on machines or networks. Ellucian's strategy is to support environmental protection and improvement by influencing our staff, customers, and communities. In 2022, we set our first-ever greenhouse gas reduction target and are reducing emissions to support climate action globally. We continue to find ways to minimise the environmental impact of our offices, including by purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), reducing our office footprint, and pursuing Green Leases. Our Go Green Employee Resource Group promotes sustainable living and working practices through initiatives such as Meatless Monday recipes, local park clean-ups, and the creation of eco-friendly cleaning products. Ellucian also recycles IT equipment, donating over 1,000 laptops to schools globally in 2022. More details are available in the Impact Report on Ellucian's website.

  Covid-19 recovery

  The health and wellbeing of our customers, partners, and employees worldwide are of utmost importance to all of us at Ellucian. From the onset of the pandemic, we closely monitored the evolving situation concerning COVID-19 and continue to do so. We are promoting recovery through a flexible and mobile operating model that enables our employees and partners to access critical business systems securely within and outside our corporate office locations. Our employee base is geographically diverse. All employees use laptops and are not tied to any office location. To this end, the impact was minimised when we closed our office locations to accommodate social distancing regulations and recommendations. As of today, all offices have reopened following local safety standards. We continue to support our people's physical and mental health through a range of employee welfare benefits, detailed in our response to the Wellbeing section. We continue to closely monitor the situation and update our approach based on guidance from the World Health Organisation, the NHS, the Department of Health, and the government.

  Tackling economic inequality

  One of the ways we create employment opportunities is through our award-winning internship offering, which enables young people to grow their skills, gain real-world experience in technical and non-technical roles, and connect with students, team members, and business leaders across the globe to jumpstart their careers.; ; Ellucian’s Progress, Accomplishment, Thriving, Hope (PATH) Scholarship programme helps students in higher education institutions experiencing economic hardship. Since its founding, PATH has provided more than £1.8m in scholarships to higher education institutions, benefiting more than 2,650 students globally.; ; Ellucian’s Supplier Diversity Programme seeks to provide diverse suppliers with equal purchasing opportunities to ensure a more accurate reflection of our stakeholders and customers. We believe our initiatives will optimise our supply chain by driving inclusiveness, promoting equitable opportunities, creating jobs, and supporting our communities. Our Supplier Code of Conduct ensures suppliers adhere to the highest standards by requiring them to treat workers with dignity, provide safe working conditions, and act ethically. We ensure suppliers are subject to vetting, including information security, and verify the information provided.

  Equal opportunity

  At Ellucian, we embrace an inclusive, diverse, and equitable workplace and believe that our differences help inspire a culture of acceptance that makes our company more collaborative and innovative. We’re proud to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics or any other characteristic protected by law. We have a formal DEI Dashboard with analytics to increase leader awareness around recruiting, developing, and retaining talent. ; ; In 2021, we conducted a pay equity analysis without issues being observed broadly across the company. The next pay equity analysis is scheduled for Q3 2024. We have 11 employee resource groups (ERGs) focusing on developing new skills, including our women’s, LGBTQ, carers, and early career professionals networks. ; ; We provide companywide educational sessions and training that explore biases, their impact in the workplace and how we can influence behaviours to drive greater inclusivity. Many of our existing policies are aimed at ensuring that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or any part of our business. You can read about our measures to prevent modern slavery on our website.

  Wellbeing

  Ellucian places high importance on employee wellbeing and offers access to comprehensive health and wellness programmes. These include private healthcare, flexible telemedicine services, virtual fitness and mindfulness platforms and counselling. Ellucian also provides employees with charitable leave, professional development opportunities, financial education, and planning assistance to support their financial goals. Additionally, employees can receive reimbursement for items and services that support physical and financial health, such as workout gear, massage therapy, home office accommodations, and student loan repayments, to name a few.

Pricing

• Price: £335,000 an instance a year
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at emearfp@ellucian.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.