A move to the cloud often makes you look closely at automations that have been doing their job quietly in the background for years.
That was exactly the situation for a US-based college after moving from Banner On-premises to Ellucian Banner SaaS. Their student system already included a custom, fully automated process that maintained a dedicated set of student records used to track academic disadvantage and related attributes required for institutional reporting and compliance. The logic had been running reliably for years, deeply embedded in the on-premises Banner environment through direct database access.
The move to SaaS did not invalidate the logic itself. It changed the rules of how that logic could exist.
In Banner SaaS, direct database updates are no longer part of the model. The automation still needed to run, produce the same outcomes, and remain just as dependable as before. But it now had to operate entirely within Ellucian’s cloud-native architecture. That meant the existing on-prem customization could not simply be carried forward. It had to be carefully analyzed, reconstructed, and reimplemented using supported SaaS tools and interfaces.
In this post, we walk through how our team approached that challenge. We show how an established Banner On-premises automation was translated into a SaaS-ready solution using Ellucian Data Connect and Ethos APIs, preserving the institution’s existing logic while aligning it fully with Ellucian’s modern cloud environment.
When working automation meets SaaS reality
Before moving to SaaS, the college already had a stable and reliable automation running in Banner On-Premises. Its job was narrow but essential: evaluate student data for a given term and apply the correct indicators to student records based on predefined academic and enrollment conditions.
The logic was implemented directly in the Banner database. SQL queries pulled registration data, applied business rules, and performed insert or update operations on student records in one continuous flow. In an on-premises environment, this approach was efficient, predictable, and easy to operate.
The challenge emerged only after the transition to Banner SaaS.
In the SaaS model, direct database access is no longer part of the integration landscape. Data must be read and written through supported interfaces, using APIs and managed integration tools defined by Ellucian. While the automation itself was still valid, its technical implementation no longer aligned with the SaaS architecture.
The task was not to redesign the process. It was to preserve its behavior while changing the way it interacts with Banner.
Rebuilding the automation for a SaaS world
The move to SaaS forced the automation out of the database and into an explicit, API-driven flow. The behavior stayed the same. The mechanics did not.
We approached this in three deliberate steps.
Reconstructing the logic before rebuilding it
We treated the existing SQL automation as a specification rather than code to be replaced. Each query and condition was analyzed to understand the decisions it makes: which students are evaluated for a term, which signals matter, and when records are inserted, updated, or cleared.
This revealed the true asset of the process: a set of clear user stories embedded in SQL. Once those rules were documented, the database-specific implementation became irrelevant. Preserving the decision logic was the only thing that mattered.
Only after that did we move on to rebuilding.
Rebuilding the automation with Ellucian Data Connect
With the logic mapped, we rebuilt the automation using Ellucian Data Connect as the execution layer and Ethos APIs as the interface to Banner SaaS. The process now runs as a managed pipeline rather than a database routine.
Data Connect pulls the required student and registration data for a given term through supported APIs, applies the same evaluation rules, and determines whether records should be inserted or updated. Those changes are written back to Banner SaaS through the student supplemental data APIs, following the same decision paths as before.
The pipeline is triggered manually with a term parameter, just like the original process. From the institution’s perspective, the behavior feels familiar. Technically, it now operates fully within Ellucian’s SaaS integration model.
Visibility, control, and trust in SaaS
We treated observability as a first-class requirement in the SaaS version of the process. Instead of assuming success because a script finished running, we made outcomes explicit and reviewable.
Each Data Connect run records what was evaluated, inserted, or updated, and captures any exceptions in clear reports. Staff can review and download execution results through the Data Connect job interface in Ellucian Experience.
This gives the institution something it did not fully have before: confidence backed by traceability. Every execution is controlled, repeatable, and auditable, while the underlying logic remains unchanged.
Results and impact
The automation now runs natively in Ellucian Banner SaaS, delivering the same outcomes as before but through a SaaS-aligned architecture. The institution preserved its existing logic while removing any dependence on direct database access.
Each execution is now transparent and predictable. Clear success and error reports show exactly what was evaluated and updated, making results easy to review and trust without manual investigation.
Most importantly, the integration is future-ready. Built on Data Connect and Ethos APIs, it fits Ellucian’s SaaS model, scales cleanly, and can evolve as the platform changes. The institution did not just restore automation. It modernized it.
Building SaaS-ready integrations with ABCloudz
This project shows what modernizing for Ellucian SaaS really looks like. We did not change the business logic. We changed how it runs, moving it from database-driven automation to a clean, API-based SaaS model.
That is the core of our Modernize integrations with Data Connect approach. We help institutions carry proven logic into Banner SaaS in a way that is secure, traceable, and built to last.
If your Banner automation no longer fits the cloud, we can help you rebuild it the right way and keep it working as Ellucian evolves.
