Universities moving their student systems to the cloud often need to rethink how their existing integrations work in the new environment. That was the case for a major university in the United Kingdom with tens of thousands of students as it transitioned from Banner On-Prem to Banner SaaS.
Before the migration, the institution used a semi-manual process to register students who did not come through standard online channels such as partner programs, continuing professional courses, and short online cohorts. The workflow relied on flat files, internal scripts, and direct database access to handle large enrollment batches. It had served its purpose for years, but once Banner moved to the cloud, that setup no longer fit the SaaS model.
In this post, we share how our team approached the transition step by step. You will see how we analyzed the existing setup, adapted it for SaaS, and rebuilt the process using Ellucian Data Connect along with other native tools.
Is your institution focused on other priorities right now? Check out our broader collection of higher ed integrations featuring Ellucian and beyond.
The challenge of manual bulk registrations
Before the migration, the university managed student registrations through a file-based integration built around Banner On-Prem. Each term, data about students, courses, and terms was exported from internal reports and organized into structured CSV files. These files served as the input for registration updates in Banner.
The process combined both automation and manual oversight. Small local scripts handled the data uploads, while staff monitored the results, verified eligibility, and resolved any records that failed validation. If one file contained errors, the process paused until those records were corrected and reprocessed.
This setup worked reliably for several years but required constant coordination between people and tools. As registration volumes increased, managing these data transfers and ensuring consistency across batches became increasingly time-consuming.
Building a repeatable, API driven registration flow
Once the university transitioned to Banner SaaS, the existing registration workflow had to be reimagined for a fully cloud-based environment. Our team at ABCloudz began by reviewing the previous integration logic, mapping how registration data moved between reports, CSV files, and Banner. Every transformation, validation, and exception handling step was documented to ensure nothing was lost in translation during the migration.
From there, we built a new process centered on Ellucian Data Connect as the automation engine. The workflow still begins with a structured registration file prepared for each term, but everything that follows now runs automatically through Data Connect and Ethos APIs, which serve as the secure interface between Data Connect and Banner SaaS.
The pipeline validates each record, checking that it includes all required data points such as student identifiers, program and course codes, academic level, and term. Valid entries are then registered through authenticated Ethos API calls, while any discrepancies are captured in a separate error report. Each job run produces two outputs: a success report confirming completed registrations and an error log summarizing records that need review.
All updates are executed through a dedicated API user, making every transaction traceable within Banner. The results are stored in Amazon S3, giving administrators clear visibility into each batch and a complete audit trail for every registration event.
Results and impact
The new registration workflow now runs fully within Ellucian’s SaaS ecosystem. It preserves the institution’s original logic while operating through secure, API-based automation built on Data Connect and Ethos.
Each registration is validated, logged, and synchronized automatically, giving teams full visibility and confidence in every update. The integration is now stable, scalable, and aligned with Ellucian’s SaaS architecture, providing a reliable model for future automation projects.
Interested in how we’ve solved other real-world challenges?
Explore our case studies to see how we empower higher ed organizations with modern, connected systems.
Modernize your campus workflows with ABCloudz
This project demonstrates our Modernize integrations with Data Connect and Ellucian Ethos offering in action. Through this approach, we help institutions transition from on-prem integrations to SaaS-ready architectures using Ellucian’s native tools. The goal is to preserve existing logic while rebuilding integrations on secure, scalable, and API-driven foundations.
At ABCloudz, we design solutions that fit Ellucian’s cloud standards and evolve with your environment. If your institution is preparing for a Banner SaaS migration or modernizing current integrations, our team can help you build a reliable and future-ready foundation for connected campus systems.
