When universities migrate their core student systems to the cloud, it is more than just a technical upgrade. It reshapes how data moves, updates, and stays consistent across every department. That is exactly what happened when a major university in the United Kingdom with tens of thousands of students transitioned from its on-prem Banner environment to Ellucian Banner SaaS.
Before the migration, the university already maintained a custom process for updating student statuses, specifically for groups admitted through alternative enrollment paths. The logic worked well in the on-prem world but depended on direct database access and manual triggers that were no longer possible in the SaaS model.
To keep these enrollment updates accurate and automated, the university’s existing customization had to be re-engineered using Ellucian’s modern SaaS tools. In this post, we will walk through how our team migrated the existing logic into Ellucian Data Connect, ensuring a secure, scalable, and fully SaaS-aligned process that continues to serve the institution today.
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The challenge of migrating legacy logic
Before the transition to SaaS, the university’s Banner On-Prem environment handled student enrollment updates through a set of SQL-based jobs and data transfer routines. These scripts applied business rules that determined when certain student groups should move from one enrollment status to another. The setup was functional, but it depended entirely on direct database connections and locally stored logic that could not be reused in the cloud.
Once the university adopted Ellucian Banner SaaS, the previous approach no longer worked. The familiar stored procedures, queries, and update scripts could not run without database-level access. To restore the same functionality, the integration logic first had to be analyzed, documented, and then redesigned using cloud-native components.
This step became the foundation of the project. By fully understanding how the on-prem integration behaved, our team could recreate each element within Ellucian Data Connect and align it with the new SaaS architecture.
Rebuilding the enrollment update workflow for SaaS
Our work began with discovery. The university already had a set of custom business rules that governed student status updates in Banner On-Prem. We analyzed the existing logic line by line, mapping every query and transformation that determined when and how a student’s enrollment status should change. Each rule became a foundation for the new SaaS-ready process.
This customization had originally been implemented through SQL scripts and triggers in the Banner On-Prem environment. In the SaaS version, the same business rules were re-created within Ellucian Data Connect, preserving the institution’s unique logic while aligning it with Ellucian’s standardized SaaS framework.
We then rebuilt the entire workflow inside Ellucian Data Connect. Instead of local scripts and scheduled jobs, the new solution uses cloud-native pipelines that pull student and program data through Ethos APIs, apply validation logic, and update enrollment statuses automatically. The pipeline mirrors the same logic from the on-prem setup but now runs securely within the SaaS framework.
Each execution produces detailed output reports that record every update, validation, and exception. The results are stored automatically, giving staff full visibility and traceability without the need for manual tracking. The automation can run on demand or on a defined schedule, ensuring the data stays accurate and synchronized across the university’s systems.
With the new integration live, the institution preserved its original business logic while gaining the flexibility, security, and scalability of Ellucian’s modern SaaS environment.
Results and impact
The new integration now operates natively within Ellucian’s SaaS ecosystem. All enrollment updates run automatically through Data Connect, using the same logic that once powered the on-prem process but rebuilt for the cloud. Each run validates every record, applies updates, and generates a full audit trail that is easy to review and track.
For the university, the outcome is a stable, transparent workflow that keeps enrollment data accurate and synchronized without manual oversight. Each job produces clear reports showing completed updates and any exceptions, allowing staff to focus on analysis and student services rather than system maintenance.
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Let’s build your SaaS-ready integrations
This project reflects the type of work we deliver through our Modernize integrations with Data Connect offering. As universities move their Banner environments from on-prem to SaaS, our team helps universities modernize and re-engineer existing customizations to ensure they remain reliable, secure, and fully aligned with Ellucian’s SaaS architecture.
If your institution is preparing for a SaaS migration or looking to rebuild existing integrations for long-term scalability, we are ready to help. Let’s discuss your setup and explore how ABCloudz can create a modern, future-ready integration landscape for your university.
