By Nicole Parker, Consultant | David Kent Consulting
Supporting Student Success Through Better System Alignment
Many colleges and universities are operating within increasingly fragmented Ellucian Banner and student information system (SIS) environments shaped by years of process changes, staffing transitions, disconnected workflows, overlapping technologies, and evolving student expectations. While institutions tend to focus modernization efforts on implementing new systems or preparing for SaaS initiatives, many operational challenges begin long before a migration or implementation project starts.
A student systems assessment helps institutions evaluate how Banner and related student-facing systems support operational efficiency, communication, reporting, student engagement, persistence efforts, and the overall student experience. As a higher education consulting firm specializing in Banner environments, David Kent Consulting works collaboratively with colleges and universities to identify operational gaps, improve cross-department coordination, reduce workflow friction, and create practical strategies for modernization and long-term operational improvement.
Key Takeaways
- A student systems assessment evaluates how Banner and related student-facing systems support operational efficiency, communication, and the student experience across the full lifecycle.
- Many institutions are technically “live” on Banner but operationally fragmented, with critical student data scattered across CRMs, advising platforms, retention tools, and departmental spreadsheets.
- Shadow systems (unofficial processes, spreadsheets, and applications maintained outside Banner) are a leading indicator that an operational assessment is overdue.
- The Apply → Enroll → Pay lifecycle is where most operational friction occurs, driven by misaligned communication timing, workflow handoffs, and system integration gaps.
- Modernization projects (cloud migration, SaaS, CRM expansion) are significantly more successful when preceded by an operational assessment that identifies workflow inefficiencies and governance gaps.
- David Kent Consulting specializes exclusively in higher education Banner environments, bringing practitioner-level expertise to every operational assessment and modernization engagement.
The Growing Challenge of System Sprawl and Digital Transformation in Higher Education
Most colleges and universities have expanded their student technology ecosystems over the past decade. In addition to Ellucian Banner, institutions rely on a growing collection of third-party systems and platforms to support admissions, advising, student engagement, communication, retention initiatives, financial aid, registration, and the overall student experience.
Platforms for CRM, advising, student success, communication, career services, degree planning, document management, payment processing, and retention tracking are implemented independently over time to address specific operational needs. While these systems can provide meaningful value, they can also create operational complexity when workflows, communication strategies, reporting structures, and data ownership are not fully aligned institution-wide.
Many institutions eventually find themselves operating within environments shaped by:
- portal proliferation
- disconnected workflows
- duplicate communication efforts
- manual reconciliation between systems
- inconsistent reporting
- shadow processes maintained outside Banner
- operational silos between departments
Over time, important student information may begin living across multiple systems without consistently flowing back into Banner or being visible institution-wide. This creates uncertainty around which system represents the most accurate or complete view of the student.
EDUCAUSE’s annual Top 10 IT Issues report consistently identifies data governance, integration, and digital transformation as top-tier priorities for higher education IT leaders, underscoring how widespread this challenge has become.
As a result, Banner may continue functioning as the official system of record, but no longer functions as the system orchestrating the student experience.
When Banner Stops Functioning as the Source of Truth
Many higher education institutions still rely heavily on Banner operationally while simultaneously managing large portions of the student lifecycle through ancillary systems and departmental processes.
Student engagement activity may exist within advising platforms. Recruitment communication may be managed through a CRM. Retention outreach may occur through separate student success applications. Financial processes may span multiple systems and portals. Meanwhile, manual spreadsheets, emailed approvals, and offline workflows can emerge to bridge operational gaps between systems.
Without strong governance and lifecycle coordination, institutions frequently experience:
- conflicting student information across departments
- delayed or duplicated communication
- inconsistent operational workflows
- reporting discrepancies
- confusion surrounding ownership of processes and data
- increased dependence on institutional knowledge and workarounds
In many cases, staff spend significant time reconciling information between systems rather than focusing directly on student support and operational improvement.
This operational fragmentation creates both technical debt and operational debt across the institution.
What Is a Student Systems Assessment?
A student systems assessment is a comprehensive operational and technical review of how student-facing systems, workflows, communication strategies, and institutional processes function together across the student lifecycle.
Rather than focusing only on technology, an assessment evaluates how systems support:
- admissions and onboarding
- advising and registration
- financial aid and billing communication
- engagement and persistence efforts
- reporting and operational visibility
- communication timing and ownership
- cross-department coordination
- modernization and sustainability
At David Kent Consulting, assessments focus on understanding how institutions operate in practice, not just how systems are configured technically. For institutions running Degree Works alongside Banner, assessment scope includes reviewing how Banner data alignment affects Degree Works audit accuracy and the advising experience.
Our team works collaboratively with institutional stakeholders across admissions, registrar, advising, student accounts, financial aid, IT, enrollment management, and student services to better understand operational workflows, communication pathways, student friction points, and institutional priorities.
The goal is not simply to identify technology gaps, but to evaluate how systems and operational processes impact staff effectiveness, institutional efficiency, and the overall student experience.
Why Student Lifecycle Management and Alignment Matters
The greatest operational strain for many institutions appears within the Apply → Enroll → Pay lifecycle, where admissions, advising, registration, financial aid, billing, and communication workflows intersect across multiple systems and departments.
When these operational areas are not aligned, students are likely to experience:
- unclear next steps
- duplicate or conflicting communication
- registration frustration
- inconsistent advising experiences
- delayed financial aid visibility
- billing confusion
- uncertainty surrounding holds or requirements
Instead of experiencing a clearly guided pathway, students are frequently left assembling their own understanding of institutional processes across multiple systems, portals, and offices.
Communication timing can also become misaligned. At many institutions, messages are triggered by system activity rather than student readiness or lifecycle context. Students may receive notifications related to billing, financial aid, registration, or holds while related processes are still incomplete behind the scenes.
This can erode confidence in institutional communication and create additional workload for staff responding to repeated questions.
Supporting Student Engagement and Persistence
Student engagement,persistence, and student success technology initiatives have become increasingly important priorities across higher education. However, many institutions struggle to operationally connect engagement strategies, communication efforts, advising workflows, and student support processes across systems.
Important student interactions may occur across multiple platforms without a centralized operational view of the student experience. Advising systems, CRMs, communication tools, retention platforms, and student engagement applications may all contain important pieces of information that are not consistently aligned institution-wide.
This can make it difficult for institutions to:
- identify at-risk students early
- coordinate outreach between departments
- monitor persistence checkpoints
- understand where students disengage
- create consistent student communication experiences
- support proactive student success initiatives
A student systems assessment helps institutions evaluate how systems, communication pathways, and operational processes support engagement, persistence, and student success efforts throughout the lifecycle.
Signs Your Institution May Need a Student Systems Assessment
Many institutions begin considering a systems assessment after years of operational growth, process evolution, staffing changes, or technology expansion. In many cases, operational friction develops gradually and becomes normalized over time.
Common indicators may include:
- Banner no longer functioning as the operational source of truth
- important student data existing only within third-party systems
- duplicate or conflicting communication from multiple offices
- operational silos between departments
- inconsistent reporting across systems
- heavy reliance on spreadsheets or shadow processes
- confusion surrounding ownership of workflows
- advising, onboarding, or registration bottlenecks
- uncertainty surrounding modernization or SaaS readiness
- increasing frustration among students or staff navigating systems
These challenges are interconnected. Communication gaps may stem from workflow misalignment. Reporting inconsistencies may reflect governance issues. Student frustration may result from disconnected operational handoffs across departments and systems.
Without a broader operational review, institutions can spend years addressing symptoms without identifying the underlying causes driving inefficiency and fragmentation.
Why Operational Reviews Matter Before Digital Transformation and Modernization
Many colleges and universities are currently evaluating modernization initiatives related to cloud migration, SaaS readiness, CRM expansion, workflow automation, self-service improvements, and broader student experience transformation efforts.
However, implementing new technology without first understanding the current operational environment can unintentionally carry existing inefficiencies into new systems and workflows.
Institutions discover that operational challenges are not caused by a single platform, but by years of:
- disconnected workflows
- overlapping systems
- inconsistent governance
- unclear ownership of communication
- fragmented operational processes
- manual intervention and reconciliation
A student systems assessment helps institutions better understand where operational friction exists before larger modernization initiatives begin.
This allows institutions to:
- reduce unnecessary complexity
- improve workflow alignment
- strengthen communication strategies
- improve governance and ownership
- better align systems with institutional goals
- support modernization more strategically
Modernization efforts are far more successful when institutions first understand how systems, processes, and communication pathways function operationally across the student lifecycle.
How David Kent Consulting Helps
David Kent Consulting provides higher education-focused operational and technical consulting services designed specifically for Ellucian Banner institutions navigating modernization, operational complexity, workflow inefficiencies, and student systems challenges. Every consultant on our team brings 10 or more years of hands-on Banner experience, so institutions work with senior practitioners on every engagement – not junior staff getting up to speed. Our team brings extensive experience across:
- Banner Student
- Degree Works
- advising and registration workflows
- financial aid and student accounts coordination
- operational assessments
- process optimization
- communication strategy alignment
- modernization and SaaS readiness planning
- reporting and governance initiatives
- cross-department workflow analysis
Our assessments are collaborative and operationally grounded. We work closely with institutional stakeholders to understand operational realities, staffing structures, communication challenges, institutional priorities, and student experience goals.
Assessments include:
- operational workflow reviews
- systems inventory evaluations
- student lifecycle mapping
- communication and engagement analysis
- workflow bottleneck identification
- reporting and governance reviews
- modernization readiness discussions
- recommendations aligned with institutional priorities
Rather than delivering generic recommendations, David Kent Consulting focuses on helping institutions create practical, sustainable operational improvements that align systems, workflows, communication strategies, and student success initiatives. Explore our full range of Ellucian Banner consulting services or reach out to start a conversation.
Because we specialize exclusively in higher education, Banner, and student systems operations, we understand the operational realities institutions face every day from staffing limitations and process complexity to modernization pressures and increasing student expectations.
Final Thoughts
Higher education institutions are being asked to modernize systems, improve efficiency, strengthen retention, support students more effectively, and manage increasingly complex technology ecosystems usually with limited resources and growing operational demands.
At the same time, many institutions are balancing overlapping platforms, fragmented workflows, disconnected communication strategies, and years of accumulated operational complexity.
A student systems assessment provides institutions with the opportunity to step back, evaluate how systems and processes function together, and identify practical opportunities to improve operational effectiveness before larger challenges emerge.
Whether institutions are preparing for modernization initiatives, evaluating Banner optimization opportunities, improving communication strategies, strengthening student engagement efforts, or reducing operational friction across departments, a thoughtful operational assessment can provide the clarity and direction needed to move forward strategically and sustainably.
Frequently Asked Questions: Degree Works
A student systems assessment is a review of how student-facing systems, workflows, communication practices, and operational processes function together across the institution. Assessments typically evaluate Banner environments, related systems, governance practices, reporting structures, operational workflows, and the student experience.
Many institutions have added systems over time to support admissions, advising, engagement, communication, retention, and operational needs. Without consistent governance and operational alignment, systems can gradually become fragmented, creating communication gaps and inconsistent workflows across departments.
Shadow systems are unofficial or department-managed processes, spreadsheets, databases, or applications created outside primary institutional systems like Banner. These systems emerge when operational needs are not fully supported through existing workflows or communication structures.
As institutions adopt additional platforms for admissions, advising, communication, retention, and engagement initiatives, important student information may begin living across multiple systems without consistently flowing back into Ellucian Banner, the institution’s primary student information system and ERP. Over time, this creates operational fragmentation and inconsistent reporting across departments.
Operational assessments help institutions identify workflow inefficiencies, governance challenges, communication gaps, process dependencies, and operational risks before modernization projects begin. This allows institutions to approach modernization more strategically while reducing unnecessary complexity.
Improving engagement and persistence requires stronger coordination between systems, departments, communication strategies, and operational workflows. Institutions benefit from evaluating how student interactions, advising efforts, communication timing, and persistence checkpoints function across the broader student lifecycle.
David Kent Consulting evaluates operational workflows, communication strategies, system alignment, student lifecycle processes, governance practices, reporting structures, modernization readiness, engagement workflows, and opportunities to improve operational efficiency and the student experience across the institution.
About the Author
Nicole Parker is a higher education student systems consultant with David Kent Consulting, specializing in Ellucian Banner Student and Degree Works. She works closely with Registrars, advising teams, and IT departments to ensure that academic policy, student records, and degree audit systems work together accurately and efficiently.
Nicole’s work often focuses on translating academic policy into system logic – from curriculum configuration and degree audit scribing to student record management and system governance. She frequently helps institutions navigate upgrades, improve audit accuracy, and align Banner and Degree Works configuration with the real-world needs of Registrar and Student Services offices.
Nicole regularly collaborates with institutions across the country and attends higher education technology conferences to stay current on emerging student system practices, bringing those insights back to institutional partners and colleagues.
About David Kent Consulting
David Kent Consulting is a higher education consulting firm specializing in Ellucian Banner modernization, Banner 9 Self-Service initiatives, ERP optimization, and student systems support. With more than 25 years of experience serving colleges and universities, our team helps institutions navigate the operational and technical challenges that come with large-scale system upgrades and modernization efforts.
Our Ellucian Banner consultants work with institutions on Banner 9 configuration, self-service navigation strategy, registration modernization, portal and integration planning, testing and validation, governance, and post-go-live support. We help colleges and universities balance modernization goals with long-term maintainability, usability, and operational stability across Banner environments.
Whether an institution is planning a first-time Banner 9 rollout, transitioning away from legacy Banner 8 workflows, or refining an existing self-service experience, David Kent Consulting provides experienced functional and technical guidance grounded in the day-to-day realities of higher education administration.
