FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
If we don’t answer your question on this FAQ page, you can reach out to us through our Contact Us page.
What Ellucian applications are being migrated to the cloud?
| Ellucian Applications |
| Ellucian Degree Works |
| Ellucian Banner Financial Aid (includes Financial Aid Self-Service and CSS Profile Interface) |
| Ellucian Banner Finance (includes Finance Self-Service) |
| Ellucian Banner General (includes Personal Information) |
| Ellucian Banner Human Resources (includes Employee Self-Service) |
| Ellucian Banner Student (includes Student Self-Service and Faculty and Advisor Self-Service) |
| Ellucian Banner Operational Data Store (ODS) |
Completing this migration to the cloud will enable VCU to make additional improvements to our Banner ERP solution sooner, allowing us to support the strategic mission and goals of the university.
The Ellucian Banner Managed Cloud hosting environments offers the following benefits:
- Agility: Ellucian will handle the day-to-day system maintenance, which offers Technology Services the agility to assign technical resources where they can impact the university's strategic priorities.
- Business Continuity: Banner data in the Ellucian Managed Cloud resides in multiple secure remote locations managed by Ellucian and powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that are far less vulnerable to a single disaster or disruption than those running on-premises.
During the maintenance window, the following data integrations to and from Banner and ODS databases will be INACTIVE:
| Banner Integrations | ODS Integrations |
|---|---|
|
AdAstra |
RealTime |
|
College Scheduler access to Banner |
Tableau access to ODS |
|
Real Source - Jaggaer - eInvoice |
Office of Research Database Servers |
|
Real Source - Jaggaer - eProcurement |
SAS VA Dashboards - Finance, Research |
|
Real Source - Jaggaer - TSM |
MS SQL Servers - multiple applications |
|
Touchnet - Tuition and Fees posting to Banner |
CCTR Database Servers |
|
SEM Blackboard Call Center access to Banner |
Facilities Management Databases |
|
Constituo Unicas Satellite - Admissions Application Flow to Banner |
myVCU Portal portlets |
|
DocuSign Data Transfer to Banner |
ImageNow |
|
Fischer queries against Banner |
Accounts Payable Check Run |
|
Banner eID processing from Fisher |
Cardinal Data Load to ODS on 1st of the month |
|
All file transfers from Banner and ODS |
|
|
Chrome River |
|
|
Real Source |
|
|
myVCU Portal portlets |
|
|
No, this information will be unavailable until December 8th unless an announcement is sent indicating that eServices is available sooner. |
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Yes, the payment due date will now be December 9th. If you previously scheduled a payment for the period when the migration is occurring, the payment should still be processed on the scheduled date. Once the migration is complete, the payments should be manually posted to your account. |
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No, the payment should still be processed on the scheduled date. Once the migration is complete, the payments should be manually posted to your account. |
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No, the VSSC will be unable to access your account information during the migration. The VSSC may be able to assist with general, non-account specific inquiries. |
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The VCU Information Technology Services Team has created a web site that includes the official timeline, a FAQ list, and the links to the new location for Banner admin pages and eServices (available once the migration is complete). You can visit that site at https://administrativesystems.ts.vcu.edu/banner-cloud-migration-project/ |
Human Resources and Payroll
Yes. VCU RealTime is refreshed daily with new hire as well as job change data that are processed in Banner and pushed into the ODS. While Banner and the ODS are down, the automated daily refresh of RealTime will not take place, which means VCU RealTime data will be as of December 1, 2022, until the ODS is available. This has no impact on employees who have no changes to their job that affects their timekeeping or leave eligibility during the down time.
In order to have ample time to process PAFs submitted for the 11/25 - 12/9 pay period, PAFs must be submitted to VCU HR by November 28th.
Yes, you may continue to submit PAFs as you normally do. PAFs received by November 28th will be entered in Banner before Banner goes down at 5pm on December 5th. HRIS team will start entering PAFs again when Banner is available and will do everything we can to process PAFs received for the 12/25 - 12/9 pay period.
Departments will not receive the daily PAF transaction log from 12/2 - 12/12 while the ODS is down. Once Banner is available through 12/12, log into Banner to review and ensure transactions you sent to HR have been processed.
Yes. During Banner down time, HR plans to manually enter new hires and any job changes that affect benefit enrollment in Cardinal in order to allow employees to enroll or make changes to their health plans.
Banner will be closed out at 5pm on Friday, December 2nd and will not reopen until Monday, December. Due to system validations and other preparations for the upcoming opening of Payroll 23 on December 9th, we will not have a special check run during the week of December 5th - December 9th. Any changes or corrections to the December 1st pay will be corrected on the December 16th pay.
There may be a slight delay in viewing pay stubs in the cloud as the system is resetting. Employees needing current pay stubs should download or print them prior to December 2nd.
No, these features in myVCU portal will be down during the transition period.
Yes. Make sure that new hires that are scheduled to be in NEO during the downtime are entered in Banner Expresshire before Dec. 2nd so that the information can flow from Banner to Talent@VCU. If the new hire is not entered in Expresshire, their information will not be in Talent@VCU in order to register for NEO.
- Pay Assessor Tool will be down from Dec. 2nd through Dec. 9th. Limit personnel actions that require the pay assessor tool to only urgent needs and use the paper PAF to submit transactions to HR during the down time.
- HR Redesign enrollment site - classified employees who would like to enroll into the UAP employee plan will not be able to do so during the transition period. Employee should be able to return to the site after the cloud transition is complete and enroll in time before the next deadline of Dec. 15th.
- Talent@VCU - any employee that is already in Banner before Dec. 2nd should be able to log into Talent@VCU during Banner down time. New employees who were not entered in Banner before the downtime will not be able to log into Talent@VCU until sometime in the afternoon of Dec. 7th.
Yes. Any employee that is already in Banner before Dec. 2nd should be able to submit a ticket to HR using Cherwell HR ticketing system.
Finance and Treasury
|
RealSource :
Departments should anticipate needs and order ahead of time and if an emergency situation arises the pcard would need to be used. Chrome River: Chrome River transactions can continue to be processed, but all payments of those reimbursements will be held until Banner is back on-line and a check run is able to be scheduled. Accounts/Payable: A final check run will be run on Friday 12/2 that will pay all invoices due through 12/12. We will anticipate running another check run as soon as the system comes back up later during the week of 12/5. Grants and Contracts: Processing of new awards/indexes and financial reporting and billing based on activity in Banner will be on hold until both Banner and the research dashboard are up and running. Reporting & Dashboards: Research and Finance dashboards cannot be used while the reporting center is unavailable. |
Treasury:
Treasury will not be able to post any payments, etc. to Banner. This includes Cashiering, web check payments from Touchnet, Converge, ECSI, Bank of America funds in/out, Payment Runs (check and wire).
Important dates:
- Friday, December 2: Banner, Degree Works, ODS, and related systems will be unavailable beginning at 5:00 PM.
- Monday, December 5: Banner access will be limited to technical and functional testers to validate that systems are functioning properly. We estimate 2 days of validating between technical and functional.
- Wednesday, December 7: At approximately noon, the VCU community can access Banner production and eServices in the Ellucian Managed Cloud.
- Thursday, December 8: ODS access will be limited to technical and functional testers to validate that systems are functioning properly.
- Friday, December 9: At approximately 10 AM, the ODS, VCU Reporting Center, and dashboards will be available to the VCU community.
