Anyone Willing to Share Information About Banner Integration and Business Processes?

Jane Bilezikian

Hi.

We are a Banner FA school implementing BAM with Stewardship. We plan to collect post acceptance thank you letters, etc. through BAM from student award recipients.

We have the disbursement fields configured for export from BAM to Banner. (Based on University of Idaho specs.) However, we have a lot of questions about data integration between BAM and Banner and necessary revisions in business process considering this new integration. Among other things: is BAM or Banner the source of record for scholarships at your institution? Do students accept their overall award package in Banner and their scholarships in BAM? How does the institutional commitment amount in Banner get reduced as (institutional commitment replacing) awards are made in BAM?

Would welcome any information or documentation anyone is willing to share about their integration and business processes with Banner. Thank you!

Jane Bilezikian , Dir. of Advancement Services, Wheaton College (IL)

Christin Grissom

Hi, @Jane Bilezikian! Just wanted to share two Blackbaud Knowledgebase articles here and here that may be helpful until additional Award Management peers are able to share their individual experiences & feedback. Also, The College of Charleston shared their Banner process here in The Community not too long ago. Hopefully this helps!

Victor Swindell

@Jane Bilezikian - I'm the person at the College of Charleston who help implement our BAM < - > Banner Interface. (and other BANNER to Bam stuff like the Biodemo import)

In General
Scholarships are placed in BAM and students log in here to finish their profiles and apply for scholarships.
The OFFERS are sent to BANNER daily.
Banner is the DB of Record…because it houses more FA choices than just Scholarships (Federal, State..etc)
Students have to accept or decline their BAM awards in Banner.
Those BAM scholarship decisions are sent back to BAM…
The post-acceptance stuff happens in BAM.

I looked at the University of Idaho stuff and it was interesting…
given we are getting ready to switch from ATomic UC4…I'm glad I didn't go that route.

If you need to the document of how we did it..
here it is.

BAM2Banner Data Exchange Information.pdf

Jane Bilezikian

@Jane Bilezikian

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. I am curious if there are other Banner FA schools who handle scholarship award acceptance in BAM rather than through Banner. Is there anyone out there who does that?

Victor Swindell

@Jane Bilezikian - Did we answer your questions/concerns?

Jane Bilezikian

@Jane Bilezikian

Victor, does the “accept your financial aid package” notification to students trigger from a Banner communication plan or an action in Banner? How long after a student accepts FA package before BAM sends out the post-acceptance request? Does your institution require post acceptance to be completed before funds are released? Is the post-acceptance email the first communication from BAM regarding the scholarship awards? I am curious as to the timing on communications with students. Thanks.

Victor Swindell

@Jane Bilezikian _ I'm not really sure HOW the Financial Aid office has banner configured to send out Notifications about their financial aid. I can find out..
Our process runs daily to both send information from BAM to BANNER and from BANNER to BAM.
I know there are ‘triggers’ in BAM to finish the Scholarship process.

let me reach out to our FA office and Foundation Office…for those answers for you.

Victor Swindell

@Jane Bilezikian --here is what I was told

BAM sends out the post-acceptance request immediately after the scholarship is marked as "Accepted" in BAM. (Scholarships are usually marked as "Accepted" in BAM within 24 hours of being accepted in Banner.) We do not require post-acceptance to be completed before releasing funds; post-acceptance is optional, not required. The post-acceptance email may be the first communication from BAM regarding awards, but not always. Students are first notified of their awards via a Banner notification. However, they will receive a reminder email 15 days after the offer is made if they have not taken any action to accept the award. Let me know if there is anything else I can help with!