Banner 9 go-live delayed to allow for further testing

The launch of upgraded student records system Banner 9 has been pushed back after two critical faults were discovered in end-to-end testing.

Services were due to be able to move on to the new system from Monday 9 December, but it may now not be available until the new year to ensure all issues are ironed out.

Director of Student Operations, Catherine Lorigan said: “As a result of dealing with two critical faults, one of which has now been fixed, we have now taken the decision to push the live date back to give us time to complete the necessary technical tests on the live environment before releasing it to users, and to make sure that colleagues using the system for the first time have a problem-free experience.

“While we’d hoped to have better news for you at this stage, we are committed to getting this transition right, so a measured, flexible approach is vital.”

As there will be no ‘turn off and turn on’ – both Banner 8x and Banner 9 will run concurrently once the new system is available to allow teams to decide the best time to switch.

You may notice that some members of your team are using Banner 9 earlier than the official switch-over date. These 60+ users have volunteered or been selected to be ‘early adopters’ so they can spot any issues with the new system before all users move across. This phase will last around two weeks, at which point the project board will decide whether a roll out to all users can go ahead.

This is the final stage in the transition to a stable, supported version of Banner, following the move to Banner 8x earlier this year. However, the system includes all the complexities and customisations currently in Banner 8 and 8x so isn’t the finished product. This stable platform forms the foundations of the work the Student Lifecycle Programme will be doing from now until 2022 to transform processes and ways of working, with up-to-date systems as a key enabler.

For more information

Email SLP@leeds.ac.uk for further information on the Banner 9 plan.

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