Modernizing for Institutional Transformation

Evolving Beyond Legacy Customizations

St. John's University, a large, multi-campus institution with nearly 20,000 students across New York, Rome, and Paris, had spent decades building enhancements on top of its Ellucian Student powered by Banner environment. These solutions were designed to meet evolving institutional needs, but over time, they became increasingly complex.

Many of these processes were built using older technologies and required ongoing maintenance, making it difficult for the university to remain agile. Updates often depended on technical teams, and even small changes could take significant time and effort.

As the university prepared to transition to a SaaS environment, it saw an opportunity to rethink its approach. Rather than simply replicating existing processes, St. John’s aimed to evaluate what was truly needed and redesign workflows using modern tools.

"You were probably using technical tools that have since become outdated, and there are many things to consider before continuing to maintain all of this technical debt," Woods said.

At the same time, the university faced the growing demands of security, compliance, and system reliability. Frequent upgrades required extensive planning and coordination, often resulting in downtime and operational strain. St. John's recognized the need for a more sustainable, modern approach that would support both current needs and future growth.

Designing Modern Workflows with Business Process Automation [Intelligent Processes] and Forms

As part of its broader transformation initiative, Project Genesis, St. John's adopted Ellucian Business Process Automation [Intelligent Processes] and Forms to redesign and automate campus workflows using the Central Workspace [Experience] platform. The university began implementing these capabilities while still operating in its on-premises environment, ensuring a smooth transition to SaaS.

"We were using Ellucian Business Process Automation [Intelligent Processes – IP], and we had our EIPs ready before we went to SaaS. It was a matter of just reconnecting all the wires," Woods said.

By leveraging no-code and low-code tools, the university replaced legacy customizations with modern, configurable workflows that streamlined how tasks, approvals, and data updates were managed. Dynamic workflows could now be initiated by students, faculty, or staff and progress in real time, eliminating reliance on scripts and batch processing.

A key component of this transformation was reducing technical debt. St. John's evaluated more than 800 customizations, eliminating those no longer needed and replacing many others with baseline functionality or modern tools such as the Ellucian Platform's low-code integrations, business process automation, and central workspace capabilities. This approach ensured scalable, SaaS-aligned solutions without reintroducing complexity.

Equally important was empowering business users to take ownership of process design.

"You don't have to be a programmer," Woods said. "That's the benefit of this; is we took our business analysts and they're designing the forms."

This shift enabled faster innovation and closer alignment between technology and business needs, allowing departments to respond quickly and independently.

Driving Efficiency and Improving Experiences

St. John's implemented several critical workflows early in the process, including enrollment confirmations, HR agreements, emergency contact updates, and financial authorization processes. These implementations improved operational efficiency while enhancing the overall user experience through intuitive, mobile-friendly interactions.

The impact was measurable. Grade change requests that once took 24 hours to process can now be completed in about one hour. Financial aid award processes that previously required multiple days can now be completed in a single day through automation. At the same time, mobile-friendly workflows and self-service capabilities reduced friction in key interactions, contributing to a more seamless digital experience.

Modernized advising and registration processes also improved transparency and efficiency, reducing administrative bottlenecks and saving 30 to 40 percent of time for faculty and staff. Overall support requests decreased by more than 20 percent, reflecting improved usability and accessibility.

By replacing legacy scripts and manual processes with automated workflows, St. John’s reduced technical debt, improved data accuracy, and enhanced compliance through consistent updates and detailed audit tracking. The shift to SaaS also delivered improved system reliability, achieving 99.99% uptime and eliminating frequent downtime associated with maintenance and upgrades.

Expanding Automation and Agility

With a modern foundation in place, St. John's continues to expand its use of Business Process Automation [Intelligent Processes] and Forms, identifying new opportunities to automate workflows and improve operational efficiency across departments.

The university is focused on scaling these capabilities to support additional business processes, further reduce manual effort, and enable faster responses to changing institutional needs. By continuing to involve business users in designing and refining workflows, St. John's is strengthening collaboration and ensuring solutions remain aligned with real-world requirements.

Freed from infrastructure and maintenance demands, IT teams are now able to focus on strategic initiatives, innovation, and enhancing the overall digital experience. As new capabilities are introduced, St. John's is well-positioned to continue advancing a flexible, data-driven, and future-ready technology environment.

"It just gives you this ability to be more agile and to embrace the employees that you have that can add value because they understand the business," Woods said.