University of New England

Challenge

Manual processes and on-premises software caused unnecessary work, delays, and inefficiencies at University of New England.

Results

• Ellucian Banner SaaS shifts maintenance and updates onto Ellucian's hands.
• Ellucian Experience provides a one-stop access point for all UNE student needs.
• Other Ellucian solutions simplify and automate recruitment, enrollment, retention, and financial aid processes.

Summary

The University of New England (UNE) is Maine's largest independent university, featuring six colleges and three campuses. Several of their systems and processes had become outdated and some still used pen-and-paper forms. Furthermore, the staff knew it wasn't fully utilizing some of the technology modules and solutions already in place. Challenges like these, coupled with the need to stay up to date with the fast-changing higher education landscape, led to Project Beacon, UNE's bold modernization initiative that’s transforming every aspect of campus life with Ellucian's cutting-edge solutions.

Under the leadership of Matthew Alonzo, Associate Vice President of Technology and Chief Information Officer at UNE, hired through Ellucian Managed Services, the university is positioning itself to enhance student success while driving positive outcomes across all campus offices. Alonzo, along with four other UNE leaders, shared how Ellucian's SaaS solutions power Project Beacon and contributed to the university's success.

Modernizing with Banner SaaS: Why and How | Matthew Alonzo, Associate Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer

In the past, UNE used on-premises software and pen-and-paper forms. Additionally, Alonzo noticed that UNE was not leveraging its baseline software as it was designed to be used optimally. These factors and the opportunities that presented themselves to empower UNE’s workforce community for a better student experience catalyzed the school's modernization. UNE is currently one year into its three-year modernization journey, known as Project Beacon.

"[Project Beacon] represents a major administrative upgrade for the institution," Alonzo said. "This project is hitting the 'Reset' button administratively, empowering the users to optimize their division's performance, implement some strategic new tools that Ellucian provides today, and truly be cutting edge when it comes to our student experience. That's what Project Beacon is all about."

At the core of UNE's Ellucian modernization journey with Ellucian's SaaS platform is Banner, Ellucian's industry-leading fully integrated ERP system. Banner is a full solution focused exclusively on higher education. With Banner SaaS, the manual process of downloading and installing patches and updates becomes a thing of the past. Maintenance, bug fixes, and system updates are handled by Ellucian, allowing institutions to focus more on supporting students and driving academic success.

"The overall Ellucian SaaS platform [provides] much value to UNE in the short and long term," Alonzo said. "We needed a modern, mobile-centric student experience, and the modern tools coming with the Ellucian SaaS platform […] will enable us to bring quicker time-to-value delivery with contemporary solutions and services to our community like never before."

Fostering Institution-Wide Buy-In and Collaboration | Jim Irwin, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer

To set themselves up for success, UNE held three summits involving as many as 70 UNE faculty and professional staff to discuss modernization and what they'd need to achieve it.

The first summit focused on curriculum. "It involved several deans, the provost [and other individuals from her office], the registrar's office, and information technology services," said Jim Irwin, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer. "It also was an opportunity for the registrar’s office to listen to the deans and get a good understanding of how their colleges function for purposes of optimization."

The second summit concentrated on human resources and included UNE's HR and payroll offices.

"The individuals focused on issues that are problematic either for the HR function or the payroll function, and they considered different modules that could be utilized in the Banner system that could operate more effectively and efficiently," Irwin said.

The third summit focused on student success and retention. It brought together 70 faculty and professional staff "to discuss how we're going to use Project Beacon and, in particular, Banner to improve our retention efforts and to communicate collaboratively across the institution," Irwin said.

These summits fostered more open communication and collaboration among UNE's departments and provided them a blueprint for Project Beacon.

Navigating Success with a Student Experience Hub | Jim Irwin, Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer

Central to transforming the student experience at UNE was customizing Ellucian Experience into UNE Compass, a tailored digital hub that puts essential tools and resources at students' fingertips. Experience provides an online "front door" for higher ed students, faculty and staff to access everything they need in one spot. Institutions can customize their instance of Experience to meet their individual needs, and UNE is no exception. Irwin said they've received positive feedback about it since deployment.

"We took the Ellucian product and then branded it ourselves and it is incredibly sharp," he said. "Employees and students have a dashboard that allows them to move custom tiles around on their device, whether it's a laptop, a tablet or a phone, to make their experience much more streamlined, customized and efficient." Examples of the tiles include payroll stubs, daily calendars, class schedules, links to registering for classes or paying bills, websites that could be saved for ease of access, and more.

"We used 'Compass' because our campuses in Biddeford, Portland, and Tangier, Morrocco, are all close to oceans," Irwin said. "Plus, 'Compass' fits with our nautical and navigational theme of Project Beacon, and it will guide our students and employees to wherever they need to go."

Updating the Registrar's Office with Project Beacon's Software Suite | JP Pestana, University Registrar

UNE's SaaS migration and overhaul of educational technology solutions brought the registrar's office to the forefront of modernization, offering an opportunity to reimagine academic and administrative processes. JP Pestana, University Registrar and a recent addition to UNE, shared that the university's decision to implement Banner SaaS was a key factor in his choice to join the team. The registrar's office plays a pivotal role in supporting students and faculty, utilizing a range of solutions to facilitate degree planning and academic auditing, including Ellucian Degree Works, Ellucian Smart Plan, and Ellucian CRM Advise.

"We are not just doing Banner SaaS; we are doing Degree Works, we are going to Smart Plan, and we also have CRM Advise coming in as well," Pestana said. "All of those solutions are really going to make such a huge impact for us," Pestana said. "We're very excited about [Degree Works] and its marriage with the new Smart Plan, and then being able to tie our learning management system and our Banner registration system in with CRM Advise."

"UNE is in a great place right now, and I believe we're setting a strong example for what's possible for other institutions. This success is a testament to our leadership and our partnership with Ellucian."

Bolstering Student Outcomes, Pt. 1: Retention | Colin Pears, Chief Retention Officer

Student success has always been central to UNE's mission, and Project Beacon has taken that commitment to new heights. Prior to Beacon, some departments of UNE still relied on pen-and-paper forms, and even when the retention team would intervene with students via e-mail, bottlenecks and potential data loss posed challenges, hindering retention efforts. With CRM Advise now playing a pivotal role in UNE's modernization, the retention team is empowered with real-time insights, streamlining their efforts and enhancing student support.

"What CRM Advise does for us is it draws everything together into a very quick view that's available to everyone involved," Colin Pears, Chief Retention Officer, said. "More than that, it allows us to drill down on any particular area of student needs so that we can get a more granular view of what we need to position to support that student."

Pears said the university has identified three key areas in which CRM Advise will help boost retention at UNE. The first is to align the perspectives of all staff responsible for supporting students. Next, UNE is building out a referral mechanism of early alerts and reporting within the system to better serve student needs and ensure that those initiating reports see who has acted on them. Finally, since students can see and interact with their own academic trajectories, self-initiate reports, and make changes, CRM Advise and Degree Works will boost engagement among not only staff and faculty but also students — and more engagement means more retention.

"It's not just one [solution]; it's the integration of that entire ecosystem," Pears said. "There's a depth to the integration of these systems that I think is rarely achieved by other purveyors. Having worked with more than a few of them in my time, this one has some tremendous advantages in that area."

Bolstering Student Outcomes, Pt. 2: Financial Aid | Paul Henderson, Assistant Vice President of Student Financial Services

Financial aid is a major component of most higher education students' lives. Offering clear and timely financial aid packages to students is vital to the University's recruitment and retention efforts.

Paul Henderson, Assistant Vice President of Student Financial Services, said that his office has struggled in the past with financial aid because of the frequency of updates that must be made based on federal regulations. Implementing these changes and others into their system every year, as well as additional hurdles like the FAFSA form delay that affected the nation for the 2024-25 academic year, can slow the financial aid process down significantly.

Henderson praised Project Beacon for transitioning to a system that would eliminate many of the financial aid challenges his office has faced. Tools like Ellucian Student Financial Success—a suite designed to streamline and simplify financial aid—will help UNE stay up-to-date with federal changes to financial aid regulations while automating communications, reports and processes. This will enhance the student experience by making financial aid processes more streamlined and intuitive. Operationally, this change will increase access to essential information and enable us to respond to students more effectively.

"We want our students to know that we're here to support them," Henderson said. "Our goal is to be a true partner, helping them navigate the financial aid and student account processes as smoothly and efficiently as possible. A big part of our success relies on timely, effective communication. The Ellucian Student Financial Success communication tool helps provide students with the right information at the right time, empowering them to make informed decisions about financing their education."

Partnering with Ellucian for a Future-Ready University

Project Beacon wouldn't be possible without these key UNE staff members exercising their talents to bring their university into the 21st century. Returning to Matthew Alonzo, who has spearheaded the project, Ellucian's groundbreaking solutions have been integral as well.

"I want UNE to be the Ellucian Banner SaaS lighthouse account," he said. "That's been our goal from the beginning: We don't want to just implement; we want to implement from a 'best practice' perspective and to truly leverage the Ellucian SaaS platform to its fullest capabilities."

Project Beacon is projected to reach completion in 2026.