Banner Advancement

May 5 marks a watershed opportunity for UNC Charlotte’s Development and Alumni Affairs Division. That morning, at 8:00 AM, we will officially convert from our legacy information system, to becoming part of UNC Charlotte’s enterprise-wide, fully integrated Banner system. Banner Advancement not only offers more effective tools to support fundraising and alumni engagement; it also gives us a 360 degree view of all of our constituency’s activity with the university from the time they enroll as students through their decades long involvement as alumni. The conversion is the result of 18 months' worth of intense, collaborative work by multiple units of the university. “First, I have to give the Advancement Services team tremendous credit for getting us to where we are today. They have collaborated with more than 30 colleagues from across campus to implement various aspects of the conversion”, says Niles Sorensen, president of the UNC Charlotte Foundation and vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs, the division that is spearheading this particular implementation, in tandem with ITS (Information Technology Services).

Want to know who's on the ground floor of the Banner Advancement conversion at UNC Charlotte? Click here.

“Our conversion team is com­prised of colleagues from Athletics, Alumni Affairs, Development, ITS, Enrollment Management, Financial Services and University Relations/Community Affairs, among others,” Sorensen says. “As the last major unit of the University to convert to Banner, our folks have learned from all of the hard lessons of the folks who preceded us. We hope that will make our conversion all that much more seamless. The willingness of our colleagues in other divisions to support our project with their advice and experience has been terrific. I am very grateful for their help.” “Anyone who has lived through a conversion obviously recognizes that there will be bumps in the road, particularly in the first 120 days, but we are fundamentally in good shape and ready to go.” May 5 is go-live for phase one of the Banner Advancement conversion. “In phase one, we are migrating data; implementing some new business processes, including some things that system constraints currently prevent; and more effectively delivering information to our customers,” says Stephanie Cole. Those customers include the chancellor and his cabinet; the UNC Charlotte Foundation; the Alumni Association; and the College-level leadership, including deans and gift officers. Reporting will be delivered through ReportCentral.

In many ways, phase one is the foundation upon which extremely significant advances will be built and are, in fact, in progress. “The team made a decision from the start to phase our work,” says Cole “Particularly in the area of shared data, this team is positioning the university to be able to do things we couldn’t do before. Rolling them out effectively requires smart strategy, and we are doing that. We are excited, and we really appreciate the support of campus as we go live and go forward.”

Banner Advancement not only offers more effective tools to support fundraising and alumni engagement; it also provides a 360 degree view of constituent activity with the university from the time of enrollment as a student through decades long involvement as alumni. The conversion from the Millenium legacy information system to becoming part of UNC Charlotte’s enterprise-wide, fully integrated Banner system is the result of 18 months' worth of intense, collaborative work by multiple units of the university.