(Still at the conference -- finally kicking Angela off the laptop so I can have a turn!)
Yup, that's our Banner -- but it's much more than that.
Banner handles ALL university data, from Recruiting to Admissions to Registration to Financial Aid to Accounts Receivable to grading to transcripts to degrees to Grad School and on and on...
And I'm one of eight or so programmers responsible for making any changes, customizations or additions to the Banner system that OSU chooses to make. :)
Banner is famous for being horrible, and it IS the worst product available to handle university data -- except for all the others. As annoying and buggy as it is, the other similar products are worse.
Universities process SO MUCH of SO MANY different types of data, and have SO MANY rules and regulations to meet (and no two universities want to do business the same way), that it's simply impossible for ANY software package to do everything correctly, for everybody.
[I suddenly have a profound respect for anyone who works with similar "do everything" software for HOSPITALS!]
So yeah, we all love to hate Banner. But realistically, we couldn't expect much better.
My group at OSU goes through unimaginable grief just trying to CUSTOMIZE Banner, and just for OUR school. I don't envy the folks trying to create it in the first place...
It's been a fun conference (see Angela's journal). I have a few more sessions tomorrow morning, and we'll be back home tomorrow evening...
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