Twenty-nine SUNY Campuses Rely on SunGard’s SCT Banner
MALVERN, Pa., April 27, 2004 — Twenty-nine institutions from the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest university system in the United States, have come together to benefit from economies of scale. SunGard SCT, an operating unit of SunGard (NYSE:SDS), announced that the institutions have all standardized on SCT Banner administrative software and have instituted a central support center called the Student Information and Campus Administrative Systems (SICAS) Center, which is designed to help deliver superior student services, meet state reporting requirements, and improve efficiencies.
Charles Young, executive director of the SICAS Center, explained, “I think any state school system would be very interested in this concept of standardizing on a single administrative system and sharing the common work, training, and consulting through a single support center. You just can’t beat the efficiencies and the cost savings.”
SUNY IT employees run the SICAS Center, located in Albany, New York. Staff at the nonprofit center manage all installations of SCT Banner and provide software upgrades and remote database support. The center also provides modifications to SCT Banner that are specific to requirements of New York State and SUNY policies and regulations. The collaborative arrangement helps reduce the cost of technical support as well as product licensing for each campus.
For example, SUNY Canton College of Technology could not have afforded SCT Banner without this group coordination, said Mary Holland, CIO at the college. “The arrangement allowed us to get the power of SCT Banner at a price we can afford,” said Ms. Holland. “And Banner’s self-service applications will help alleviate the staff’s workload and allow us to provide more immediate response to students.”
For Corning Community College, a primary benefit of migrating to SCT Banner was getting out of the development business, said Tom Carr, vice president of administrative services at the college. “We wanted a single integrated system, but did not want to dedicate programmers to writing all the necessary custom system interfaces. With SCT Banner, students will now be able to address most of their needs online. Staff members can also assist them with an array of student administrative services, such as registration, financial aid, and student accounts activities, all in one stop. We could not offer this one-stop service before.”
For Mr. Young, the benefits of the combination of the SICAS Center and SCT Banner are clear. “The schools gain because they get a system of Banner’s caliber at a price they can afford, and with lower maintenance costs. The students and taxpayers gain because we are more efficient, provide better services to learners, and are keeping costs down.”
About SUNY
The State University of New York is the largest university system in the United States with more than 410,000 students enrolled in more than 5,100 fields of study on 64 campuses. For more information on how SUNY creates opportunity, visit the web site at
www.suny.edu
About SunGard SCT
SunGard SCT is a leading global provider of e-education technology solutions for institutions of all sizes and levels of complexity. It supports more than 1,300 client institutions worldwide with administrative and academic solutions, portal and community solutions, content management and workflow solutions, information access and integration solutions, and professional services. SunGard SCT works collaboratively with customers and partners to provide the e-Education Infrastructure that enables institutions to fulfill their unique missions. For more information visit www.sct.com.
About SunGard
SunGard is a global leader in integrated software and processing solutions, primarily for financial services. SunGard also helps information-dependent enterprises of all types to ensure the continuity of their business. SunGard serves more than 20,000 customers in more than 50 countries, including the world’s 50 largest financial services companies. SunGard (NYSE:SDS) is a member of the S&P 500 and has annual revenue of $3 billion. Visit SunGard at www.sungard.com
Trademark Information: SunGard, the SunGard logo, SCT, and Banner are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Contacts:
SunGard SCT Media Relations
Laura Kvinge
Tel: 801/257-4158
e-mail: lkvinge@sct.com
