TRAX and Banner

April 13, 2005 7:46 PM

My wife is wanting to apply for a job as a Technical Consultant. She's pretty tech-savvy but the job description says they're looking for someone who can make "effective use of TRAX and Banner." Has anyone ever heard of these? I assume they're database management software, but my Google and Wikipedia search returned nothing! Also, any ideas on how to teach herself the software?
posted by JPowers to computers & internet (12 comments total)

There's an inventory-control system from Sentai called TRAX.
posted by nicwolff at 7:56 PM on April 13, 2005

We use Banner at my university to track finance, enrollment, registration, personal information, etc. I believe that the backend is some flavor of Oracle. We also use ReportNet to pull queries from the Banner data.

Email is in my profile if you have any questions.
posted by Coffeemate at 8:04 PM on April 13, 2005

Information on "Banner"

I assume she's looking for a job at a college or university?
posted by mkdg at 8:06 PM on April 13, 2005

Both of them are highly customized systems. What that means is that they want someone who's worked at another university or place that's had it implemented before and can bring fresh ideas in...
but then again, with those software-specific requirements, they're used to getting applicants that don't have them.
posted by SpecialK at 9:16 PM on April 13, 2005

At my school, the local hospital has coined the phrase "Banner Intergration Syndrome," a "disease" that has led to a rash of early retirement, high levels of people quitting, and other fun stress related illness. FYI...
posted by Pockets at 10:12 PM on April 13, 2005

Yeah, she's applying for a job at a university.

Aside from reading up on the info presented in the above links (which are great), any ideas on how she get some hands-on experience with the software?
posted by JPowers at 12:38 AM on April 14, 2005

Poke around on some of the schools' websites that use Banner. Oftentimes they will have demos set up for training purposes.
posted by Coffeemate at 7:01 AM on April 14, 2005

Yeeh...run away from anything Sungard sells.
posted by nj_subgenius at 7:48 AM on April 14, 2005

Both my girlfriend and I have schools that use Banner. Tell her to urge the company not to move to Banner. It's a dodgy, crap-filled system and the standard implimentation is absolutely ass. emich.edu uses it. Email their tech support and they might be able to tell you more.
posted by klangklangston at 9:53 AM on April 14, 2005

DataTel and PeopleSoft both compete in the same market as Banner (higher ed), so significant experience on either of those systems should be acceptable substitutes. Otherwise, significant experience with any large CRM system might get her foot in the door. Nobody will really let you play around with their student information system.

I also echo nj_subgenius, Sungard is a pretty miserable company. The only worse choice for a SIS is the one my school made, which shall go unnamed. And we were being managed by a company that is now a Sungard subsidiary at the time.
posted by McGuillicuddy at 9:56 AM on April 14, 2005

Banner stock install is so crappy and the interface so customizable that I'm not sure playing around with anything besides the universities own installation is going to get you much. And is unlikely to happen anyways because Banner controls both student information which which the institute cares about because the government forces them to and money which the institute actually cares about. Most installs are pretty crufty and byzantine.

Banner runs on Oracle, so showing Oracle or database integration experience would be an asset.
posted by Mitheral at 10:26 AM on April 14, 2005

McGuillicuddy, that is Sungard all over. Had to chuckle at that (not at your expense I hope).
posted by nj_subgenius at 12:09 PM on April 14, 2005