Case Studies > Integration with Banner Provides Instant Access to Up-to-Date Budget Numbers

Integration with Banner Provides Instant Access to Up-to-Date Budget Numbers

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Vena
Microsoft Excel

Tech Stack

ETL Processes
Connected Excel Templates
Workflow Engine

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Customer Satisfaction
Digital Expertise
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Industries

Education

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Quality Assurance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

The customer is a leading private university in the United States, known for its commitment to providing high-quality education and fostering academic excellence. As a not-for-profit institution, the university operates with a focus on balancing its budget to ensure financial stability and sustainability. The Finance team at the university is responsible for managing the budgeting process, which involves collecting and consolidating budget profit and loss statements from hundreds of organizational units. The university sought to improve the efficiency and accuracy of this process by leveraging advanced technology solutions.

The Challenge

The Finance team at a leading private university faced significant challenges in managing their budgeting process. They had to create and distribute dozens of spreadsheets to hundreds of organizational departments. These spreadsheets were then completed and emailed back to the Finance team, who manually consolidated them over several weeks. If the total budget was not balanced at the end of this process, spreadsheets had to be re-distributed and re-collected via email. This manual process increased the likelihood of user errors going unnoticed and required extensive communication through emails and phone calls. Additionally, there was a need for better control and insight into user activity, as well as improved data accuracy and visibility.

The Solution

Vena provided a comprehensive solution to address the university's budgeting challenges. By seamlessly integrating with the client's General Ledger (GL), Vena automatically fed up-to-date data into a central, secure database on a daily basis. This eliminated the need for manual spreadsheet creation, collection, and distribution. Vena's powerful ETL processes extracted data from the client's spreadsheets and templates, storing the most up-to-date models, business drivers, and assumptions in a single repository. Connected Excel templates were automatically updated when changes were made to data within the repository, ensuring consistency and accuracy. Vena's business rules prevented users from entering data that fell below or exceeded thresholds established by management, helping to ensure that every budget template was balanced. The workflow engine allowed finance managers to assign tasks and deadlines to particular users and monitor workflow status in near real-time. Additionally, a detailed audit trail recorded all end-user actions in an easy-to-read log, providing transparency and accountability.

Operational Impact

The automatic update of budgeting templates eliminated the need for manual spreadsheet creation, collection, and distribution, saving the Finance team hours of manual, error-prone work and eliminating issues with version control.
Business rules helped ensure every budget template was balanced by allowing users to only enter data that respected the thresholds set by management.
The detailed audit trail presented Finance managers with an updated view of who did what and what remained to be done, eliminating the need to communicate through dozens, if not hundreds, of emails, and reducing the risk of important data being lost.
The workflow engine helped management quickly identify and correct bottlenecks, improving overall efficiency and productivity.

Quantitative Benefit

The Finance team saved hours of manual work by eliminating the need for manual spreadsheet creation, collection, and distribution.
The risk of user errors was significantly reduced due to the automated processes and business rules in place.
The university achieved better control and insight into user activity through the detailed audit trail and workflow engine.