SIS interfaces – a brief technical overview

We’ve previously written about how our WPS STEP platform makes connections between campus sellers and campus systems. The most common systems we interface with are Student Information Systems, which are used to power many of the important functions across campus. This post will be a short discussion about the different SIS’s and how WPS interfaces to them.

Background

SIS are software tools that have been around for decades. They aspire to be a total management solution that helps the school track students, allocate resources, meet the needs of all stakeholders, and achieve the goals they have set. SIS-es are now integral to all of the key metrics and tracking that colleges use to judge themselves and compare to similar institutions. 

Top Providers

Ellucian is the combination of former companies SunGuard and Datatel in 2012. In the US, based on colleges served, Ellucian offers Banner which has ~39% market share and Colleague which has an additional ~16% market share for public colleges and universities. Ellucian also offers its PowerCampus SIS which serves smaller institutions. Multi-national software giant Oracle offers Oracle’s PeopleSoft Campus Solutions platform has ~15% of the market and Jenzabar has about 9%. The remaining schools are covered by a handful of smaller players with their own systems.

WPS SIS interfaces for Campus Payments

Watchman’s Student Education Payments platform (or STEP) is the industry’s first hub platform built so campuses and their sellers can query the widest set of campus data sources and automate a wide range of transactions. A key interface is the SIS. This gives the platform the access it needs to check:

• Student accounts for query of student eligibility, available balance and more
• Financial Aid to query and assess what aid is available
• General Ledger to invoice and credit accounts in campus-specific payment flows when required

We connect differently with each SIS. I could write many pages about each but won’t so check out our Data Sheets in the Resource Center to learn more.

Security

It’s not just any partner who can ask for access to an Institution’s SIS. Every institution will undertake a thorough review of security processes, procedures, and credentials before granting this access. We strive to show our customers, and the industry, that we meet the highest standards. Check out our post on HECVAT for more on our security approaches.

“STEP meets Higher Education’s most comprehensive standards for security as demonstrated by our performance on the HECVAT. Our HECVAT results are publicly available on the Community Broker Index (CBI) as part of the Research and Education Networks ISAC (REN-ISAC) based at Indiana University.”

We invite anyone to review our HECVAT and talk to us about our security practices