Go-live is Only the Beginning: Banner SaaS Support When the Party’s Over.

A successful go-live can feel like the finish line.

After months (or sometimes years) of planning, configuration, testing, and training, a new system is finally live. Many of our clients throw go-live celebrations, as they should; they’ve worked extremely hard to modernize their Banner environments.

But what happens when the party’s over? The implementation partner begins to transition out, and many in the campus community turn their attention to the next institutional priority.

But for the IT teams responsible for supporting their SaaS environment, go-live is just the beginning. Implementation morphs into maintaining the environment, managing integrations, and attempting to operate within a new technological reality while simultaneously attempting to optimize the technology they’re adapting to.  

The Work Changes After Go-Live

Moving to SaaS can reduce some of the technical responsibilities institutions historically managed themselves, but it also requires an understanding of how those technologies work together and how changes in one area may affect another.

That means institutions shouldn’t only ask: “What goes away when we move to SaaS?” They should also ponder: “What will our team need to own next?”

That distinction is critical when planning for the long-term support model that best suits your institutional needs.

Most of our clients require a different combination of internal resources, vendor support, and specialized expertise after go-live than they needed before the implementation.

Don’t Wait Until Go-Live to Plan for What Comes Next

One of the biggest mistakes institutions can make is waiting until after the implementation is complete to start thinking about post-go-live support. By then, important knowledge may already be transitioning away with project resources.

A better approach is to define the future operating model earlier. Before go-live, technology leaders should understand:

• Who will own each part of the environment?
• What expertise needs to remain internally?
• Where will specialized support come from?
• How will integrations, identity, data, and connected applications be maintained?
• How will the institution manage updates and ongoing optimization?
• What happens when an issue requires expertise the internal team doesn’t have?

Answering these questions early pays off in SaaS.

Defining Success Post-Go-Live

A successful implementation is important. But the real measure of technology transformation comes afterward, as your team evaluates whether the technology continues to support institutional goals.

Does the internal team have enough capacity to focus on strategic priorities instead of constantly responding to operational issues? Or could you use a little expert help?

SIG Managed Support Services can help institutions at all points of the modernization journey—from maintaining existing environments and preparing for SaaS to providing additional capacity during a transition and supporting the tech ecosystem after go-live.

Implementation has an end date. Your tech journey doesn’t. Let us know how we can help.