Brandon University is overhauling its digital infrastructure

A year of hard work has Brandon University eyeing a completely new digital system, the first phase of which could go live as early as this summer. The new system will power most of BU’s academic and administrative records, replacing BU’s decades-old legacy software system with a fully-modern cloud-based solution.

“I am incredibly proud of everyone at BU for their hard work and dedication to improving the ways we serve students,” said Scott Lamont, BU’s Vice-President (Administration and Finance), who is executive lead of the project. He noted that the project is on time and on budget.

“This is a multi-year project. The amount of focus and forward progress during this pandemic year is remarkable and a testament to how important this overhaul is.”

The new system is an Enterprise Resource Planning system called CampusNexus, and it comes with three components, which will improve student enrolment and registration, communication and engagement, and financial needs.

The first portion to go live, tentatively in early summer, will focus on students, in particular students who are first applying to come to BU.

“It makes sense to start with people who have not been entangled in the old system, and it provides them with a new, modern, and seamless way to engage with BU,” said system coordinator Kristin Jette. “It also helps us develop our own processes further and to fill in any gaps as early as possible.”

Moving applications processes over first is also expected to make an immediate impact on university operations.

“Applications to BU have more than doubled overall in the past decade, and applications from overseas have gone up tenfold,” Jette said. “This puts immense strain on our current, paper-based system, which limits a student’s ability to see where their application is in the queue for processing. Our new system is entirely online and will be much faster and more transparent for applicants.”

Future phases of the new system will include most aspects of students’ academic records, as well as their financial information and alumni engagement. It will also involve integration with other software suites used on campus.

CampusNexus was the consensus choice to power the new BU system, following extensive campus consultation in 2018–19. The BU Board of Governors approved the move in early 2020.

Over the past year, work has focused on mapping and streamlining BU’s existing processes, preparing the new system to accept the entirety of BU’s existing needs, and aligning data formats between the old and new systems. Brandon University has also been developing all-new processes to take advantage of the CampusNexus system, for example new methods to share information with prospective students more purposefully and more often.

The project of switching BU over to the new software system is being called Renew BU. More information, including a broad prospective timeline, is being collected online at BrandonU.ca/RenewBU.

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