MALVERN, Pa., April 8, 2010 — Higher education institutions will have access to changes in U.S. methodology for calculating financial aid more quickly with the availability of regulatory updates in a flexible, just-in-time, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery method from SunGard Higher Education.
SunGard Higher Education is offering the U.S. federal methodology (FM) as a hosted, SaaS-based solution for the 2010/2011 aid year as an alternative to an on-premise offering. The methodology is a calculation that determines student financial aid eligibility based on rules from the U.S. government. SunGard Higher Education works directly with the Department of Education (ED) to accelerate the delivery of the updates to customers using Banner Financial Aid software. Having the updates available to customers on-demand eliminates the need for institutions to perform an on-site software installation every year. Customers can take advantage of the SaaS update delivery immediately, allowing faster adoption of the new changes.
“By employing the flexible SaaS methodology, we can deliver updates quicker so that financial aid staff can stay current with changes and service their students better and faster, helping students meet their financial requirements in support of their educational goals,” said Renee Pacini, vice president, SunGard Higher Education. “This method accelerates the availability of the annual FM Need Analysis by about one month compared to the onsite offering.”
“Having this solution available as a hosted on-demand service gives us more control over our processes,” said Sara Beth Holman, director of Financial Aid at Lawrence University, an early adopter of the solution. “With access to the federal need analysis calculation in early January, we were able to distribute our first award letters several weeks earlier than in previous years. To date, we have more than doubled the number of financial aid awards that have been sent to students as compared to this same time last year. By putting our award into the hands of a prospective student early, we allow that student more time to make a decision that will have a significant impact on their future.”
The delivery of the calculation as a SaaS-based component is part of SunGard Higher Education’s Open Digital Campus, a vision and technology strategy that aims to give institutions more flexibility to shape how technology meets their evolving needs. In addition to traditional on-premise implementations, alternative delivery models such as SaaS and hosting, composite applications, and on-demand services provide more flexible options to suit an institution’s unique needs and preferences. Institutions continue to have the option of installing the new FM updates as an onsite upgrade.
About SunGard Higher Education
SunGard Higher Education serves colleges, universities and foundations in 40 countries worldwide. Through its Open Digital Campus strategy, SunGard collaborates with the higher education community and provides software and services to help institutions find better ways to teach, learn, manage and connect. To learn more, please visit www.sungardhe.com.
About SunGard
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies. SunGard has more than 20,000 employees and serves 25,000 customers in 70 countries. SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software. With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and IT services company.
Trademark information: SunGard, the SunGard logo, Banner and Open Digital Campus are trademarks or registered trademarks of SunGard Data Systems Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. All other trade names are trademarks or registered