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Ellucian Ethos

Score7 out of 10

4 Reviews and Ratings

What is Ellucian Ethos?

The Ellucian Ethos Framework is a data integration platform designed for higher education institutions and their business structures. The Ethos Framework can be extended to include other Ellucian products for greater analytics, workflow, and mobile capacities.

Top Performing Features

  • Data quality services

    Software includes capability to perform data profiling, deduplication, cleansing etc.

    Category average: 7.9

  • Data security features

    Data security features include rights management, LDAP integration, password encryption, etc.

    Category average: 7.8

  • Support for real-time and batch integration

    Software supports both real-time and batch integrations

    Category average: 7.6

Areas for Improvement

  • Connector modification

    Provision for modification of pre-built connectors to suit specific environments

    Category average: 7.5

  • Pre-built connectors

    Pre-built, tested connectors to a wide variety of applications such as ERP, CRM, HCM, Marketing Automation, etc.

    Category average: 8.3

  • Monitoring console

    Central console for monitoring resource utilization, system health, ability to start and stop processes, etc.

    Category average: 7.5

Ellucian Ethos Framework: great features for existing clients

Pros

  • Out of the box integration: As an existing Ellucian customer, having a system that is already built is spectacular.
  • Customization: We can take various other sources and create models for those or add them to existing models
  • Analysis: Provides a feature set that is often difficult to obtain for smaller companies.
  • Cost: Basic integration piece is included for free, analysis piece is extra

Cons

  • Operational reporting: This does not replace or provide an easy platform for operational reports or warehousing. It would be nice if they provided a full stack.
  • Learning curve: Training and documentation are minimal.

Return on Investment

  • Our ROI is nonexistent at this time as we are still implementing. However, the minimal cost signifies that it will be a significant help.

Other Software Used

Colleague Student

Promising, but still a work in progress

Pros

  • Ethos Integration obfuscates database access from the developers and functional users.
  • Ethos Integration provides common-denominator data model between different systems on campus.
  • Ethos Integration has good management tool - API Management Center.
  • Ethos Identity allows easy federated access with our Shibboleth IDP provider.

Cons

  • Ethos Integration - The traditional Banner API library is still much superior to the one available in Ethos. Not all APIs are available in Ethos.
  • Ethos Integration - Performance is not robust enough under the pick load.
  • Ethos Identity - The latest version is difficult to configure in a cluster-failover set-up.

Return on Investment

  • It's premature to evaluate that, since Ethos Integration is not in production yet. We would expect the reduction of cost due to elimination of some home-grown development.

Other Software Used

Oracle Database, Ellucian Banner, Oracle SQL Developer, Toad for Oracle, Oracle Database Cloud Service

Great solution for "unknown" integrations

Pros

  • It allows connection between systems that are completely different
  • It allows you to use workflows in terms of if one thing happens in one system you can "notify" multiple subscribers to take actions
  • It has analytics to provide you insights into your applications

Cons

  • It is expensive
  • Getting Ellucian Ethos does not mean you get all functionalities, other modules like workflow and analytics have to be purchased separately
  • Takes a while to set it up

Return on Investment

  • It allowed us to connect to other systems without having to pay consultants and spend an enormous amount of time creating an integration solution
  • It reduced amount of "IT time" needed on projects

Other Software Used

Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Azure, osTicket, Technolutions Slate, Microsoft Office 365