For organizations navigating the demands of human resource management, the choice of software can significantly influence everything from recruitment outcomes to employee engagement and compliance. Educational and enterprise institutions often need tools that extend beyond basic payroll and personnel tracking.

Banner by Ellucian and Oracle PeopleSoft stand out as two comprehensive HCM platforms built to address these complex needs. Banner focuses on higher education, offering tailored tools for managing the full employee lifecycle within academic institutions. Oracle PeopleSoft, on the other hand, delivers a modular, enterprise-grade HCM solution with strengths in workforce analytics, global HR, and automation.

This article will explore both platforms in depth, comparing their capabilities, advantages, and user experiences, so that HR teams can determine which solution is best for them.

Banner Vs PeopleSoft: At A Glance

Features             

Banner

PeopleSoft

Talent Management

Integrates with Talent Management by NEOED

Provides a talent acquisition tool alongside an HCM suite with configurable tools

Insights

Utilizes Ellucian Insights—an analytics platform designed for higher education institutions

Offers a large variety of analytics, visualizations, interactive dashboards, etc.

Self-Service

Provides a variety of self-service features for both employees and managers through the dashboard

Offers the Employee Self-Service Home Page, allowing users to manage various details on their own 

Integrations

Integrates with the help of Ellucian Ethos and offers standardized APIs

Utilizes the Integration Broker to connect to internal and third-party systems

Ellucian Banner Human Resources, also referred to as just Banner HR, is a cloud-ready HCM solution. It supports the full employee lifecycle—including hiring, onboarding, benefits, payroll, and performance management—within a unified platform.

With self-service tools for staff and a variety of features for HR professionals, Banner streamlines operations like position management, compensation planning, and compliance. It integrates with other Ellucian tools such as Talent Management by NEOED and Ellucian Analytics, enabling data-driven decisions across departments.

Due to its user-friendly management as well as ease of implementation, Banner is primarily used in academic environments. Administrators often use it to transfer relevant employee information to the campus community, ensuring a steady, secure flow of information between all users.

Unique Banner Features

  • Integrations With Ellucian SIS/Finance/CRM: Banner integrates natively with other Ellucian systems like Banner Student, Banner Finance, and CRM Advise via Ethos, providing a unified campus-wide data model
  • Education-Specific HR Design: Banner HCM is purpose-built for colleges and universities, with solutions that support student and faculty processing

Banner Pros And Cons

Pros:

  • Large capacity for data storage
  • Centralizes its data in one place, allowing access to HR, Student Affairs, A/C Receivable, etc.
  • Easy to access employee benefits

Cons:

  • Hard to navigate, according to users
  • Lacks a simple search function for the database

What Is PeopleSoft?

Oracle’s PeopleSoft is an enterprise-grade HCM solution designed for complex HR environments in sectors like education, government, and healthcare. Like Banner, it manages the full employee lifecycle such as hiring, onboarding, benefits, payroll, and retirement.

Utilizing a modular structure and offering self-service capabilities, PeopleSoft provides flexibility for organizations to configure the system to their needs. This flexibility helps reduce costs by allowing businesses to choose only the updates they need, making maintenance easier.

Its primary features include configurable tools, automated benefits eligibility, multi-plan year management, and an intuitive UI that streamlines enrollment processes. These key benefits make it particularly well-suited for large institutions with diverse HR requirements.

Unique PeopleSoft Features

  • PeopleSoft Update Manager: A useful tool that allows selective adoption of updates, enabling organizations to apply only relevant patches or enhancements without full system upgrades 
  • Global HR And Multi-Currency Support: Includes features like international payroll, multi-currency support, and country-specific regulatory compliance 

PeopleSoft Pros And Cons

Pros:

  • User friendly interface
  • Generates multiple reports and automates processes
  • Allows reports to be exported in multiple formats

Cons:

  • Customization can take quite a bit of time and effort
  • Certain redundant processes within the program can create inefficiencies

Banner Vs PeopleSoft – Features Comparison

Talent Management

Banner’s HCM solution provides visibility into all aspects of positions, such as requisitioning, filing, etc. However, it also integrates with other Ellucian solutions, such as Talent Management by NEOED which opens up a lot more options. This talent management solution allows businesses to track employees with feedback and reviews, helping them nurture talent.

Other stages of the employee lifecycle such as enrollment are simplified and accelerated by automating paperwork with eForms. Employee files are also safely stored in one place online, ensuring an alternative to accessing records.

Meanwhile, PeopleSoft offers a variety of tools for managing employees, such as the Talent Acquisition Manager. This tool takes care of the recruiting and onboarding process, allowing companies to create job openings, screen applicants, manage interviews, and prepare applicants for hiring.

Among PeopleSoft’s suite of products is an HCM system that comes with features such as Absence management, performance management, time and labor, etc. These integrated tools are also configurable, granting a great deal of control to its users.

Winner: PeopleSoft offers a more extensive solution with more features compared to Banner. Therefore, it wins this category.

Insights

Banner comes with Ellucian solutions such as Ellucian Insights—an analytics platform designed for higher education institutions. It offers a unified view of campus performance by integrating data from various systems such as SIS, ERP, CRM, and third-party sources.

In addition, it provides pre-built dashboards tailored to different roles—finance, faculty, admissions—enabling users to access relevant data without extensive technical knowledge. The platform also emphasizes data-driven decision-making by delivering personalized insights directly within the Ellucian Experience hub, enhancing operational efficiency and supporting strategic planning across the institution.

Similarly, PeopleSoft's analytics capabilities focus on delivering comprehensive business intelligence through its integration with Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). Due to this, it offers a staggering variety of analytics, visualizations, interactive dashboards, and ad hoc query tools that allow organizations to monitor key performance indicators and make informed decisions.

PeopleSoft's analytics also provide insights that support various other departments, including finance and supply chain management. Examples include visualizations for general ledgers, receivables, project costing, etc.

Winner: PeopleSoft wins this round due to its sheer variety of analytics that can be used across other departments as well.

Self Service

Banner offers a consolidated, user-friendly dashboard that makes self-service easy for employees. Employees can perform actions such as updating their personal information, managing their benefits, completing timesheets, request leave, and access payroll details.

The platform also provides faculty-specific tools, such as reviewing workload and compensation, and certifying effort performed against research grants. Managers have 24-hour access to team member details, allowing them to approve timesheets and leave requests, and plan salaries and budgets.

With PeopleSoft, employees can manage personal details, view and update benefits, access pay information and perform time reporting tasks. The platform includes features like the Employee Self-Service Home Page, which offers tiles for various functions such as payroll, benefits, and performance management.

Additionally, PeopleSoft supports guided self-service transactions, allowing managers to initiate HR processes like promotions or transfers with step-by-step assistance. These tools are designed to streamline HR operations and enhance the user experience for both employees and managers.

Winner: Both software are tied here since they both offer comparable self-service features.

Integrations

Banner leverages the Ellucian Ethos platform to facilitate seamless integration across various campus systems. Ethos employs a hub-and-spoke architecture, replacing traditional point-to-point integrations with a centralized data model, thereby reducing maintenance overhead and enhancing scalability.

This platform offers standardized APIs and a cloud-based data repository, enabling institutions to connect applications efficiently and access consolidated data for operational and analytical reporting. Ethos also provides a management console for monitoring integrations and supports identity management features, including single sign-on and multi-factor authentication, to ensure secure and compliant access across systems.

Conversely, PeopleSoft utilizes the Integration Broker, a middleware technology that supports both synchronous and asynchronous messaging among internal and third-party systems. The Integration Broker comprises two main components: the integration gateway, which manages the receipt and delivery of messages, and the integration engine, which processes these messages within the PeopleSoft application server.

This architecture allows for the exposure and consumption of web services, facilitating interoperability with diverse systems. The Integration Broker also provides tools for message transformation, routing, and error handling, ensuring reliable and efficient data exchange across the enterprise.

Winner: PeopleSoft edges out Banner here since it can integrate with third party applications as well as Oracle’s suite of products.

Which One To Choose – Banner Or PeopleSoft?

When it comes to choosing the right HCM platform, PeopleSoft offers a highly configurable, enterprise-grade solution suited for large organizations with complex HR needs. Its talent management tools, advanced analytics, and integrations make it a reliable choice for institutions that require deep functionality, custom workflows, as well as system interoperability.

That being said, Banner is still a strong option for higher education institutions seeking an HR solution tailored to the academic environment. With its self-service features, integration with campus-wide systems via Ellucian Ethos, and role-specific analytics, Banner addresses the unique operational challenges faced by colleges and universities.

Thus, the right platform comes down to your organization’s structure and priorities. Whether you need the depth and scalability of PeopleSoft or the education-focused adaptability of Banner, aligning the solution with your institutional goals will ensure long-term success and a better experience for your workforce.

However, if neither of the software here are what you’re looking for at the moment, try looking at alternatives such as Dayforce HCM and ADP Workforce.