Revolutionizing Document Management in Benilde
Revolutionizing Document Management in Benilde
26 March 2024
Last March 18, the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde community members gathered at the Augusto-Rosario Gonzalez Theater at the Document Management Suite (DMS) relaunch organized by the Center for Project Management Services.
“This solution provides a repository for all the pertinent records and data critical to the college’s operations and aims to achieve three things.” Br. Edmundo Fernandez FSC, Benilde’s Brother President, says in his welcome remarks. “Number one is a defined process of archiving and digitizing physical documents across all college departments. Second, align with document control, data privacy compliance, and legal requirements. And third, create a document data management policy in support of digital data retention, data protection, and data backup,” he elaborated, outlining the project’s key objectives.
Similarly, Chancellor Benhur Ong shared in his inspirational message, “Today marks a pivotal moment for our institution as we gather today for the relaunch of the Benilde Document Management Suite. This event is a testament to technological progress and a tribute to the collective spirit and the bravery and dedication that it finds us.” He also acknowledged the contributions of various individuals and departments involved and expressed his gratitude to Mr. Jose Llamas, Vice President for Innovation; Mr. Randy Tandoc, Director, Center for Project Management Services; Ms. Lea Abarentos, Project Manager, Center for Project Management Services; the Digital Technology Office and team members of each, among many others.
Discussing the processes and systems of the Document Management Suite (DMS) in his keynote message, Mr. Tandoc detailed, “The first is data security. Another is our institutional memory. It helps us retain or keep institutional memory and be able to retrieve them when needed. So institutional memory, like personal recollections and experiences, provides an understanding of the history and culture of an organization, especially the stories that explain the reason behind certain decisions and procedures. The third benefit is business continuity relating to disaster recovery.”
Providing personal accounts of the impact of digitization, College Registrar Ms. Niña Endozo shared insights into the benefits experienced by the Registrar’s Office “because our way is mandated to keep student records to ensure integrity and confidentiality of these until the students have graduated. And these are considered as perpetual records. There’s a higher level of efficiency because the associates can process requests or documents easily through online verification and validation of records.”
Mr. Michael Mojica, Director of the Br. Fidelis Leddy Center for Learning Resources (CLR), highlighted the transformative impact of digitization on their operations, “The digital repository has provided our titles with a safe and secure storage and recruitment system for our office documents including forms, contracts, and license agreements with various library service providers. This is a system that eventually will store and archive our materials. This will range from students’ academic output, like theses and capstones, to school publications, like newsletters and student publications. And, of course, numerous photos and videos are e-mailed and documented. With this digital archiving system, students will soon be able to directly submit their theses into the system, further enhancing the user experience.”
In concluding the testimonials, Ms. Geraldine Gabrentina, Head of the Center for Policy Development, People and Organization Development Office (PODO), said, “Accessing policies is now effortless. The recent scanning of employment records, our 201 files, has streamlined the HR process, and now retrieving documents is much faster and more efficient. I’m particularly excited about the upcoming Document Routing Initiative.”
In his keynote message, Mr. Chito Angeles, IT Division Head of the University of the Philippines, provided benchmarks: “In digitization, we must clearly define our purpose. It depends on the institution and what you really want to achieve. What are your objectives?”
Mr. Angeles emphasized the necessity of comprehending the entire digitization process, attributing failures in digitization efforts to a lack of complete understanding. Drawing from his tenure at UPD University Library, he outlined crucial aspects and best practices vital for success in digitization endeavors. He also underscored the importance of defining the purpose behind digitization efforts, citing accessibility, sharing, searchability, text analysis, data analytics, space-saving, and long-term preservation as common objectives. “You need to identify your collection. What materials will you be digitizing? And that means identifying the different types, whether it’s from print, whether you are converting materials that are analog.”
Rounding up the afternoon is a panel discussion that includes both keynote speakers, Mr. Tandoc and Mr. Angeles, joined by Atty. Armee Javellana, Senior Director, Risk Management Office; Atty. Janice Tejano, Director, Center for Intellectual Property; Mr. Dennis John Erece from Fuji Film, and moderated by Mr. Ricson Que, Information Security Consultant, Digital Technology Office. The panel members provided a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities inherent in digitization initiatives, focusing on intellectual property rights, storage constraints, data privacy, and information security.
To close, Ms. Abarentos thanked everyone on behalf of the VP for Innovation’s Office and CPMS team, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for participating in this event. The commitment and engagement we witnessed today demonstrated the collective spirit of innovation and progress within the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.”
