SYSTEM CONSOLIDATION SPELLS GAINS FOR TECH SCHOOLS
By Jenalyn M. Rubio
Computerworld, Jul-Aug 2006, p. 2

When Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) decided to follow a quarterly system--where the school calendar is divided into four regular terms instead of the more common semestral system's two--the school's Development Office for Information Technology (DO-IT) braced itself to be swamped with work four times a year.

The pressure on the DO-IT was especially intense since the systems of MIT,a technology-focused school, was naturally expected to be fully-automated and running efficiently alll throughout the year.

With Christopher dela Rosa, IT director of the institute, at the helm, the office not only proved equal to the challenge, they, eventually, implemented solutions that made their work seem like they were still in a semestral system. "Fortunately, our preparation now is even lighter than what we used to do during the semestral system four years ago," said Dela Rosa.

"The usual preparations every term, for example, is replicated in the remaining terms of the year which makes our work easier in providing enough attention to the core business of a university," he noted.

MIT has two campuses--one in Manila and another in Makati--and recently opened the Malayan High School of Science, a private science high school.

MIT's DO-IT is composed of 39 regular staff, six outsourced staff, and six student assistants. They handle all IT-related tasks of the institute, including the maintenance of common laboratory facilities. "A major challenge is the maintenance of all services, plus the ever growing demand for IT and computing resources of the academic, administrative and student services,' said Dela Rosa, adding that they usually target a 99.95% uptime of major ICT services for bot campuses.

With the new Malayan High School of Science (MHSS), management, maintenance and innovation of applications will be a primary focus for the DO-IT, especially since the high school is still in its infancy stages, said the IT director. "But like any other child who is growing and becoming independent, it shall have its own innovative, dynamic and well-groomed ICT staff," he added.

CONSOLIDATION

"At first, we had DOS-based Novell running File and Print Os, among others," said Dela Rosa, who explained that they deployed these applications for purposes of cost-efficiency but they frequently encountered operational problems because of unreliability and user-resistance.

"After standardizing on Microsoft, it was a different story. Now we're developing new solutions instead of troubleshooting system problems. It's been a strategic gain for us to move to one operating system that fills many roles," saide the IT director.

With the consolidated platform, DO-IT can now easily manage and control the deployment ot the various user groups of applications which are necessary for the enrollment and for addressing information security concerns.

"We manage to enroll all students within a span of one week by providing all the avenues geared towards the convenience of our students," Dela Rosa said. "This is made possible with the use of IT."

According to the MIT IT head, the migration to Microsoft Windows has solved most of their operational problems without having to spend too much. "Having integrated productivity applications, our network has been easy to manage, user productivity has increased, and use of technology has become automatic," he said.

"We've recovered our investment, keeping our total cost of ownership down by saving on personnel without sacrificing technology requirements. Additionally, our gained efficiency has allowed us to provide better service to students and parents," Dela Rosa noted.

In the line with its vision of becoming the premier Philippine technology school n the Age of Technology, Mapua is looking to put up more campuses and, at the same time, fully computerize its administrative operations by 2010.