Developer: Ace Amiel E. Malicsi
Associate: Joy M. Peji
As part of the transformation plan of Cavite State University (CvSU) to move forward in one direction to become a Global University in 2022, the College of Engineering and Information Technology (CEIT) has been extending its help to the completion and success of the goal. One of the goals for the University is the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategic Plan that aimed to digitize selected University operations. It is also to promote alignment of technology to the University’s business processes. One of the objectives of the strategic plan is the development and deployment of different information systems within the University network.
In the planning stage of the strategic plan, the researchers of this project were assigned as the team leader of the Document Tracking System. It was initially planned and this year, 2020, it is aimed to be developed and deployed after finishing data gathering and system design.
CvSU is being administered by four (4) administrative major functions – academic affairs, planning and development, research and extension, and administrative support and services. Each of which has different units performing particular tasks and operations for the University. The whole university system includes 11 campuses including the Main Campus which is the seat of the University administration. There are also 10 colleges in the Main Campus.
Each of them processes documents that are being approved by the administrative offices and the main unit responsible in the monitoring of the documents being processed and evaluated is the Records Office. This office receives a document initially and forwards it to other office. Offices return and release documents to another until it is received by the final recipient for approval, most commonly the University President. There are two documents that are being received by the office – the communication and the financial documents.
A communication document is a document being sent by any office or unit in the CvSU system that requires approval from an office. It is initially considered as incoming document with assigned new reference number. When approved, it is then considered as outgoing set with another reference number. This is the only type of document that is being returned to the Records Office after approval. On the other hand, a financial document is a document that is related to finance. It is categorized into different particulars like fuel, laboratory supplies, etc. Each financial document received contains different forms that are individually distributed to different offices and end-users. This document is being monitored by the Supply Office during its process.
Since the Records Office is the main responsible unit for the approval of the documents, it is difficult for them (having only three [3] administrative aides and one unit head) to track the location of the document and its status. There are lots of documents being submitted daily for approval and it becomes hard for them to notify each office who has submitted to them. Likewise, the Supply Office is having a hard time to locate the financial documents and its individual attachments.
Communication is also difficult because offices only refer to the record book, Microsoft Excel, or just verbal in terms of noting some remarks for the release or return of the document. The offices also need a report to identify the number of approved and on-process documents.
The document tracking system for Cavite State University system aims to handle the status of documents and allow the users to track the movement of financial and communication documents registered by the Records Office of the University. It will be capable of tracking the paper trail of documents created within CvSU offices and supports remarks of the documents. This will lessen the time and effort taken by the Records Office and Supply Office in accommodating personal inquiries about a particular document.