Students create computer programs for biz, gov’t offices

TECH TRENDS

Alfredo Gallardo

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The Department of Trade and Industry was the first office in Mountain Province to have a computer.  That was in 1990.  Today, most government offices, institutions, businesses in the province have either a desktop computer or laptop for operations.  Except for banks, lending cooperatives and national line agencies that use customized computer programs, there are still areas of operations in offices, businesses that need computerization. 

With this scenario, graduating Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) organized into teams to come up with computerization solutions for the offices and business they interned with. 

The students’ inspiration was for government agencies and businesses to maximize their investments in computer hardware by going beyond word processing and spreadsheets. 

What the student teams did was to study the operations of a government agency or business and identify areas of operation they could computerize.  By the time the semester ended, the student teams were able to develop five computer programs that provided direct solutions to their clients.

For the business sector, the students developed a “point of sale system” for a construction supply retailer and “inventory tracking system” for a beverage dealer.  The programs provide immediate information on sales and inventory management. 

With the system in place, the local business owners would no longer waste resources on slow moving stocks and also have peace of mind with stock pilferages prevented or minimized. 

For the government agencies, one computerized program developed is the Personnel Training Information System for Government Agencies or Private Organizations. This system keeps track on the trainings attended by each staff including the mandatory trainings, a good tool for an agency’s human resource officer. 

Here, the system helps in evaluating and determining trainings staff will attend. Likewise, it is an ideal tool that would provide information for personnel who are qualified for promotion.  This system helps save on resources by putting the right people to trainings they need the most.  Sometimes the wrong people are being sent to trainings they really do not need in the first place.

This system was developed with the cooperation of the Philippine National Police-Mountain Province.  The Department of Agrarian Reform-Mountain Province was the cooperating agency for the development of the Supply Inventory Equipment Management System for Government Offices and Organizations (SIEMS). 

The system helps to catalogue, organize, process check-in and out on office supplies and equipment transactions. It tracks where office supplies and equipment are being distributed and cost of supplies used by each department. SIEMS provides for an efficient monitoring of office supplies and equipment and minimize wastage on supplies- a big savings for the government agency.  

If one needs to go to search voluminous paper memorandum receipts to identify say the personnel who holds an office issued laptop, the “ASSET tracking system is the answer.”  The computer program developed in cooperation with Xijen College helps keep track of library holdings, computer and related laboratory equipment, office furniture and all other physical assets that are listed as property of an organization. 

The computerized system can generate reports on the status of assets, condition of the asset, personnel holding or in charge of the asset and is a big help to the supply officer, internal audit and management. 

The highlight of the student’s work was a presentation at the Mountain Province Provincial Operations Command with the staff as critics to the student’s work and another presentation to their cooperators and other stakeholders at Xijen College of Mountain Province. 

“After months of development, our big consolation is how much our clients appreciated our efforts in developing solutions to improve their operations,” said Razelle Anne Tactay, one of the graduating BSIT.   “We only hope that local government and non government agencies will have knowledge of our skills and no longer have to go outside of Mountain Province to avail of computerization services,” Tactay added.