Management Information Systems Office

History

SLU IBM EDP

Saint Louis University’s computerization program was envisioned by Father Ghesleen de Vos. He saw the importance of automating the academic systems particularly the Accounting and Registrar's Offices. His goal was to lessen the burden of handling tedious tasks that was brought about by the voluminous records processed every semester.

SLU was the first to implement the IBM 1130 system in Northern Luzon. It included the IBM28 Key Punch Machine, IBM29 IBM Card Verifier, IBM Card Printer and IBM Card Sorter (to sort punch cards numerically or alphabetically).

During its early years, the SLU IBM EDP catered not only to the University but also to other institutions. In SLU, the applications that were developed included the enrolment, grade processing and student schedule for the Registrar's Office and payroll and balance sheet for the Accounting Office. Other applications included the chemical computation for the Chemical Engineering department, strength of materials computation for the Civil Engineering and Electrical departments and COBOL for the Commerce department. The University also offered five-month programming courses in Systems Analysis and Design, FORTRAN, Assembly, RPG, and COBOL.

 Outside the University, the SLU IBM EDP extended its services to other institutions like the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Benguet Consolidated Inc. (BCI) and Consumers Pulse of the Philippines (Manila). The cadets of PMA came to SLU twice a week for their computer laboratory.

 A Belgian professor who conducted a study on social work in the Mountain Province used the IBM 1130 to process his data. The resulting study paved the way for the opening of the Social Work course in the University.

SLU Computer Center   

It was during this time that the Accounting and Registar's Office were connected to the SLU Computer Center establishing the first local area network in the University. These offices were provided access to student records including personal information, schedule and grades.

Institute of Information and Computer Science

• information systems development and maintenance (automation of office procedures, planning and designing of information system, accepting programming requests from the different offices and colleges)
• database administration
• assisting the different colleges and departments in their computer requirements
• providing the necessary reports and statistics using the data entered by the Registrar’s Office
• planning and providing training programs to faculty and employees of the University
• administering the BSCS program

The data processing functions were turned over to the Registrar’s Office. These included the data entry, verification and update of student information and grades, corrections of student credentials, generation of reports released by their office, and back-up of data.

This period also marked the shift of hardware and software specifications from mini-mainframe computers (IBM System/34) to personal computers (PCs). The university database was stored in a 33 MHz 386 PC server running on Unix operating system and with an Oracle 6 DBMS. A local area network was setup consisting of CAT 5 UTP cables and a 10Mbps hub. The LAN connected the IICS, Registrar's and Accounting Office. 286 PCs were used as workstations having DOS and Microsoft 3.1 operating systems. A telnet utility provided the connection to the Oracle/Unix server. The entry of information was still done in batch processing.

Management Information Systems Office

 In 1994, the IICS was converted to the College of Information and Computing Sciences (CICS) with the MIS Office as one of its departments. This was in preparation for the graduation of the 1st batch of BS Computer Science graduates. Engr. Florian Generalao became the first Dean of the college.

Saint Louis University became a member of the Philippine Network Foundation (PHNet) under the supervision of the MIS Office. This made SLU the first institution in Northern Luzon to be an Internet Service Provider.

 The PHNet was a consortium of institutions which established and operates the Philippine-wide area computer network with access to the internet. SLU was part of the second phase of the project together with Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), De La Salle University (DLSU), University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB), University of Santo Tomas (UST), University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu, Xavier University (XU) in Cagayan de Oro.

During the 1997 University Days, the MIS Office held a demonstration of a Windows-based prototype of an online enrolment system for the Deans and several Heads of Offices. The system, developed using Fox Pro for Windows, displayed various features for a faster enrolment.

For 34 years the office was housed at the 3rd floor of the Diego Silang Building. But on April 2003, the MIS Office transferred to its new location at the at the 2nd floor (rear side) of the Administration Building - Burgos Center.

At present, the MIS Office boasts of a wide array of applications covering such areas as student information, grades and credentials, curriculum, schedule, personnel information, faculty evaluation, college entrance examinations and room management.

The present MISO staff is composed of Director Angelito C. Peralta, DBA/Systems Analyst Cynthia M. Arceo, Sr. Programmers Caroline B. Rebosa and Claire B. Berto, Jr. Programmers Ruth C. Chua, Rhodyl A. Ambloza and Kelvin Lerma, Systems Operator Suerte Joeycelyn P. Arenas and Clerk Edmund Ivan P. Domingo.