Interview participants:
National University Corporation Hiroshima University
Mr. Tomohiro Tani, Chief, General Affairs Group, General Affairs and Public Relations Department, Finance and Administration Office
Ms. Azusa Kitamura, Group Member, General Affairs Group, General Affairs and Public Relations Department, Finance and Administration Office
Mr. Yasutaka Kitaura, Specialist Staff, Archives

ArielAirOne" supports information sharing among more than 3,500 faculty members for a long time

-Please tell us about the background of the introduction of the ArielAirOne groupware.

Mr. Tani:
Prior to the introduction of the groupware, we were using an electronic bulletin board to share announcements and materials for faculty and staff, but it was difficult to find information on where to look for it, and we were not making much progress in its utilization. In order to improve this situation, we decided to introduce ArielAirOne. Currently, more than 3,500 faculty members are using the system for communication and information sharing as the university-wide information sharing infrastructure system "Iroha," a portal site for faculty and staff.

-One of the features of "ArielAirOne" is its rich standard functions.
　Hiroshima University has been using more than 1,000 standard applications for a long time. Please tell us about your usage situation.

Mr. Tani:
One of the things that has helped us in our long-term use of ArielAirOne is that we have been able to continue using the application without major changes in the way we use it or its usability. For example, the screen display style is selectable, but since the age range of our university's users is broad and the frequency of use varies widely, we have chosen the classic style that we are accustomed to using.

We believe that the key to gathering information in the groupware is to organize the user's navigation path so that he/she can reach the information he/she needs as quickly as possible. In fact, as a result of organizing the user path and preparing manuals, we have received many comments from users, such as "I didn't know this kind of function was available" and "It's easy to use. In particular, inquiries from users and the frequency of use of the workgroup function, which can be used across organizations, have increased. In the case of our university, four graduate schools are established across faculties, and each graduate school has faculty members who are in charge of different faculties. We are in a situation where we are using the file management application to store materials at meetings and share announcements to members using the Contacts application.

Breakthrough improvement in collation of huge amount of documents and data, realizing significant operational efficiency

-Please tell us about the background behind the introduction of the corporate document management application.

Mr. Kitaura:
The development of the corporate document management application began in FY2007, and it has been in full-scale operation since FY2009. It is aimed at resolving issues in conducting business as an independent administrative agency in accordance with the document principle. In addition, with the enactment of the Information Disclosure Act in 2001, there was a need for thorough document management in order to respond to disclosure requests. Before the introduction of the system, we had been using Excel and other tools to create a management list of document files, but we heard that there were issues in terms of both operational efficiency and the rate of verification between the management list and the actual document files.

-How have your business processes changed?

Mr. Kitaura:
Manual input into Excel and other software inevitably leads to human error, and discrepancies with the actual document files, incorrect entries, and registration omissions can occur. With the introduction of the application, it is now possible to securely assign an ID to each document, and to type out the spine with the ID and registered file name clearly indicated. At the time of its introduction, when almost all documents were stored on paper, this was a breakthrough that dramatically improved the verification between the registration data and the actual document file.

Documents created and managed by each department are subject to disposal after a certain retention period. In accordance with the Public Records Management Law, the National Archives of Japan is primarily responsible for keeping historically important documents in the archives and disposing of other documents that have reached the end of their retention period. Any discrepancies in the data at that time will cause inefficiency. Compared to the previous method of operation, the difference in operational efficiency with the corporate document management application is overwhelming. From the standpoint of the archives, this is the most significant advantage.

-How many new documents are registered each year?

Mr. Kitaura:
Around 4,500 new document files are registered every year. As of April of this year, the total number of registered document files exceeded 54,000. Although this is a considerable number, we are able to communicate smoothly with the persons in charge of each department, etc., because we can check the same data with each other in real time on the application.

The close interlocking of the two apps facilitates the shift from paper to electronic documents.

-What are the reasons for introducing the application and what innovations have you made since the end of November, 2021?

Mr. Tani:
Prior to the introduction of the application, decisions were mainly made on paper due to the so-called paper culture and stamp culture, but due to the Corona disaster, it became necessary to ensure that decisions would not be delayed even during telework, and we began to consider this around May 2020. We tried applications from other companies, but the ability to manage approval documents together with our existing corporate document management application was a major attraction, and this was the deciding factor in our decision to work with your company.

With paper-based approval, it is possible to change the order of approval or make corrections during the process, but with online approval, there is no flexibility. Based on discussions with various people on how to make both the rules for document processing and ease of use work together, the current structure of the Approved Document Management App was created. With the app, when a decision maker leaves a comment, it is reflected in a message memo or e-mail notification, and we are able to use the app in much the same way as when we used paper-based media. The app also allows approvals to be made from the telework environment, so I feel that the time required for approvals has been greatly reduced.

-What percentage of the documents that are approved by the Approved Document Management Application are subject to preservation by the Corporate Document Management?

Mr. Tani:
All documents we create in the course of our duties are corporate documents, so they are 100% eligible. Drafting is done from within the corporate document management application, so it can be said that approval and document management are closely linked. These two apps are strongly supporting our university's transition from paper to electronic.

The key to DX is not just paperless, but electronic storage

-What are your future plans and requests regarding DX and the use of ArielAirOne?

Mr. Kitaura:
The corporate document management application manages document files during the retention period, but as I mentioned earlier, we use Excel to manage document files that will be archived for a long time to come. I would like to know if it is possible to seamlessly transfer this disconnected part to the archiving phase in the future, and if you have any ideas on how to manage them smoothly and in a coordinated manner.

Mr. Tani:
We believe that the key to DX in documents is not simply to go paperless, but to preserve documents electronically. For our university, the key to this was the Corporate Document Management Application and the Approved Document Management Application. The digitization of stored documents is one of the strengths of our university, and I believe that other universities will follow suit in the future. We would like to continue to work with your company to make advanced efforts that will serve as a model for DX promotion at national university corporations.

I also believe that DX at universities should be promoted more by the staff than by the faculty, and I feel the need to improve the IT literacy of each and every staff member. To this end, it is important to share more and more information about good examples of DX, and to expand the use of DX in some parts of the university to the entire university. The organization of groupware lines and the maintenance of manuals that I mentioned at the beginning are part of this effort. I believe that by sharing such information through groupware, DX will make further progress. Since the number of foreign faculty members is increasing, it would be even better if the content posted by users in Japanese could be viewed in English using the translation function in the groupware. I have high expectations for this.

*This article is current as of December 2022.