By Tom Noda
Local office systems and services firm U-Bix Corporation is seeking to play a major role in the drive to digitize government records in the Philippines.
U-Bix executives made the pitch during the recent celebration of its 40th anniversary held at the Dusit Thani hotel in Makati City.
The company said that its U-Bix Imaging Center (UIC) can fill the gap on digitizing public records, which is now a high priority of the Aquino administration.
“The company expects UIC to be a source of significant growth in the future, particularly as businesses and the government place high priority on digital imaging records and data,” said U-Bix general manager Eduardo Reyes.
UIC focuses on end-to-end conversion, digitization and management of documents. It used to be the former Kodak Imaging Center of Kodak Philippines which U-Bix acquired in 2007.
Reyes said U-Bix, which became known for its office copying and printing innovations, is now highly equipped in digitization.
“Aside from printing and copying documents, we now convert them digitally to make them easily searchable and retrievable, and store them safely both physically and virtually,” Reyes said.
Pres. Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III has stated that digital technology can be an effective tool in fostering better transparency and accountability in government.
U-Bix director Erwin Elechicon said among the government’s main goals are to digitize birth, death, payroll, and court records.
“A lot of work needs to be done in order to digitize them. Just like bank [print] records, you cannot forever keep storing them,” Elechicon said.
“Like in the National Archives, there are a lot of valuable, useful and important documents there. We can scan, retrieve, digitize them and store them safely.”
Edilberto Bravo, U-Bix founder and CEO, said today’s fast-changing digital and networked world offers tremendous potential, and U-Bix is well-positioned to continue leading the market change.
“We?ve seen major growth in all these office- and document-related areas. Looking forward, we are excited to bring step-change technologies like 3D printing, specialized photo-printing, network connectivity and much more to our customers,” Bravo said.
