Muroran Institute of Technology introduces Box as a university-wide content management platform to enable diverse learning opportunities for students and diverse work styles for faculty and staff

Muroran Institute of Technology (Muroran Institute of Technology), Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ), and Macnica (Macnica) are pleased to announce that Muroran Institute of Technology has deployed Box* to approximately 3,500 students, faculty, and staff across the university as a content management platform to enable diverse learning experiences for students and diverse work styles for faculty and staff.
Previously, Muroran Institute of Technology managed files and data used in educational activities on various servers on campus, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, remote classes for students and telecommuting for faculty and staff were introduced, making it necessary to create an environment where information assets could be accessed from off-campus and managed centrally. Therefore, with the support of ICT partners IIJ and Macnica, operation began in November 2023.

*What is Box?
Box is a cloud service for managing and sharing content used by over 110,000 companies and organizations worldwide, including over 16,000 in Japan. It enables secure access and data utilization regardless of location or device, and enables centralized content management by linking with other systems.

Background
Muroran Institute of Technology formulated the "Basic Policy for Promoting a Digital Campus" in July 2022 and established the Digital Campus Promotion Office to advance digital transformation (DX) toward realizing a data-driven campus, or "digital campus." As part of this effort, the university-wide introduction of Box has led to the adoption of this technology.
Until now, the content that is fundamental to various university activities, such as data used by faculty and staff in their work, teaching materials and reports shared between students and faculty and staff, and research data, was distributed across various on-campus servers and could not be managed centrally, creating issues with sharing and utilizing information. In addition, given the experience of working from home and remote classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a demand for safe and secure file and data sharing.

What we expect from this implementation
In the initial phase of implementation, we will work to streamline administrative tasks such as paperless meetings and online submissions both on and off campus, as well as share research data between students and faculty in each university laboratory, provide guidance, and share data in joint projects with the government, companies, local governments, etc. Furthermore, we will work to improve security by eliminating the on-campus use of password-protected email attachments and the transfer of data via USB.
IIJ and Macnica assisted with the university-wide implementation of Box, helping with the organization of user permission settings and folder structures. In addition, for user management, given that students change every year, a system was introduced to automate user management tasks on Box by linking Box with the user authentication server on the campus network. In the future, Muroran Institute of Technology will work with both companies to link various systems and functions, such as electronic approval systems and generative AI, with a view to promoting the use of Box as a foundation for digital transformation in anticipation of Society 5.0, not only to improve operational efficiency but also to further accelerate and advance education, research, and co-creation.