Buddhadasa Indapanno Archives (BIA), the Bangkok-based archive for Buddhist spiritual content and practice, has a shockingly modern way of preserving its documents. Since a 2015 project implemented by Skytizens Alfresco, this learning center maintains a record management system using the Asia Pacific regions most cutting-edge technology.

Buddhadasa Indapanno Archives (BIA) is a religious organization providing Thai and foreign adherents of Buddhism a variety of faith services from guided courses in meditation to the physical archive of spiritual works. In 2015, BIA approached Skytizens about a modern solution for handling the documentation and analog-format teachings in its care. The joint project that resulted has delivered BIA one of the most advanced record management and archive systems that exist in modern technology. Now on par with the archive systems implemented in multinational enterprise, BIA enjoys agile access to its sacred scriptures and other important documents.

Skytizens Alfresco for BIA

In its support of the quest for wisdom, the main mission of the BIA is to preserve Buddhism through the works, intentions, and ideals of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. The organization collects, sets up, and maintains a diverse database for original written works by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. BIA also provides support for education, research, development, publication, group activities, and the exchange of Dhamma knowledge based on these documents. BIA serves communities in Bangkok, Koh Samui, Surat Thani, and beyond.

Skytizens Alfresco is a software consulting firm that develops software solutions for enterprise-level companies. Skytizens is run by a team of Alfresco experts that custom-build enterprise content management (ECM) systems for companies and many government agencies in the Asia Pacific region. Alfresco is an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform with the ability to handle document management, collaboration, records management, process management, imaging, and more.  In partnership with Skytizens, BIA was guided through a new kind of transformation—this time one of the digital kind. Skytizens oversaw the implementation of the Skytizens Alfresco Records Management System as well as pertinent Alfresco Archive modules to assist with the safe and efficient storage of digital data.

Partnership Impact

The complete digital transformation of BIA’s archive system allows the organization to store documents digitally, access them efficiently, scan texts via OCR and dynamic search capabilities, and function in both Thai and English thanks to Skytizens Alfresco Multilingual Support. The efficiency of a digital archive system means reduced expenses for the administration and a level of future-proofing for sacred documents that only technology can provide.

Though BIA represents an atypical client for the Skytizens team, the project to digitize BIA’s archive system is the kind of technology implementation that often passes by non-commercial organizations. Though extremely beneficial, non-profits and community organizations rarely gain access to the kind of content management that a platform like Alfresco provides. Still, from the largest multinational corporation to the smallest religious archive, every organization has the ability to see the advantage of going digital.

To read more about digital solutions in Alfresco, visit the Skytizens Alfresco Addons Catalog.