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Develop and Manage a Benilde Website

Planning to develop and manage a website designed to be used by Benildeans? Read and follow the Website Management and Hosting Policy and Website Management and Hosting Procedures set by the Digital Technology Office (DTO) and Center for Institutional Communications (CIC). The website’s design should comply with Benilde Institutional Web Design Style Guide and should be consulted with and approved by the Center for Institutional Communications (CIC). This excludes web projects designed and developed by students for their course requirements unless the website is intended to be officially used by a center or program.

As an overview, here are the policies that you have to keep in mind when you design and develop your website:

Governance 

  1. All website project initiatives and hosting including new websites, predeveloped, or redesigned, shall be coordinated, consulted with, and cleared by CIC and DTO.
  2. All websites and hosting requests shall be signed or approved by the Director/Dean and Vice Chancellor/Vice President of the requesting office to signify the legitimacy of the project and to verify that the requesting office can fund it if needed.
  3. No website projects or requirements shall be executory of development and hosting without the approval of CIC, DTO, and Chancellor.
  4. All existing websites published prior to the effectivity date of the policy (July 26, 2022) shall be modified or migrated to conform to the Website Management and Hosting Policy. It shall be addressed as indicated in the transition plan.
  5. The management and overseeing of website projects are classified by:
    • Frontend management: refers to the development and maintenance of the website on the client side or what the viewer of the website interacts with. This includes the wireframe/layout, colors and styles, images, navigation, buttons, and screen responsiveness and is governed by CIC.
    • Backend management – refers to the preparation and maintenance of the server that shall host the website, The management of the server side ensures that the frontend processes are executed within the acceptable response time period and that the database used by the website is secure and accessible. This is governed by the DTO.
  6. Custom coding, third-party software/plugins, and applications shall only be used with the approval of the DTO. All new plugin installations shall be handled by DTO.
  7. Deployment of approved website projects shall confirm the DTO production requirements.
  8. Google Analytics shall be activated for all approved websites. The account shall be managed by DTO and CIC.
  9. Cookie content notice shall be required on all websites that use special cookies for tracking and analytics.
  10. All expenses related to website projects shall be covered by an approved budget of the requesting office. For websites outside benilde.edu.ph domain, there shall be an additional cost for domain registration.
  11. Paid advertisement is prohibited on all websites. The website owner shall secure clearance from the Center for Partnership Advancement (CPA) and Finance Department (FD) for advertorials and paid collaborations from external parties.
  12. Sponsorship arrangements on all websites are allowed and shall comply with the policy or guidelines of the College governing body.
  13. The policy on website management and hosting shall be audited every 2 years by the Center for Technology Resource Planning and Control (CTRPC).

Hosting

  1. All website project initiatives of the College and its offices shall conform with the standard hosting services of the College (see Website Management Standard).
  2. Only information submitted by the Requesting Parties/End Users shall be used in the processing of the subdomain registrations and/or web hosting subscriptions.
  3. Domain names shall always be anchored to the College domain name.
  4. Domain name requests shall use Benilde’s subdomain (i.e., dto.benilde.edu.ph).
  5. In case the website needs an independent domain name, it shall go through the Office Head (President/Vice President/ Chancellor/ Vice Chancellor) for endorsement to and approval of CIC. Only domain suffixes .org or .ph shall be allowed, and the domain name shall have the “Benilde” term (e.g. dtobenilde.org, dtobenilde.ph).
  6. Approved independent domains shall be hosted on a DLS-CSB-owned web hosting service.

Development

  1. The development of website projects is classified by:
    • Websites that convey information are static and do not require any programming (i.e. scripts, links to databases, forms that accept user inputs, etc.). The development must be under the supervision of CIC.
    • Websites that require programming to develop and/or build the project. The development must be under the supervision of DTO.
  2. By default, CIC shall be the website designer/developer assigned to the creation of the website to ensure that the standards set for front-end management are implemented.
    • The requesting office can outsource a web designer/web developer or a service provided for the creation of the website but shall be approved and governed by CIC and DTO.
    • The outsourcing of the web designer/web developer shall comply with the PODO guidelines in hiring project-based/consultant personnel; while outsourcing a service provider shall comply with the procurement guidelines.
  3. All new website projects shall be created using the standard platform and software based on the website management standard used by the college.
  4. All new website projects shall undergo the prescribed testing process and shall be approved by DTO.
  5. All components, plugins, and tools used in the website shall be coordinated by CPMS with CNSES-Systems Security for vulnerabilities during the development of the website project.
  6. Launch and turnover
    • Before launch, a conforme letter shall be prepared by CIC. This ensures that all requirements set by the requesting office have been met. The requesting office shall signify its conforme to the requirements and shall secure approval from the Director of the requesting office.
    • The duly signed conforme letter shall be the document reference of CIC in endorsing the request to DTO for migration to the production server.
    • The requesting office shall allocate a minimum of 5 working days for the beta phase before the launch of the website.
    • Once the website is launched, the requesting office shall then become the owner of the website.

Maintenance

Access

  1. DTO and CIC shall have admin-level access to all the website projects of the College. The admin-level access is given to the two governing offices to ensure that any untoward incidents such as data breaches or gross noncompliance shall be handled properly.
  2. The owner shall identify and endorse to CIC an associate who shall have access to the website through the approval process (See Website Management and Hosting Procedures).
  3. Editor account shall be provided to the person who is authorized by the website owner to update content. The said account is limited to creating, updating, and publishing content only.
  4. In the absence of an authorized editor, the owner can ask for CIC’s assistance in their plan for maintenance following an agreed-upon schedule.
  5. Should the owner assign more than one associate to create and update the content of the website, each associate shall have their own account. No sharing of account access shall be allowed.
  6. Associates who will be given editor access to the website shall go through the basic orientation in navigating the website’s dashboard based on their assigned roles. The orientation shall be facilitated by CIC.

Content Uploading

  1. The owner of the website shall review and update the content of the website at least once every month.

Reporting

  1. All website projects shall have Google Analytics installed to generate analytics reports.
  2. DTO and CIC reserve the right to extract reports from the website projects for purposes related to their respective mandates.

Website Review

  1. All websites are subject to a 1-year lifespan and shall be reviewed at least one month before their expiration.
  2. The evaluation shall be based on the project status and/or relevance of information to the College’s operations.
  3. CIC, in coordination with DTO, shall conduct the review and evaluation (See Website Evaluation Form) based on the Benilde Website Maintenance Terms and Conditions.
  4. All identified websites that are not for renewal shall be subject to removal/decommissioning in the production server. The owner shall be notified through email and shall be given a week to confirm.
  5. CIC shall request for the decommissioning of website/s to DTO for processing

Usage and Guidelines

Content Management

  1. The owner shall ensure the accuracy of the content posted on the website.
  2. The owner is responsible for securing appropriate approval and clearance for any content that shall be posted on the website.

Institutional Identity and Standards

  1. All websites shall comply with the Benilde Visual Identity Guidelines for the Web and the Institutional Logo Usage and Guidelines as prescribed by CIC.

Intellectual Property

  1. Benildeans, and its offices, are stakeholders of the College. They are allowed to use the Benilde registered trademarks on official communications, including websites, without prior approval from CIC.
    • The trademarks used by the website owner shall be the official versions and unaltered. The website owner can request a copy of the official trademark files from CIC.
    • Use of the Benidle IPs is subject to compliance with the style guide and usage guideline where it applies (see Institutional Logo Usage and Guidelines).
    • By posting content on the website, the owner grants the College a non-exclusive perpetual license to use the material. The College has the right to freely use, edit, alter, reproduce, publish, and/or distribute the material of its content in any format and medium. The license is free of charge, perpetual, and capable of sub-license. The College shall exercise all copyright and publicity rights in the material in all jurisdictions, to its full extent and for the full period for which any such right exists in the material
  2. CIC and DTO shall ensure that copyright notices on the website are updated.
  3. The owner shall ensure that all materials posted on the website are free of IP-infringement issues and compliant with the College’s Intellectual Property Rights Policy.

Data Privacy

  1. All websites shall have a Privacy Notice page that contains the institutional data privacy statements as prescribed by the Risk Management and Compliance Office (RMCO).
  2. The owner shall exercise due diligence in complying with the data privacy policies of the College.
  3. All online content published on behalf of DLS-CSB shall be checked by CIC for accuracy, accessibility, and duplication of currently published information, and shall adhere to DLS-CSB objectives, branding guidelines, web design, and content standards, website management and hosting procedures, and in compliance with the data privacy.

Non-compliance

  1. Any website project of a Benilde office shall abide by the provisions stated in this policy and its supplementing guidelines.
  2. The College reserves the right to take immediate action on any website deemed non-compliant with these provisions. These actions may include editing, redaction, or taking down the website and can be done with the website owner’s consent. 
  3. In case a website project is found to be in violation of a provision in this policy and its supplementing guidelines, CIC shall communicate the violation and provide recommendations to rectify it.
  4. For non-compliance websites, the use of the College domain is not allowed. The College shall not be responsible for any backup, security, support, or maintenance of the website.
  5. In case of third-party claims of infringement, the owner indemnifies the College from liabilities that may arise.
  6. The policy is governed by the Laws of the Republic of the Philippines, DLS-CSB’s rules and regulations (Student, Faculty, Associates Handbook), Benilde’s institutional style guides and branding standards, DLS-CSB’s Data Privacy Policy, and DLS-CSB’s Intellectual Property Rights Policy.

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