Modernizing Corporate MIS: from Information System Modelling to Implementation

This paper presents CERN's Advanced Informatics Support (AIS) project which aims at an innovative modernization of all aspects of informatics applied to the administrative processes of the Laboratory. The project began in August 1990 and is based on a proprietary operating system, relational data base system and scalable multi-processor server hardware. An analysis of the existing applications environment and its weaknesses is given in the introduction. The objectives of the project are then described. A justification of the strategic choices is given in the CERN context. The Information System Study, leading to a global data and function model for the Laboratory and the detailed area analysis of the top priority three areas are then described. An analysis is made of the benefits and disadvantages of the use of Oracle CASE in such a study and the compromises required when commercial applications packages were chosen.