Over the years, Computer Academy has been solely responsible for the design and implementation of a number of information systems in which a major objective has been the provision of decision-support functions. The packages designed offer integrated solutions through sophisticated interactive environments. Some of the success stories are presented below.

GMD - A KNOWLEDGE BASED SYSTEM: WIRA Research Association commissioned General Manufacturing Data (GMD). The database incorporates knowledge on product design, synthesis and duration of production. The system aims to eliminate the need for manual assessment and time studies for prototype design, and to automate the specification of the production process. The package can also be used to design industrial products, which are based on revisions or updates of others already available within an organisation. It has been in use by a number of industries throughout Britain and Europe since 1979.

AN INTERACTIVE RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: This is an interactive relational database management system for use mainly by students and novice users. The 'heart' of the DBMS is an intelligent data dictionary processor which allows both, users and DBA to share a common physical realm that holds all the necessary definitions for schema, subschema and data manipulation operations.

A COMPUTERISED REAL ESTATE SYSTEM (ACRES): The system enables the storage, analysis and retrieval of information on estates and general properties under development, and performs optimisation functions as well as cash flow analyses.

A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS PACKAGE FOR MARC RECORDS: The package generates statistics on fields/subfields of bibliographic (MARC) records.

PRODUCTION CONTROL - SPECIFICATION OF WORK-TICKETS: In many industrial environments and where the constituent parts of mass produced items have to be bundled together for efficient production control, it becomes necessary to provide complete and up-to-date information for shop-floor operatives. This system (commissioned by WIRA Research Association) enables the operator to, (a) specify the constituent parts of a production line, (b) create appropriate tuples for customer orders, and (c) produce complete work-tickets for shop-floor operatives. The work-tickets provide information on individual orders, bundle sizes, expected time for the completion of individual bundles, and pay rates.

NORMALISATION OF INDUSTRIAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: The aim of the project has been to devise a scheme whereby several hundred industries can share a given budget on the basis of their annual wages and annual turnover. An iterative technique has been implemented to distribute the budget over the industries concerned, in an optimal fashion, by utilising 'objective' production parameters. The system was commissioned by the Confederation of British Wool Textiles which is based at Bradford.

AN EXPERT SYSTEM FOR JOB EVALUATION: This package offers a new method for ranking professions according to the demand they impose upon the individual. Its success lies on the fact that it eliminates subjective information, as much as possible, through comparative assessment and objective statistical ranking techniques.

INTELLIGENT HOME SEARCH: The system maintains detailed information on properties (e.g. plot type, house type, and region) and buyers (e.g. salary, loans, and limits) and provides intelligent matching and clustering.