UKAEA: CARANET PROJECT

UKAEA, who have worked with Xicon for many years, approached us for advice on how to replace there existing Library management system called CARA, with a strategic solution which we called CARAnet. This solution serves the dual purpose of, in the short term replacing the old system with a modern, cost effective application and in the long term giving UKAEA the option of migrating their records to Hummingbird's EDRMS system.

Jane Murray, Southern Records Manager at UKAEA commented, "As Project Owner, I was confident that Xicon understood what Records Management Services (RMS) needed and had the competence and experienced team to provide the necessary support to the project"

With these dual requirements in mind we designed a solution with a Service Oriented Architecture via SOAP which allow for easy migration when time comes, combined with a windows client to provide a familiar user interface.

The in addition to familiarity window client integrates into existing office applications to provide cost effective reporting. The issue of installing an updating the client on many desktop PCs was addressed by using Microsoft's ClickOnce deployment.

The existing data was stored in a rudimentary flat file format. A substantial portion of the project was taken up in migrating this data to a Microsoft SQL server database and then cleaning it to remove inconstancies.

"Throughout the project Xicon's Microsfoft team, Sean Maudesley -Barton, Roz Stewart and Louise Caldwell, provided excellent support and enabled us to build a close working relationship which only enhanced the outcome. The CARAnet project went to plan and completed on time and within budget to UKAEA's satisfaction. RMS now have an effective application for managing unscheduled archive records that is intuitive to use and has been accepted well by its users" Jane Murray, UKAEA

The result of the project is that UKAEA's archive department now have a modern application which has been well revived by the users, reporting takes a fraction of the time it used to with more accurate results and they are in a good position to move forward strategically.

"I have been very pleased with development of the CARAnet application and the training and support provided by Xicon and would not hesitate to use their services again and will recommend them to others" Jane Murray, UKAEA