British Gas North Western Region has placed a UKP300,000 order with Oracle UK for its relational database management system to run on DEC VAX nodes and personal computer workstations. British Gas has been evaluating the Oracle offering and that of a competitor over the past 18 months. The company says that in terms of speed, throughput, and networking, the Oracle product outperformed its rival in pilot expenditure control systems. Traditionally an ICL site, British Gas Northwest has adopted DEC VAX hardware for its office automation systems, and part of the initial work will be to build communications between the ICL mainframe hardware and DEC-based Oracle systems. Oracle will also provide end-user and development tools, and a range of specialist software to create an executive information system. Development work will be carried out by the British Gas data processing department, and in-house Oracle training courses are now being conducted. The first phase, set to start last month, involved translating data from existing applications and feeding it into the management information system. Oracle sees completion by March 1991.
