Chapter 11. CERN Simplifies Document Handling Using the Oracle Application Server

Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, more commonly known as CERN is the world's leading particle physics research laboratory. Some 6,500 scientists, half the particle physicists in the world, use the facilities at CERN. The business of CERN is pure science, exploring the most fundamental questions of nature. The tools of the laboratory, particle accelerators and detectors, are among the largest and most complex scientific instruments in the world. CERN is currently working on the construction of a new 27-kilometer accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), due for completion in 2005.

When CERN was established in the 1950s, it set the standard for European Collaboration in science—with the LHC, it is set to become the first truly global laboratory. However, as with many businesses in the current economic climate, CERN is expected to continue to grow, even though staff levels are planned to shrink in the coming years—in essence, achieving higher productivity with fewer resources. One way of accomplishing this is to use fast, efficient, and streamlined organization-wide electronic workflow.