SCRIBE: An integrated office automation system

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SCRIBE: An Integrated Office Automation System Ivan VIALE The Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget, 93 rue de Rivoli, 75056 Paris R.P., France

and Andr6 VITAL Centre d'Etudes des Systbmes d'information des Administrations, France

Project SCRIBE (Syst~me de Communication et de R6seaux Informatiques et Bureautiques Evolutifs) is a communication, data processing and office automation network system. In order to assure an open-communication system, SCRIBE has been specified in accordance with OSI standards. The network organisation is based on three different levels of networks, (telephonic, LAN, and distributing networks) which are complementary and precabled during the construction of the buildings.

Keywords: SCRIBE, Communication Date Processing, Office Automation, Network System, Telephone Network, LAN, Distributed Systems, OSI.

Ivan Viale was born on October 6th

1937. After having studied Economical sciences, he graduated from "Conservatoire National des Arts et m6tiers". From 1959 to 1980 he worked at IBM-FRANCE where he had different responsabilities in marketing. When he left this company, he was part of the managerial team in charge of the development of marketing activities for health and social department. 1981-1982: as technical adviser of the general manager directly in charge of department health and hospitals, he realised the master project for computerisation of the french public hospital. Since 1983, he is responsible for the project SCRIBE within the "Minist~re de i'Economie des Finances et de la Privatisation". The originality of this project lies in the choices made as early as 1983 for a network architecture in conformity with the work achieved by ECMA and with the future OSI standards of ISO. SCRIBE is the most important project in the area of office automation for the french administration. North-Holland Computer Standards & Interfaces 5 (1986) 291-297

1. Introduction The Project SCRIBE (Syst6me de Communication et de R6seaux Informatiques et Bureautiques Evolutifs) is an open-ended communication, data processing and office automation network system whose middle-term goal (1986-88) is to define and implement the computerization of information processing and distribution at the headquarters of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget and especially in their new Gare de LyonBercy building in 1988, with the intention of progressively expanding the system to the Ministry's external services. The first stage of project SCRIBE, 1985-86, involves experimenting with a system based on the most modem office automation means and services available today and which prefigures developments which the industry will be offering by 1988. The experimental stage will serve as a testing ground for the final system by furnishing valuable technical data and especially by allowing a significant sampling of users to assess these new tools. Their experience will be evaluated both as far as working conditions and department organization and operation are concerned. 2. Managing an Extensive Project at the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget

2.1. Project Background Project SCRIBE was born out of the intention expressed by the Computer Development CornAndr6 Vital was born on June 15th 1960. He obtained a master in computer sciences and a DEA (Dipl6mes d'Etudes Approfondies) in math6matiques appliqu6es at the university of Bordeaux. In 1982, he participated in the work of the project RHIN directed by ADI (Agence of l'Informatique). After having worked in AFNOR (the French member body of ISO), he is now engineer attached to the project SCRIBE of the Minist~re de l'Econonile des Finances et de la Privatisation.

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mission of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget as early as 1981 to favor, in the form of an experimental project, the industrialization of pilot project KAYAK, the prime contractorship of which was turned over to INRIA by the Data Processing Agency in 1979. The objectives of pilot project KAYAK were to design and experiment a prototype of what was currently called the "Office of the Future". The Computer Development Commission's project was given new impetus by the decision of the President of the Republic to vacate the premises currently occupied by the department in order to extend the Louvre Museum; the objective being henceforth to provide the future office building with efficient means of communication and data processing using the most recent technological innovations. 2.2. Structures of Decision, Supervision and Coordination

To make sure that the project was properly handled, a special interdepartmental structure was set up. This structure includes: a steering committee: at the decision-making level (including eight of the largest department divisions), - a technical committee: at the supervisory level, - a SCRIBE committee: project studies and coordination. -

3. Presentation

of project SCRIBE

The purpose of the experimental mock-up, set up for operation in 1985-86 in accordance with the final goals of project SCRIBE, is to test the office automation means and services currently or soon to be available on a significant sample of users. This experiment is based on a high-level automated office system which will be set up by December 1985 including: - individual work stations, - collective services, - means of communication interconnecting the servicing centers and work stations.

3.1. Work Stations

Within the frame of the SCRIBE experiment, a single type of station will be implemented, supplied by two different manufacturers (which is proof of network compatibility). The so-called multifunction work station must be able to provide the following functions: - word processing, - personal computing, - serving center host terminal. Moreover, in time, this work station must be able to access Teletex and Videotex servicing centers. 3.2. Collective Services

Servicing centers will offer users collective services. The SCRIBE project will experiment with: - a mail service, - a filing service. 3.3. Communication

Any user must be able to access all the servicing centers. The future automated office and telemarie system depends on the ease with which communication can be established. There are two types of communications: internal and external. (a) Internal The SCRIBE project will test high-throughput communication means: local area networks. (b) External The internal communication system must be as open as possible to the outside. It should therefore interface with major public telecommunication services.

4. Specifications

for the Means

of Communication

Five buildings are concerned in the SCRIBE project. Each building is provided with three types of networks: - a private telephonic network - a local area network - a distributing subnetwork.

L Viale andA. Vital / Office automation: SCRIBE 4.1. The Private Telephonic Network

4. 2.2. Connections to the local area network

In order to minimize the cost of connections and to make the cabling scheme as flexible as possible most of the work stations will be connected to the local area network through a bridge called PARLE: Point d'Acc6s au R6seau Local d'Entreprise (local area network access point). See Fig. 1. In the future, some work stations requiring high data rates like graphics terminals will be directly connected to the local area network.

The private telephone network will support voice communication and telematics applications (Videotex, Teletex and Telecopy, etc.). The interconnection between the PABX and the local area network through a gateway is, at this time, under study. Such a gateway could be implemented in 1986. 4.2. The Local Area Network 4.2.1. Introduction

4. 3. The Distributing Subnetwork

The main goal of the SCRIBE project is the specification and the implementation of a highthroughput communication .for data processing and office automation applications. As user, one of the initial requirements of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Budget was to stay as independent as possible of the different manufacturers. Consequently, from the beginning, the SCRIBE project took into account the progress in international standardization in the Open System Interconnection (OSI) area, and at this time, has included approved international standards in all its specifications concerning the five lower layers of its communication architecture with the future aim of completely conforming to the seven layers of the OSI reference model when new standards concerning presentation and application layers are approved at international level.

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One of the major goals of the SCRIBE project being the harmonization of the equipment, it has been decided that each room would be provided with a "standard" switch in order to allow any work station to be easily connected to the local area network through a PARLE. This decision implied the study and the settingup of a cabling layout based on the classic telephonic cabling layout, in this way getting the greatest freedom concerning configuration and re-configuration problems, each PARLE ensuring at its own level a part of the general network management. Thus, from each PARLE a distributing subnetwork starts as depicted in Fig. 2.

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5. Architectural Considerations The general architecture of the work stations will be as in Fig. 3. The P A R L E architecture will be as in Fig. 4. Moreover, the P A R L E will also provide a terminal manager in order to take into account synchronous procedures such as T I ' Y and

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asynchronous procedures such as VIP. As mentioned above, five buildings are concerned in the SCRIBE project. Communication within those five buildings will be considered as internal. Consequently, a private X.25 network will be implemented between these buildings, providing the interconnection of the local area networks.

I}Confoxm t o the DSA s p e c i f J I } c a t i o n s o f BULL communJcaI}tion a[chitectu~e conce:ntng Message h a n d l i n g systems, f i l e t [ a n s f e ~ t , document t ~ a n s f e ~ t and f i l i n g s e r v i c e applications. The m i g r a t i o n f~om these s p e c i f i c a t i o n s to i n t e r n a t i o n a l standards w l l l be done when those w i l l be approved a t the i n t e ~ national level.

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moters of the project to the consequences of developing office automation in an administration environment, not only from the organizational point of view but also from the sociological one. In particular, this experiment is expected to provide information for assessing how well users are able to accept these new tools. Observations will bear on the fields of application decided by the steering committee. The study includes three phases:

6. General Layout

- observation, - assessment, - proposal of measures likely to favor the generalization of automated office tools tested during the experimental phase, beyond experimentation per se.

The general layout is given in Fig. 7. 7. S o c i o - o r g a n i z a t i o n a l ing O f f i c e A u t o m a t i o n

Consequences of Developin Large Organizations

The SCRIBE experiment is not only a technical testing ground. It should also enlighten the pro-

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L Viale and A. Vital / Office automation: SCRIBE

development. There will be permanent interaction with the users so that they are the ones who play the leading role in the changes which are taking place. 8. Project S C R I B E D e v e l o p m e n t s

Further studies will be conducted in 1985 and 1986. Their aim will be to: - add new collective services to the system: printing and archiving services, - allow other suppliers who subscribe to the chosen communication and dialog protocols t,~

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propose their products, establish a bridge between the SCRIBE system and the PABX, which is the converging point of the data processed by the telematic equipment, in order to provide interworking between this equipment and that connected to local area networks and vice versa, - interconnect local area networks through a very high-throughput loop. -

By early 1988, the SCRIBE system should provide an overall answer to the problems faced by users who are concerned with the interworking of their data processing, office automation and telematic equipment.