Rodan Systems develops turn key Information Systems solutions including application software development
and deployment and application operation support. During several years of the company’s activity a number of major information systems have been developed and Rodan Systems achieved a stable position on the information technology market and is regarded as solid and reliable supplier of “turn-key” solutions. The principal vertical markets include public administration, financial institutions and industry. Rodan Systems operates an Internet Information Service (arsinfo.com.pl) comprising legal databases, patent and trademark databases and building industry (suppliers, contractors) information databases. The enterprise developed a proprietary software product, the OfficeObjectsr Information Manager, an integrated document and multimedia content management system including as features, Multimedia content management,
Meta-information management, Workflow management and Hierarchical storage management. The OfficeObjectsr Repository is based on an open data model, supporting the hierarchical and the network data model paradigms, to be defined at the application development time. The high degree of generality and the late binding approach allow the use of the repository as a platform for systems with highly differing requirements such as document repositories, electronic document archives, multimedia repositories, and technical documentation databases. Many content management applications, in particular electronic document archives, require robust metainformation representation platforms to manage the factual knowledge embodied in the archived documents. The knowledge management subsystem provides a platform to represent factual information contained in the documents, electronic or stored in the paper form, accessible to the system users through a collection of directories and the set-theoretical operations utilized in the selection process. Complex networks of relationships among facts gleaned from the archive documents may be represented. The workflow engine is based on a functional process definition language, that meets all the requirements stipulated by theWorkflowManagement Coalition and adds flexibility due to the enhanced expressive power inherent in the functional predicate specification. The workflow process seamlessly interface with all OfficeObjectsr document management services, as well as external software modules automatically invoked upon initiation of a process task. A specialized official correspondence management module OfficeObjectsrDocMan is a set of tools that integrates with the workflow engine and is particularly dedicated for central and local government offices and businesses with multiple external contacts that wish to improve information flow. The hierarchical storage management functionality provides a platform for a seamless integration of assorted auxiliary memory devices from object-relational databases, through to optical storage jukeboxes. The logical repository areas are defined at system installation time and mapped to physical memory devices by the system administrators. The repository object migration process is based on predicates defined on the object class level and the location of repository objects is completely transparent to the system users. The company currently uses the following technical environments and methodologies:
System Analysis and Design: OMT, Unified Modelling Language, LOVEM Process design methodology.
System Development: major RDMBS’s (ORACLE, INFORMIX, INGRES II, SYBASE, SQL Server), IBM WebSphere, Visual Age for Java, Lotus Notes, JAVA, PEARL, JAVA Script, XML, C/C++, PowerBuilder, Deplhi, CA-OpenRoad. Other: Business Process Re-engineering, Strategic Information Planning, Quality Assurance. For the last four years the Rodan Systems has developed many software solutions for the central and local governments and renowned companies in Poland, including Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Transportation and Office of the Mayor of Gda˜nsk, Creditanstalt Financial Advisers, Polish National Bank, Polish Press Agency, Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Committee for European Integration, the European Co-operation Fund. Rodan Systems got the following awards:
- The 1-st prize in the ”Golden Bit’99 - Electronic Flow of Documents in a Company” competition, in the
main category: The Best Information Management System for the Matters and Documents Management
System for the City Council in Gdansk
- The 3-rd prize in ”The Best Product” competition on the XIII-th International Software & Hardware Convention SOFTARG’99 for the Matters and Workflow Management System OfficeObjectsr DocMan.
The research & development activities of the enterprise concentrate on the following technical areas:
- Workflow management
- Multimedia content and knowledge management
- Performance-oriented database design
- Information system development methodologies
- Software quality management
Rodan has been involved in several research co-operations with the Polish Academy of Sciences (PL),
Warsaw University (PL), Technical University of Warsaw (PL), Technical University of Gdansk (PL), Technical University of Poznan (PL), University of Calabria (IT), CNR (IT), University of Udine (IT), University of Ulster (UK), Trinity College (IRL).

Key Persons

Witold Staniszkis, PhD on databases in Central School of Planning and Statistics. MSc in University of
Gda˜nsk. President of Rodan Systems. Industry experience on positions ranging from programmer to project leader in Polish and abroad companies (Computer Center of the Polish United Shipyards, National Bureau for Informatics, Logica London Ltd., Zeto-Rodan Ltd., Rodan System Ltd.). Research work on University of Maryland, Polish Research and Development Center for Informatics. Director of the Applied Research Division in Consorzio per la Ricerca e le Applicazioni di Informatica (CRAI). Teaching experience on Polish Academy of Sciences, The UNESCO Computer Science School, Dept. of Engineering of University of Calabria, Warsaw School of Economics. Experience in several European sponsored projects. Member of several conference programme committees. Over 40 published scientific and technical papers and 2 books (co-author).

Bartosz Nowicki, PhD in software engineering on computer safety in Technical University of Gda˜nsk.
MSc in local networks computer protocols in Technical University of Pozna˜n. Head of Quality Management Department in Rodan Systems. Responsible for software process improvement. Consultant on quality assurance, project management, requirements engineering and object orientation. His main focus is on
quality assurance, project management, object orientation. Author and co-author of 10 papers presented on
national and international conferences. Experience in several European sponsored projects.