*SIM Award Paper:* A Powerful MIS/DSS Developed for a Remote Sawmill Operation

With the widespread popularity and reliability of microcomputers and the availability of easy-to-use application generators and application packages, it has become possible to introduce computer systems into environments where this was not practical either from a technical or an economic standpoint. This paper will describe how an integrated, multi-application system was developed and successfully implemented two years ago for a forest products company. Emphasis will be placed on: 1. How the application generator aided or constrained development. 2. How the development process and system design differed from the traditional approach, in view of the requirement that the system should operate entirely without trained technical support.