Oil monitoring is referred to as wear particle debris analysis and physical analysis of lubricants' properties. Information technology, such as database technology, image processing, expert system, data fusion and multi-agent system theories, etc. makes oil-monitoring procedures more intelligent. This paper introduces the development of some information systems such as management database, computer-aided wear particle analysis software used in oil monitoring. The basic principles and models of information technologies used in this field are presented. The development of IT as an integral element of an oil analysis-based condition monitoring system has been carried out in the authors' laboratory since 1986. Initially, the principal application of IT was to improve the data management and processing procedures. The second use of IT was in the development of a wear particle image processing system. The third aspect of utilizing IT is artificial intelligence. Finally, the application of IT-based network techniques is implemented. The progress in the application of IT in the authors' laboratory shows that the combination of information technology and oil monitoring can increase the speed of oil analysis, manage the information conveniently and obtain analysis conclusion more precisely in relation to practical application. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.