The evolution of BRMS (part 1)

-- Posted by Carole-Ann

Thank you for joining the Evolution of BRMS webinar yesterday.  It looks like many of you have been able to make it.  Quite a turn out!

For those of you that could not make it, I wanted to give you the gist of what I presented.  This presentation covers the evolution of the business rules technology focusing first on the drivers that forced the market to shift its focus from Business Rules Engines (BRE) to Business Rules Management Systems (BRMS).  In a nutshell, the main ideas are summarized below.  In a few days, the recording will also be posted on our community site for your convenience.

Empower Business Users

• Because of new regulations, competitive threats, different economic conditions, Business must react fast -- How does the sub-prime crisis impact the way you underwrite borrowers?  What will Capitol Hill require after the elections?  Who will your competition be?
• Traditional IT implementation adds delays in Time-to-Market -- How much overhead is added in translating your strategies to rule code?  How long does it take to test your rules?

Manage End-to-End Business Rules Lifecycle

• Time-to-Production is heavily dependent on lifecycle processes -- How confident are you that your strategies were codified as intended?  When do you realize your rules overlap?  Did you miss any type of transaction, in a given age group, in a given geography, for some given products, for a give transaction amount?  Are you sure?  Who is accountable for what gets onto your Production systems?
• Cost of “bad decisions” is a luxury that Businesses cannot afford -- What if a typo reached Production, can you afford to decline your best payers?  What does it cost to accept risky business?  How much do the "risky loans" cost Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac?

Deploy Seamlessly and Consistently throughout the Enterprise

• SOA ecosystems open the door to accelerated developments -- How fast are you require to get those new systems out?
• System duplication implies higher maintenance costs and increases chances of business rules mismatch -- Are you sure that you promote the same products on your website and in your call centers or branches?  Could someone be declined online but accepted in a branch?

In the second part of this series, I will explore the evolution that is taking place as we speak, going from BRMS to Decision Management (DM).  If you attend the Business Rules Forum in Orlando, I invite you to attend this presentation live.  It will be packed with details on the decisioning ecosystem, including predictive analytics, optimization and key decision improvement technologies and techniques.