heavily on rules-based systems are beginning to catch on. Telecommunications companies are using BRMS to route messages, to schedule maintenance and to manage customer service. The health care industry is quickly adopting it for its heavily rules-laden processes, such as claims processing and regulatory compliance. One health care insurer estimates that the number of rules in its systems has been growing and will continue to grow to tens of thousands of independent rules. A BRE is the only sensible way to get a handle on such overwhelming business logic. The right BRE will provide an environment in which these rules can be created, categorized, cross-referenced, searched, versioned, and approved.

Selecting the Right BRMS

There is a wide variety of BRMS products av

Introduction

Most businesses have rules that define and implement policies, whether they relate to internal operations or to the products and services they offer to their customers. Often these rules define the strategy of the business and determine its success or failure. Adjustments to the strategy typically mean changes to business rules. The problem is this—these days business rules are implemented in software, and everyone knows that software changes don’t happen quickly. Business rules engines (BRE) expedite rapid changes in business rules within enterprise software.

The Business Rules Bottleneck

For years enterprise architecture has separated systems into three tiers—a presentation tier, a flow control or application tier, and the data validation tier. Business logic is usually embedded across all three tiers. When policy makers decide to change direction, often database routines must change, application server enterprise software may require adjustment, and user interface options will have to be altered. The entire IT infrastructure is affected. To bridge the gulf between IT and policy makers, business analysts are often charged with creating detailed requirements and other documents which coders use to implement the business requirements in software. This translation of business logic into code creates a bottleneck for change and slows responsiveness to developing business needs and priorities.

The RBE Solution

The central principle of business rules management systems (BRMS) is to extract the embedded business logic from the multiple tiers of enterprise applications and to centralize it into a set of rules that can be easily monitored, controlled, and altered by business analysts. Control of business rules and logic is thereby placed in the hands of the business professionals who know them. A business rules engine can be thought of as a fourth tier in enterprise applications, the tier that houses the rules of the business. Rules are written as declarative statements in plain English, typically as IF-THEN-ELSE statements. When integrated with the other tiers, the BRE works through the rules until all conditions are satisfied.

In the Financial Industry

BRMS has been most widely implemented in the financial industry, which has seen an explosion of loan products, each governed by its own set of rules. Software applications typically check the applicant’s credit history, income and other factors bearing on credit, as well as that of co-signers, and make recommendations for loan products and find the best price for the customer’s circumstances. This process is highly rule-intensive, but by using BRMS, business analysts are able to enter the rules that generate the code that approves loans. As a result, loan companies can create sophisticated and innovative products without incurring overwhelming IT investments. BRMS has not only reduced IT costs and reduced time to market for the industry, but importantly, it has reduced translation errors between the business experts and programming.

Other Industries

Other industries that rely heavily on rules-based systems are beginning to catch on. Telecommunications companies are using BRMS to route messages, to schedule maintenance and to manage customer service. The health care industry is quickly adopting it for its heavily rules-laden processes, such as claims processing and regulatory compliance. One health care insurer estimates that the number of rules in its systems has been growing and will continue to grow to tens of thousands of independent rules. A BRE is the only sensible way to get a handle on such overwhelming business logic. The right BRE will provide an environment in which these rules can be created, categorized, cross-referenced, searched, versioned, and approved.

Selecting the Right BRMS

There is a wide variety of BRMS products av

. Business logic is usually embedded across all three tiers. When policy makers decide to change direction, often database routines must change, application server enterprise software may require adjustment, and user interface options will have to be altered. The entire IT infrastructure is affected. To bridge the gulf between IT and policy makers, business analysts are often charged with creating detailed requirements and other documents which coders use to implement the business requirements in software. This translation of business logic into code creates a bottleneck for change and slows responsiveness to developing business needs and priorities.

The RBE Solution

The central principle of business rules management systems (BRMS) is to extract the embedded business logic from the multiple tiers of enterprise applications and to centralize it into a set of rules that can be easily monitored, controlled, and altered by business analysts. Control of business rules and logic is thereby placed in the hands of the business professionals who know them. A business rules engine can be thought of as a fourth tier in enterprise applications, the tier that houses the rules of the business. Rules are written as declarative statements in plain English, typically as IF-THEN-ELSE statements. When integrated with the other tiers, the BRE works through the rules until all conditions are satisfied.

In the Financial Industry

BRMS has been most widely implemented in the financial industry, which has seen an explosion of loan products, each governed by its own set of rules. Software applications typically check the applicant’s credit history, income and other factors bearing on credit, as well as that of co-signers, and make recommendations for loan products and find the best price for the customer’s circumstances. This process is highly rule-intensive, but by using BRMS, business analysts are able to enter the rules that generate the code that approves loans. As a result, loan companies can create sophisticated and innovative products without incurring overwhelming IT investments. BRMS has not only reduced IT costs and reduced time to market for the industry, but importantly, it has reduced translation errors between the business experts and programming.

Other Industries

Other industries that rely heavily on rules-based systems are beginning to catch on. Telecommunications companies are using BRMS to route messages, to schedule maintenance and to manage customer service. The health care industry is quickly adopting it for its heavily rules-laden processes, such as claims processing and regulatory compliance. One health care insurer estimates that the number of rules in its systems has been growing and will continue to grow to tens of thousands of independent rules. A BRE is the only sensible way to get a handle on such overwhelming business logic. The right BRE will provide an environment in which these rules can be created, categorized, cross-referenced, searched, versioned, and approved.

Selecting the Right BRMS

There is a wide variety of BRMS products av

ess logic from the multiple tiers of enterprise applications and to centralize it into a set of rules that can be easily monitored, controlled, and altered by business analysts. Control of business rules and logic is thereby placed in the hands of the business professionals who know them. A business rules engine can be thought of as a fourth tier in enterprise applications, the tier that houses the rules of the business. Rules are written as declarative statements in plain English, typically as IF-THEN-ELSE statements. When integrated with the other tiers, the BRE works through the rules until all conditions are satisfied.

In the Financial Industry

BRMS has been most widely implemented in the financial industry, which has seen an explosion of loan products, each governed by its own set of rules. Software applications typically check the applicant’s credit history, income and other factors bearing on credit, as well as that of co-signers, and make recommendations for loan products and find the best price for the customer’s circumstances. This process is highly rule-intensive, but by using BRMS, business analysts are able to enter the rules that generate the code that approves loans. As a result, loan companies can create sophisticated and innovative products without incurring overwhelming IT investments. BRMS has not only reduced IT costs and reduced time to market for the industry, but importantly, it has reduced translation errors between the business experts and programming.

Other Industries

Other industries that rely heavily on rules-based systems are beginning to catch on. Telecommunications companies are using BRMS to route messages, to schedule maintenance and to manage customer service. The health care industry is quickly adopting it for its heavily rules-laden processes, such as claims processing and regulatory compliance. One health care insurer estimates that the number of rules in its systems has been growing and will continue to grow to tens of thousands of independent rules. A BRE is the only sensible way to get a handle on such overwhelming business logic. The right BRE will provide an environment in which these rules can be created, categorized, cross-referenced, searched, versioned, and approved.

Selecting the Right BRMS

There is a wide variety of BRMS products av

overned by its own set of rules. Software applications typically check the applicant’s credit history, income and other factors bearing on credit, as well as that of co-signers, and make recommendations for loan products and find the best price for the customer’s circumstances. This process is highly rule-intensive, but by using BRMS, business analysts are able to enter the rules that generate the code that approves loans. As a result, loan companies can create sophisticated and innovative products without incurring overwhelming IT investments. BRMS has not only reduced IT costs and reduced time to market for the industry, but importantly, it has reduced translation errors between the business experts and programming.

Other Industries

Other industries that rely heavily on rules-based systems are beginning to catch on. Telecommunications companies are using BRMS to route messages, to schedule maintenance and to manage customer service. The health care industry is quickly adopting it for its heavily rules-laden processes, such as claims processing and regulatory compliance. One health care insurer estimates that the number of rules in its systems has been growing and will continue to grow to tens of thousands of independent rules. A BRE is the only sensible way to get a handle on such overwhelming business logic. The right BRE will provide an environment in which these rules can be created, categorized, cross-referenced, searched, versioned, and approved.

Selecting the Right BRMS

There is a wide variety of BRMS products av

heavily on rules-based systems are beginning to catch on. Telecommunications companies are using BRMS to route messages, to schedule maintenance and to manage customer service. The health care industry is quickly adopting it for its heavily rules-laden processes, such as claims processing and regulatory compliance. One health care insurer estimates that the number of rules in its systems has been growing and will continue to grow to tens of thousands of independent rules. A BRE is the only sensible way to get a handle on such overwhelming business logic. The right BRE will provide an environment in which these rules can be created, categorized, cross-referenced, searched, versioned, and approved.

Selecting the Right BRMS

There is a wide variety of BRMS products available now, from open source tools to full-blown enterprise offerings. Choosing the product that is right for your organization requires an examination of your organization’s existing IT infrastructure, as well as the extensiveness of your organization’s rules base, the expectations for rules management, and the level of commitment by the business experts. Gartner estimates that IT can expect to reduce operating costs by 10% to 15% with a properly implemented BRMS. But the benefits of transparency in the organization’s business logic and the responsiveness of IT to changing business needs may be immeasurable.