BRDP Business Rules - Latest and Greatest News

CRN : Daily Archives : JBoss' Fleury Against Open-Sourcing Java : 1:32 PM EST Tues., Apr. 27, 2004: "JBoss' Fleury Against Open-Sourcing Java
Outspoken CEO sides with Sun on releasing technology to community

By Elizabeth Montalbano, CRN

1:32 PM EST Tues., Apr. 27, 2004
One would think the president of the company that oversees the industry's most popular open-source Java application server would be in favor of open-sourcing Java technology.
But Marc Fleury, CEO and founder of Atlanta-based JBoss Inc., said open-sourcing Java would be a 'trap' into which Sun Microsystems, Java's creator and steward, should not fall.

.......While Fleury may not have been in favor of open-sourcing Java itself, he does think it's a good idea to open-source other core technologies for building services-oriented architectures (SOAs). SOAs are IT systems comprised of business processes, data and other application components that act as services, which can be invoked by any applications in the system on an as-needed basis and used to create new apps on the fly.

For instance, Fleury suggested JBoss Inc. might release an open-source version of an enterprise service bus (ESB), a standards-based messaging engine platform that enables SOAs, at some point in the future. He also noted that business rules and workflow engines also might be "potential candidates of open sourcing."

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Press release : ILOG CompanynewsGroup: "Minnesota streamlines state unemployment insurance benefits using ILOG JRULES
(4/27/04 7:00:00 AM)

Millions in Savings Expected; Claims Processing Time Reduced

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 27, 2004 - ILOG� (NASDAQ : ILOG ; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364), a leading provider of enterprise-class software components and services, today announced that the State of Minnesota will use ILOG JRules�, a key offering in ILOG's Business Rule Management System (BRMS) product line, as part of a technology initiative that is expected to improve flexibility and decrease the turnaround time for the payment of unemployment insurance benefits. The initiative is expected to yield significant savings in administrative expenses and reduce the amount of time it takes to process an unemployment insurance claim.
The new rule-based system is being built by BearingPoint�, Inc., one of the world's largest business consulting and systems integration firms, and is part of a $16 million business process redesign and technology modernization initiative for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). BearingPoint will be implementing their national unemployment insurance solution, the Unemployment Framework for Automated Claims and Tax Services (uFACTS) for DEED. ILOG JRules is an integrated component of the uFACTS solution. "

Government Computer News (GCN) daily news -- federal, state and local government technology; Tibbits will head DOD financial revamp: "Tibbits will head DOD financial revamp

By Dawn S. Onley
GCN Staff

The Defense Department has appointed Dr. Paul A. Tibbits as director of one of the department�s largest modernization programs.

Tibbits, a former Navy commanding officer, is now head of the Business Modernization and Systems Integration Program Office within the Business Management Modernization Program transformation initiative.

In his new role, Tibbits will manage changes to DOD�s business processes, seeking to eliminate redundant and incompatible financial systems. BMMP is supposed to whittle down more than 2,500 financial systems to fit an enterprise architecture being developed by IBM Corp. The architecture would identify business rules as well as the technology needed for a departmentwide financial infrastructure. "

IT-Analysis.com - Agile Business looking for Flexible IT: "Observations - 'The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward. ' - John Maynard Keynes New Quote

Agile Business looking for Flexible IT
Friday 23rd April 2004

To be able to react quickly and effectively to new threats and business opportunities, enterprises need to be agile. They need to be able to develop new processes, change existing processes and modify business rules at the drop of a hat. The first step towards this nirvana is not to make IT more flexible but to make sure that the enterprise understands its business processes and management and then define a process to ensure that the business can implement and absorb the changes using Composable Processes. IBM has coined a new term for this analysis, Component Business Modelling, and has just announced new services to help their clients create models of their businesses so that they can implement business process improvements...........
.......These improvements will only be possible if the agile business is supported by a flexible IT department. The flexible IT can only be achieved by creating composable services so that IT can implement new IT processes, change existing process and modify rules as fast as the business requires them. Service Orientated Architecture is the key to enabling composable services.......
,,,,,So there is a linear sequence: agile business - composable business models - composable IT services - service orientated architecture - on-demand computing - flexible IT. Improving any one of these areas will have some benefit but all of them have to be improved to provide real breakthrough in business effectiveness. "

Investor's Business Daily: Breaking News: "ILOG Reports 2004 Third Quarter Results; U.S. Business Rules Revenue Growth at 33%
.....ILOG's growth and market share in the business rules market were affirmed both by customer activity and several recent analyst reports. IT industry analysts in the U.S. and Europe covering business rules, BPM and enterprise architecture strategies have confirmed that deployment of business rule management systems are increasing worldwide, driven by businesses' desire to modernize aging legacy architectures. This trend also favors business process management projects - further driving business rules adoption.

.....Strong demand for BRMS in the U.S. continued to come from financial services, insurance and healthcare companies. ILOG's BRMS sales in other sectors including manufacturing, e-government, transportation and entertainment increased ILOG's market diversification and penetration. For example, a large secondary mortgage lender increased its usage of ILOG JRules related to loan underwriting. IBM Global Services has selected ILOG JRules for implementing process automation for a leading rental car company. In Europe, demand was also diverse. A large deal with system integrator Syntegra calls for ILOG JRules(TM) to automate health care records management as part of the UK's National Health Services IT initiative. The French National Railway (SNCF) also selected ILOG JRules for streamlining and automating decision making and improving operational efficiency.
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Fair Isaac Enhances New Version Of PlacementsPlus with Rules Management Technology: "Fair Isaac Enhances New Version Of PlacementsPlus with Rules Management Technology
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- April 22, 2004 -- Version 4.0 Bolsters Collections Industry's Only Optimized Placement and Management Service for Contingency Accounts

Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), the leading provider of analytics and decision technology, announced today the new release and immediate availability of PlacementsPlus(R) service 4.0. The new release of the collections industry's only optimized account placement and management service for charged-off debt now integrates Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor business rules management technology for enhanced control and improved collections results.
......PlacementsPlus is a unique, Web-based service that provides daily reporting of collection information and utilizes advanced analytics to match accounts to collection agencies, resulting in maximized recoveries and increased netback. Blaze Advisor allows users to develop, test, deploy and maintain business rules as part of any automated system.
......The ability for business users to automate the execution of day-to-day basic business rules provides for operating efficiencies, increased performance and lower costs.

Additionally, through the integration of Blaze Advisor technology into PlacementsPlus, clients are now able to leverage the latest features available within the industry's leading rules engine. One of Blaze Advisor's most powerful features is version management, which enables the user to track changes as well as revert to a previous version if a rule was inadvertently entered incorrectly or accidentally deleted. PlacementsPlus is available to creditors worldwide.

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AMS Signs 11 New Carriers, adds New Business Workflow to TransactNOW: "AMS Signs 11 New Carriers, adds New Business Workflow to TransactNOW

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2004--
New commitments bring number of carrier partners to 35. Data bridging and real-time response available for personal and commercial lines
.......... By leveraging investments carriers have already made in ACORD XML and Web site policy systems, including full automation of business rules and edits, practical ...
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Business Rules Evangelist: Forever One: Business Rules and Reference Data Business intelligence, data warehousing and analytics editorial from DMReview: "Business Rules Evangelist:
Forever One: Business Rules and Reference Data


Column published in DMReview.com
April 22, 2004

By Malcolm Chisholm

Reference data and business rules have been linked for decades. It may have seemed that it was initially for programming convenience, but in reality the linkages occur on many levels and have deep ramifications. These ramifications are very poorly understood, even today. Until the methodologies that are being developed to deal with business rules recognize the role of reference data, we will never have a proper conceptual grasp of how to manage the rules. Until vendors start supplying tools that properly interact with reference data, business rules solutions will always have shortcomings.

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Insurancetech :: Extending Underwriters' Reach With Intelligent Underwriting

One of the basic rules of information technology is that what you get out of it is only as smart as what you put into it, and the application of technology to underwriting isa case in point. Many insurers have already taken low-revenue risk out of the hands of relatively highly paid underwriters through automation with some sort of rules-based technology. However, simply automating does little to improve risk selection or underwriting practices—the core competency of any underwriting department. ........With the investment market flat, the competitive playing field has been leveled, according to Lucker. This means companies that can transform into the best underwriting organizations will grow and thrive. "Insurers that couple predictive models, underwriting excellence concepts and modern rules-engine technologies will be able to automate state-of-the-art underwriting tools and techniques, which can drive optimal risk selection, pricing and performance management-putting a focus on both quantity and quality........A few forward-looking companies have already undertaken a "next-generation" approach to rules methodology through segmentation of risk. By defining risks with greater granularity, rules can be crafted in a way to better align a company's risk appetite with policy pricing, according to Gail McGiffen, associate partner, Accenture (New York). "Rather than taking binary-type 'if-then-else' rules, for referral to an underwriter or knock-out, the next level involves taking a collection of risk attributes and grading the risk," she says. "It is as much, if not more, about the final pricing of the risk as it is about a simple decision about whether or not to accept the risk."


The greater complexity of risk segmentation methodologies involves more sophisticated technology, which can present certain challenges. "Rules engines need to support dynamic patterning of risk attributes in an iterative fashion, so that if any piece of data changes in a way that affects appetite for the quality of a risk, it will be recognized immediately," McGiffen explains. "From a technology standpoint, that requires something different from how the rules have lived within systems traditionally...............In many cases those rules are hard-coded in policy and rating systems, according to McGiffen. "There's a need to convert those rules in a way that they can be understood from a business language standpoint and then leveraged as new rules and created in a component-based architecture," she asserts. "If you have your underwriting rules coded in with your rating and policy administration system, we believe there needs to be a separation."

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Insurancetech :: Horizon Casualty Services Selects RulesPower: "Horizon Casualty Services Selects RulesPower
Anthony O'Donnell
Apr 21, 2004

Seeking to eventually automate all of its business processes under a single master business management model, Horizon Casualty Services (Newark, N.J.) has selected RulesPower (Burlington, Mass.) for claims management and adjudication process automation......Horizon Casualty Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Horizon Healthcare Services Inc. (Newark, N.J.), chose RulesPower because it is the only solution on the market that combines business process analysis (BPA), business rules engine (BRE) and business process management (BPM) functionality, according to John Oliveira, Horizon Casualty's director of operations and marketing. "From both a functionality and total cost perspective, we believe it is very competitive with all the products that are out there," he comments. "

IRS wants culture change: "IRS wants culture change
BY Florence Olsen
April 21, 2004

......But another and less well-understood milestone must be reached before optimism sets in, Dalrymple said. The IRS and its prime contractor must demonstrate that a business rules engine for the customer account database works as planned. If it does, Dalrymple said, the IRS could consider tightening its schedule to partly make up for the three years that the database project has fallen behind schedule.
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Versata Unveils New Logic Suite; New Release Adds Support for WebSphere 5.1, Features To Enhance Developer Productivity: "Versata Unveils New Logic Suite; New Release Adds Support for WebSphere 5.1, Features To Enhance Developer Productivity

About Versata

Versata provides solutions for automating and simplifying the building, maintenance and ongoing evolution of large, complex, data-intensive enterprise applications. These applications typically access multiple data sources, incorporate multiple database tables and user interfaces, execute very complex business transactions and support thousands of users. The Versata solution effectively and efficiently replaces time intensive hand-coding efforts with simple, intuitive business rules and graphical process flow specification.

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Insurance Industry Report Says Pegasystems Should Be On Insurers' Short List of Vendors: "Insurance Industry Report Says Pegasystems Should Be On Insurers' Short List of Vendors
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- April 15, 2004 --

Celent Communications Names Pegasystems to Three-company 'Short List' of Top Insurance Industry BPM Providers

International research firm Celent Communications has recommended Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA) as one of the top three providers of business process management (BPM) solutions to the insurance industry, and the only company with a fully integrated, complete business rules engine.....Celent noted the "close relationship between business process management and business rules engines" as one of the market's key dynamics.
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IBM throws weight behind BPEL | The Register: "IBM throws weight behind BPEL
By IT-Analysis
Published Tuesday 13th April 2004 11:02 GMT
IBM has joined Microsoft - which announced BizTalk 2004 last month - in implementing Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) for the first time, writes Bloor Research analyst Peter Abrahams. WebSphere products incorporating the technology will make its way into the public from the middle of this year.
WBISF, WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, is the new version of WebSphere Application Server Enterprise, and is IBM's top of the range server product. It includes the function of Application Server Express, Application Server, Application Server Network Deployment, MQ, and MQ Event Broker. On top of that it adds process choreographer (the code that implements BPEL) and business rule beans (WRBeans). WRBeans is a framework that supports the implementation of business rules externally to the application and choreographies that make up a business process. "

Press release : ILOG CompanynewsGroup: "ILOG Jrules receives Software Development magazine's Jolt product excellence award
(4/13/04 7:00:00 AM)

Recognizing the high business value that ILOG® (NASDAQ: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364) products deliver to customers worldwide, CMP Media's Software Development magazine has awarded the prestigious Jolt Product Excellence Award to ILOG JRules(tm), a key offering in ILOG's Business Rule Management System (BRMS) product line, as well as a Productivity Award to ILOG JViews(tm) graphics component suite.
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Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: The voice of the valley economy: "Telution Announces Advancements in Voice Service Enablement for Cable Operators

To deliver this unparalleled flexibility, Telution has
implemented a number of advanced voice and "triple play" bundling features in
COMX Cable including:

- Flexible workflow and business rules engine to manage the unique
complexities of ordering a bundle of video, data and voice services
- The ability to offer a single view dashboard across disparate and
multiple workflow tasks (manual and/or automated) and manage reporting
and monitoring of exceptions and jeopardy items
- Process management of all service fulfillment points including carrier
provisioning (LSR, MSAG, LNP, etc) and softswitch provisioning
- Robust product management (product catalog) capabilities that enable
cross product bundling and discounting of services
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David C. Hay - Essential Strategies, Inc.
Modeling Business Rules - What Data Models Cannot Do

A data model can show two and a half of the four kinds of business rules: terms, facts, and the result of derivations. It can show a limited number of the fourth kind: constraints. But fundamentally, it cannot show that a row must be or may not be updated under specific circumstances. A data model can, however, portray the data parameters that control business rules. Moreover, when the subject of a model is rules (as in a regulatory agency), there are very specific steps that can be taken to represent those rules in a data model. This article by David Hay is about the data in data-driven business rules.

Steve Hoberman
Business Rules Validation

Top 3 validations to correctly capturing business rules in your design
This article by Steve Hoberman discusses the three rule validations required to improve the accuracy of your model, and ended describing two activities that can help perform these validations. Although the work is challenging and time consuming to validate the rules, your reward is a stronger and more accurate design and greater knowledge for yourself as to how the business really works....

After reflecting on a number of recent projects, I believe the following 3 validations need to be performed to make sure we’ve designed the right business rules:

Validate rules inherited from source or replacement systems

Validate “dream versus reality” in the eyes of the business

Validate the appropriate point of time and time span

In this issue of your periodic Business Rules Journal Update...

1. Why Enterprise Architecture is an Oxymoron,
by Dan Appleton
2. Premise & Conclusion: Don't Reinvent Rule Engines!,
by Ronald G. Ross
3. Modeling Concepts: Verbalizing Business Rules (part 6),
by Terry Halpin
4. Business Rules for Business People. An overview of the
IDIOM Decision Suite, Part 2
by Mark Norton
5. "Oldies-but-Goodies" posting,
by Ronald G. Ross

1. Why Enterprise Architecture is an Oxymoron,
by Dan Appleton
...............................................................
This is an excerpt from 'The McCafferty Chronicles.' The McCafferty Chronicles relate a series of discussions led by Michael M. McCafferty, Chief Transformation Officer, on the general topic of enterprise transformation In this discussion, Dan Appleton helps McCafferty air one of his pet peeves -- the propensity of IT folks to treat enterprises as if they we just "big 'ol systems or systems of systems." This is simply a wrong-headed view of enterprise, perpetuated by the popular concept of 'enterprise architecture' -- a concept long past its sell-by date.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/b191.html



2. Premise & Conclusion: Don't Reinvent Rule Engines!,
by Ronald G. Ross
...............................................................
As discussed in last month's column, actions are almost always associated with rules in one way or another. However, it is very important not to confuse such actions with the rules themselves. Lapses in this regard can lead to architectures that duplicate the functionality rule engines already provide.
In this month's concluding 'Premise and Conclusion' segment, Ron Ross explains.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/b158.html


3. Modeling Concepts: Verbalizing Business Rules (part 6),
by Terry Halpin
...............................................................
Business rules should be validated by business domain experts, and hence specified using concepts and languages easily understood by business people. This is the sixth in a series of articles on expressing business rules formally in a high-level, textual language. In this month's column, Terry Halpin considers verbalization of value constraints.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/b183.html


4. Business Rules for Business People. An overview of the
IDIOM Decision Suite, Part 2
by Mark Norton
..................................................................
In this article, the second of two parts, Mark Norton completes his overview of the IDIOM Decision Suite, provides a brief "under the hood" view of the product, and proposes that decisions should take their place beside business rules as 'first class citizens'
of the analysis world.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/n010.html



5. "Oldies-but-Goodies" Collection
..................................................................
BRS is releasing hidden treasures from past print issues of the DataToKnowledge Newsletter (formerly Data Base Newsletter). This month's posting to our "Oldies-but-Goodies" collection is...

"An Open Letter to DBMS Vendors: We Need Active Database Systems Now!"
by Ronald G. Ross from the Jan/Feb 1996 issue

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a1996/a506.html

Press release : ILOG CompanynewsGroup: "New acord - ILOG survey reveals insurance industry response to compliance challenges

According to survey results released today by ILOG® (NASDAQ: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364) and ACORD, the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development, the insurance industry's response to fast-changing regulatory and corporate governance business demands is characterized by a primary reliance on manual processes and ad-hoc measures......
The two top technology solutions respondents reported considering or using to manage compliance include Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Rules Management Systems (BRMS) - 38% and 21% respectively. These two complementary technologies are key drivers helping businesses automate and streamline core business processes."

IBM Delivers First Application Development Methodology Integration

IBM Delivers First Application Development Methodology Integration
Quick Take, by Liz Barnett
IBM, with its acquisitions of Rational Software and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting (PwCC) in early 2003, has amassed a wealth of application development methodology products: its own Global Services (GS) Method, the Rational Unified Process (RUP), and PwCC SUMMIT Ascendant (SA). Since these acquisitions, IBM has not provided details as to how it will leverage the content and tools across the three product suites. The new Rational SUMMIT Ascendant release and new RUP plug-ins take that first step, adding SA project planning and estimation to the RUP and access to RUP guidance to SA. (Note: There is no integration with the GS Method in this release.) Users of both the RUP and SA toolsets will benefit from increased functionality, most of which is delivered within the existing users' toolsets. Customers should continue to press IBM for more specific details on the products' futures, with the hope that key features will ultimately be integrated into a single, flexible offering. This is only step one of a multiyear multiproduct initiative.

Yasu weighs options on BRE market - India News - Express Computer India: "Yasu weighs options on BRE market
Srinivasa Rao Dasari / Hyderabad

Satish Madhira
Hyderabad Software Exporters� Association (Hysea) has declared that the product QuickRules, developed by the Hyderabad-based Yasu Technologies, is the best for the year 2003. QuickRules is a new agile interface application that caters to the needs of the business rules engine (BRE) market. At present, the product is available in two versions�QuickRules.Net 1.5 and QuickRules 2.6 for J2EE versions. This BRE product is a rules engine that reduces maintenance and enhancement costs by separating business rules from application code. The BRE utility is likely to become much more popular in the next few years and the practice of separating and codifying business rules during the initial stages of systems development would become common practice.....

The size of the global BRE market is estimated at around $300 million and will continue to grow due to ever-changing business requirements and competition. BRE technology is being included in the area of flow control represented by Business Process Management (BPM) technology that is penetrating different sectors. There is also an emerging concept of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and its associated Web services, which also need to include rules sensitivity. Business rules were previously associated with niche technologies such as rules-based expert systems and workflow software.

Now the concept of a separate rules engine is on the verge of broader acceptance because of the reach across the global network through the Internet and the compelling need to integrate disparate applications. On the Web, companies would prefer to cater to customers’ individual preferences with one-to-one marketing and fulfilment.

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