BRDP Business Rules - Latest and Greatest News

vnunet.com - Rules add to IT flexibility, says Gartner: "Rules add to IT flexibility, says Gartner
Analyst stresses growing importance of 'untrendy' rules-based engines
Miya Knights, vnunet.com 23 Jun 2004
Rules engines will become more important as companies look to make their IT systems more flexible, according to analyst Gartner.
Jim Sinur, senior research director at Gartner, told delegates at last week's European Business Rules Conference in Amsterdam that, while rules might not be considered 'trendy', their importance is growing.
Business rules began as code within applications that controlled the outcome of 'if' and 'when' scenarios.
But as users demanded more flexible applications, rules were abstracted into a separate management system, or 'rules engine', allowing programmers to manipulate the code that controls an application's rules.
'The business rules sector was in a trough of disillusionment from 1998 to 2001. We are now seeing significant growth here,' said Sinur.
Software vendors have made it easier to manipulate and manage rules that govern business processes by introducing methodologies and standards, and embedding rules engines in products, he added.
And customers are keen to move to service-oriented architectures capable of rapidly implementing process change by using rules-based engines.
Sinur said the recent market trend towards business process management and its workflow-modelling components has masked the increasing importance of rules.
He pointed to Microsoft's middleware product BizTalk 2004, which contains a rules engine for the first time. And he predicted that rules management technology would be increasingly embedded into other vendors' products.
Gartner estimates the $500m rules-based IT market will double to $1bn by 2007.
'The notion of using rules engines is not dead," said Sinur.

"Just as yesterday we separated the client-server interface from processes and from data, we are today separating rules from workflows and from services."

"

Everest Hopes for New Peak - Computer Business Review: "Everest Hopes for New Peak


By Jason Stamper

Netherlands-based IT services company Everest NV is gearing up for a foray into products, ComputerWire has learned, readying a home-grown business rules engine that it has spent the past six years developing.

view article for more details"

Edubourse.com - ILOG and BEA Collaborate to Offer New BPM Solutions: "ILOG and BEA Collaborate to Offer New BPM Solutions
Source : La Socit
Actualit� du 22/06/04 18:53


BEA Taps ILOG As A Preferred Business Rule Technology Vendor; Alliance Underscores Value of BRMS for Service Oriented Architectures

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. June 22, 2004 --BEA has designated ILOG (NASDAQ: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364) as a preferred business rule technology vendor to provide key functionality for its business process management (BPM) application development framework, the BEA WebLogic Workshop. ILOG JRules, a key offering in ILOG�s Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS) product line, was selected to help create faster business response times for WebLogic Workshop customers in finance, insurance, telecom and government markets as part of the combined solution. This is because ILOG JRules is designed to help eliminate the need to make business policy changes to a BPM application through traditional software coding -- the common practice in most organizations helping make it possible for customers to implement these changes more quickly.

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Press release : ILOG CompanynewsGroup: "ILOG launches new Business Rule Studio for Eclipse
(6/16/2004 7:00:00 AM)

Product Expected To Advance Business Rule Technology Adoption By More Mainstream Java Developers
PARIS and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., - June 16, 2004 - ILOG(R) (NASDAQ: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364), a leading provider of enterprise-class software components and services, today introduced Business Rule Studio(tm) Developer Edition (BR Studio). Built entirely on the widely-adopted Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and based on ILOG JRules(tm), a key offering in ILOG's Business Rule Management System (BRMS) product line, BR Studio will - for the first time - provide Java software developers with the opportunity to develop business rule technology using the Eclipse IDE, thereby bringing the power of BRMS to mainstream software development organizations using Eclipse technology. ILOG, the first business rule technology vendor to support Eclipse, announced its membership in the Eclipse Vendor Consortium earlier this year. BR Studio is being made available as a free download that streamlines the evaluation process for Java/Eclipse developers.

The software will run on Eclipse 2.1 or WebSphere Application Developer 5.1 and is available now at brstudio.ilog.com.

another article: Open source gets to grips with rules




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.......................
The Business Rules Community's
Business Rules Journal (BRJ) Update
June, 2004 Vol 5 No. 6
.......................

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

1. BRForum 2003 Practitioners' Panel: The DOs and DON'Ts of Business Rules
2. Premise & Conclusion: What Rule Independence Means to System
Models ~ Less and More than You Think!, by Ronald G. Ross
3. Plainly Speaking: Family Reunion... Facilitated Session… Having the Right
People Doing the Right Things, by Gladys S.W. Lam
4. "Oldies-but-Goodies" posting, by Ronald G. Ross

1. BRForum 2003 Practitioners' Panel: The DOs and DON'Ts of Business Rules ...............................................................
People who are starting a business rule project want to know how to "start smart!"
They often ask what they should DO ... and what they DON'T want to do (what to watch out for). What has actually worked on 'real' projects? Is there any ROI
(Return-On-Investment) data for the business rules approach? Eight panelists at the 2003 Business Rules Forum conference answered these questions (and more) by sharing their projects experiences.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/b196.html



2. Premise & Conclusion: What Rule Independence Means to System
Models ~ Less and More than You Think!, by Ronald G. Ross ...............................................................
A fundamental principle of the BRG's Business Rules Manifesto is that rules are first-class citizens of the requirements world. Does this mean that rules should never be expressed with any dependency on other kinds of models? Under what conditions is such dependence permissible? In this issue's column Ron Ross takes a look at these and related questions concerning business rules and various specification models.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/b192.html

3. Plainly Speaking: Family Reunion... Facilitated Session… Having the Right
People Doing the Right Things, by Gladys S.W. Lam

...............................................................
In this month's Plainly Speaking, Gladys S. W. Lam continues her discussion on how to organize business rule capturing facilitated sessions. She talks
specifically about the role of a facilitator.

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a2004/b194.html



4. "Oldies-but-Goodies" Collection
..................................................................
BRS is releasing hidden treasures from past print issues of the Data Base Newsletter and DataToKnowledge Newsletter. This month's contribution to our "Oldies-but-Goodies" collection is...

"Re-Usability in the Business Rule Approach"
by Ronald G. Ross
from the Sep./Oct. 1996 issue

to read more, visit:
http://www.BRCommunity.com/a1996/a507.html

Copyright 2004. www.BRSolutions.com. All rights reserved.

RulesPower and Trinity Millennium Group Join Forces to Help Enterprises Modernize their Mission-critical Systems and Reduce Business Risk: "RulesPower and Trinity Millennium Group Join Forces to Help Enterprises Modernize their Mission-critical Systems and Reduce Business Risk
BURLINGTON, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- June 15, 2004 --

Rules-driven BPM Leader Partners with TMGi to Deliver Solution for Adding Agility to Legacy Applications; Saving Costs and Mitigating Process Improvement Risks

RulesPower Inc., a leading provider of rules-driven Business Process Management (BPM) software, today announced a strategic partnership with Trinity Millennium Group, Inc. (TMGi), the leader in legacy business logic extraction, to deliver a new solution called 'Power EPM.' This enables enterprises to use a business rules approach to accelerate the process of improving legacy, mission-critical applications to modern architectures 80% faster than using traditional manual methods. As a result, enterprises will avoid bottlenecks in upgrading legacy systems, including outdated and dispersed business logic, and lack of system documentation and domain expertise, while reducing business risk and liability and saving on legacy maintenance costs.

View article for more details"

Silicon Valley Biz Ink :: The voice of the valley economy: "Lanner and Corticon Form Strategic Alliance to Enhance Enablement of BPM
< back



HOUSTON, June 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Lanner Group, Inc. and Corticon
Technologies, Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to provide their
technologies to companies seeking more efficient Business Process Management
(BPM) solutions. Since both technologies are compatible within a service-
oriented architecture, this will prove especially valuable for enterprise
applications.
'The solutions Lanner and Corticon offer are both critical to an efficient
BPM solution,' states Scott Dixon Smith, President, Lanner Group, Inc. 'It's
a natural alliance -- Lanner's WITNESS technology identifies and defines what
problem areas need to be addressed through simulation, and analyzes what
processes are needed to solve the problem, through optimization. Corticon's
Business Rules Management technology actually executes those changes, in real-
time. It's a winning combination for any enterprise serious about intelligent
BPM.'

view article for more details"

Banking & Technology News Service Network: "Credit Agricole Asset Management Uses ILOG Software to Enhance its Global Portfolio Management Services
ILOG Improves Reference Data Management And Compliance Monitoring
ILOG(r) (NASDAQ: ILOG; Euronext: ILO, ISIN: FR0004042364), the leading provider of enterprise-class software components, today announced that Cr�dit Agricole Asset Management (CA Asset Management), a subsidiary of Cr�dit Agricole Group, has deployed ILOG JRules(tm), a key product offering in ILOG's Business Rule Management System product line, and ILOG CPLEX(r) optimisation software, to enable improved investment recommendations to its customers. CA Asset Management combines ILOG CPLEX and ILOG JRules together to improve decision-making and enhance the quality of its investment advice, thereby improving customer service and creating a unique competitive differentiator for the firm.
CA Asset Management portfolio managers rely upon ILOG JRules to ensure that incoming market information from various sources is compliant with data quality standards and regulations. Additional agility is gained from the real-time use of ILOG JRules to monitor merger and acquisition data, changes in stock values and other critical information, enabling real-time updates to CA Asset Management's reference data systems.
Another key benefit of using ILOG JRules is that it enables the monitoring of service levels delivered by the Market Data providers. CA Asset Management can accurately determine when the quality of data received does not meet contractual compliance standards, and re-query the providers.

View the article for more detail"

CIO | Built to Last: "Built to Last
Peter Hind, CIO
08/06/2004 14:24:08
How can IT improve its reputation with the business? Enterprise apps that adapt to changing business circumstances are a good start

...In recent times, software has emerged that can provide flexibility within business applications. These systems revolve around business rules, and they allow users to define and refine these parameters over time to meet new operational circumstances. Nevertheless, the underlying system processing logic can still work against these new values. One example might be in the insurance industry, where, because of inflation over time, an insurance company might need to raise the minimum excess in a car accident from $250 to $500. In a hardwired system the programmer would have to change the code to reflect this new condition. In a rules engine, however, all that’s needed is to alter the rule parameter referenced by the program.

IDC identifies these applications as part of an emerging business process automation market. It believes their greatest strength is that such systems provide an organization with the flexibility to tailor applications to their own specific business rules. In many ways this offers a glimpse of an ideal world. The business gets a complete system, but one with enough flexibility to mould it to their own needs. IDC’s research shows that there will be nearly a 40 percent compound annual growth rate in this market over the next four years.

This flexibility in business process automation could well offer businesses a happy compromise between packages and bespoke applications. However, the fundamentals for IT projects remain unchanged. As engineers learned along time ago, good projects revolve around managing expectations and keeping a tight rein on project deliverables. Perhaps only when IT is better at these tasks will our industry get close to the success rate enjoyed by the construction and engineering industries.

"

Fair Isaac Improves Blaze Advisor Rules Management with New Features for Score Model Creation and Execution: "Fair Isaac Improves Blaze Advisor Rules Management with New Features for Score Model Creation and Execution
MINNEAPOLIS --(Business Wire)-- June 7, 2004 -- Release 5.5 adds scorecards and operations on sets of data, enabling users to more quickly and easily create and modify automated decision processes

Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FIC), the leading provider of analytics and decision technology, today announced release 5.5 of Blaze Advisor rules management technology. Fair Isaac Blaze Advisor is an industry-leading software package that allows design, deployment, execution, and maintenance of business rules as part of an automated business application. The new release adds Fair Isaac's established scorecard modeling capabilities to the product, along with support for rule tests against data set statistics. The additional features allow customers to more quickly and easily create and modify powerful automated decision processes.

view the article for more details"

Integration Developers News: "BEA: J2EE Career Devs Need To Look Past APIs
6/4/2004
by Vance McCarthy

...Tops of "want lists" for J2EE devs in the coming years will include:
(1) More productivity;
(2) Better alignment with business needs; and
(3) More skills to dealing with code/application needs outside the J2EE container (in things like integration, interoperability, and B2B communications).

....
So, what exactly do CIOs/CFOs want from their IT developer staff? Willis said that BEA "is seeing is that customers really just want to get their existing applications into maintenance mode." Rather than cope with one-off application projects, Willis told IDN that BEA's customers want a "maintenance infrastructure" for the code and applications and business rules they've already built. "Instead of coding new functionality from scratch, they want to be able to configure existing code and have that respond to the new needs of their business....
[BEA's QuickSilver project one implementation of this vision. While no shipdate has been announced, the BEA vision is to provide J2EE developers a console-driven suite of integration software built around Web services protocols, the purpose is to enable them to transport data and business rules between Java and non-Java systems with as little coding as possible, using abstractions and an integration-enabled container (tied into the development/deployment console).]
.... To help J2EE devs attack this challenge head-on, BEA is bolding moving to bring abstractions to as many levels of J2EE code development as possible, including plumbing, workflow, business rules/triggers, and even modeling. "In general, CTOs want developers to get more involved with integration as not just a way to tie applications together, but to make applications more easily to upgrade and mange," Linkin said.
"

IBM courting VCs and small fry - silicon.com: "IBM courting VCs and small fry
June 04 2004 by Martin LaMonica

Looking to hook up with applications partners
IBM is wooing technology entrepreneurs with its people rather than its pocketbook.

....But rather than dive directly into new ventures, IBM provides partnership-oriented resources, such as joint sales support and access to its cadre of experts. A small business process management company called RulesPower tapped IBM's telecommunications consultants. With their help, the firm made a bid on - and won - a project in that industry, said RulesPower CEO Stephen Campbell. IBM was also willing to lower the price on its hardware and software to create a bundle of goods that included RulesPower's workflow application. The company's flagship product is a "rules engine" that automates decision-making.

RulesPower decided to build its software specifically for IBM's WebSphere Java application server because it did not want to spend its limited budget on integrating its software with many other products. "Early on, we decided our core competency is technology and rules, not integration," Campbell said. ......

"

CSC Licenses Visual Product Modeling System to American United Life Insurance Company
Wednesday June 2, 3:40 pm ET
Software to Speed New Insurance Product Development


EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC - News) today announced that American United Life Insurance Company (AUL) has licensed CSC's Visual Product Modeling System (VP/MS) to simplify development of new life insurance products. More than 20 organizations in the United States and Canada have selected VP/MS, making it the leading North American financial services industry business rule and calculation modeling tool.