Business Rules use-cases and other stuff

One of the things I’ve noticed is that most people assume that BPM, BI, and BRMS technologies are essentially “server-side” technologies. Something in the term “business” seems to be conjuring up visions of multi-processor server boxes linked to a SAN with huge databases operating on RAIDs somewhere in that mix…

I’ve been continuously surprised by the fact that BRMS technology is also bundled along with BPM & BI, and relegated to the back-end… so I was pleasantly surprised to read this press release where business rules are featured prominently as part of the front-end.

Q. Why is business rules technology not confined to the server-side?
A. Because…

1. business rules also apply at the “edge of the enterprise”.
2. decisions need to be taken by the outward-facing employees in real-time.
3. outward-facing employees do not always have to collaborate with others when taking a call on something.

Deploying business rules engines at the edge of the enterprise certainly gives a lot of benefits to the company. For example:

1. Life insurance companies can cut down on the time and effort required to underwrite a policy if the quotation engine applies the rules governing the insurance product upfront. Think of the benefits to the broker network in terms of time savings, for example.
2. Health or P&C insurance companies can reduce the time-frames required to settle a claim if the adjustors know that the data is correct & complete before they get their hands on it.
3. Mortgage companies can process loan applications faster if the underwriting phase does not involve getting back to the prospect multiple times for more information, or clarifications.
4. Real estate networks can spend less time in qualifying a prospect and assigning the “correct” realtor to a lead, reducing the time required to close the deal.
5. Call centers can provide accurate, up-to-date information to customers who call in, improving customer satisfaction levels. This is a cross-vertical benefit of business rules technology, since call-centers are a feature of any B2C enterprise landscape.
6. Human Resource managers across the board can filter out most of the resumes for a particular job posting in real-time based on business rules. Think about the time and effort they put in to service a request from a hiring manager, and the benefits become obvious.
7. By ensuring that accurate and complete data is collected upfront, business rules technology can also bring in significant reductions in compliance related efforts.

Essentially, all the above are examples of either campaign engines or filtering mechanisms… Typically, campaigns & filters are tasks that are executed by a person working without the benefit of collaboration in real-time - think HR manager, and think call-center executive on the phone.

Relying on training and experience nearly always results in a higher error rate when a decision needs to be made - lack of experience, lack of awareness of the latest policy changes, lack of knowledge about the newer offerings, errors in uderstanding the customer’s requirements… the list of reasons why errors occur are endless.

On the other hand, campaign engines powered by business rules technology can be quickly configured to run up-sell / cross-sell campaigns, reducing the time-to-market and increasing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The same engines could be used in the call center, on the website, at remote broker / partner offices, etc. - ensuring consistent messaging across the customer base regardless of the channel of interaction.

The same benefits hold true for filtering mechanisms that incorporate business rules technology too. Take the case of the HR manager - automatically filtering out the resumes that do not match reduces the burden on the HR team when submitting resumes for approval, and setting up interviews, etc.

The best part of using business rules technology is that the “filtering rules” or the “campaign rules” could become the responsibility of the hiring manager / marketing manager - placing responsibility for the hire where it belongs, and ensuring that the task is implemented according to its spirit and not its wording.

So, why aren’t more companies rushing to embrace the concept of a business rules engine on their call-center desktops, disconnected sales-force laptops, etc.?

1. One of the challenges in the past has been about deploying business rules to the edge of the enterprise - especially when said business rules change very frequently… In essence, the very reason why client-server applications were replaced by web-based systems
2. The second challenge has been security - if your business policies are floating around on a lot of people’s machines, a breach and subsequent loss of confidential data has a higher probability

I believe it is time again for enterprises to re-look at the option of deploying business rules technology on the client-side. In the .NET world at least, both these problems have been solved - smart client technology, click once deployment, and the DP API address exactly these issues. While Microsoft positions these technologies for binaries and data, there is no reason why business rules cannot be treated as both for the purposes of deployment.

PS: Does anyone know what are the J2EE equivalents? If yes, please do post a comment / send me an email.