New decision tables designed to let users manage complex rules using spreadsheet-like interface
Mountain View, CA — March 22, 2004 — ILOG, a provider of software components and services, has rolled out ILOG JRules 4.6, a component of the provider's Business Rule Management System (BRMS) product line, adding ease-of-use enhancements designed to enable policy managers and business analysts to manage complex rule sets and modify them using a familiar spreadsheet-like interface.
The new enhancements are designed to help accelerate the adoption of Business Rules Management Systems (BRMSs) as solutions for addressing the challenges created by faster business cycles, faster change and aging software architectures that can no longer keep pace with these changes.
ILOG said that, in addition to playing a role in creating more change-friendly software architectures, BRMSs are also becoming essential elements of business process management (BPM) because of their ability to create business processes that are easier to modify, including those related to compliance.
This is a key reason, the solution provider said, why a recent report from Giga Research, a subsidiary of Forrester Research, entitled "Market Overview 2003: Rules Platforms — Standing at the Threshold of Mainstream IT," noted that business rules platforms are entering the information technology (IT) mainstream. The same report suggested that companies "short-list" ILOG when looking for a rule management platform.
According to ILOG, new ease-of-use features in JRules 4.6 include decision tables that simplify rule creation and maintenance because the user interface is similar to a spreadsheet. Using this feature, business users can save time creating and editing the rules by using "cut and paste" and other familiar keyboard shortcuts, and they can create and validate large business rule sets — for example, those defining discounts and promotions being offered to credit card customers based on monthly spending, credit rating, age and gender — within minutes, ILOG said.
Other ease-of-use enhancements in the latest release include extensions to JRules Business Action Language that support the writing of more complex rules, such as compliance rules, in conversational syntax. The new release also features optimized rule engine performance thanks to enhanced memory management, as well as a packaged demonstration for the J2EE platform using the new JSR 094 standard, which is a standard business rule software interface co-developed by ILOG.
Customers using JRules include CitiStreet, Fannie Mae, MetLife and Sabre, according to ILOG.
