Connecting SOA with Business Rule Management Systems (BRMS) Transparent Decision Services Alain Gendre SOA and BPM Program Manager, ILOG SOAWorld 2007, New York

Fined-grained Services ready for reuse Coarse-grained Services = business services Mainframe ERP … Legacy Applications The theory of SOA Reuse = cost reduction = agility

Real-life examples 7 of function points they found, the team isolated between 200 and 500 functions that are needed for the more than 90,000 business transactions (such as setting up a new landline account) that Verizon performs. Then the team looked across the infrastructures and found five to 25 redundant versions of each function […] "When I said we have 18 slightly different versions of 'credit check' buried inside different applications in different agencies," says Miszewski, "the agency heads could understand why having all those different versions was a problem[…] Verizon State of Wisconsin Sep 05

All services are not created equal! Management of ever-changing business services Pricing, Fraud, Eligibility, … Management of the complexity of fined-grained business services Multi-channels, multi-products, multi-geographies Access to decision logic Visibility for various stakeholders (IT, business) Compliance, traceability

Management of ever-changing business services

Pricing, Fraud, Eligibility, …

Management of the complexity of fined-grained business services

Multi-channels, multi-products, multi-geographies

Access to decision logic

Visibility for various stakeholders (IT, business)

Compliance, traceability

The typical evolution of a decision service Consumers Decision Service Business owners Transactions n consumers US WW Europe m business owners l languages 100m transactions 2 consumers “ CA” & “OR” CA OR US 3 business owners 100k transactions Eligibility in CA 1 consumer = “CA” 1 business owner 100s transactions

Business Rule Management System Databases User Tools provide accessibility and rule management Rules are extracted and stored in a Rule Repository Rule Engine provides execution and deployment throughout the process Spreadsheets Manual Processes Monolithic Applications Rule Repository Mainframe User Tools Rule Engine The major elements of a Business Rule Management System (BRMS)

Fined-grained Services ready for reuse Coarse-grained Services = business services Mainframe ERP … Legacy Enterprise Rule Repository Applications Business Rule Management System  BRMS+ SOA = Agile SOA

BRMS + SOA: Realizing the SOA Promise Transparent Decision Services (TDS) Easy to adapt Accessible to business users Traced and audited accurately Easy to (re)use, deploy and monitored on the standard SOA platforms

Transparent Decision Services (TDS)

Easy to adapt

Accessible to business users

Traced and audited accurately

Easy to (re)use, deploy and monitored on the standard SOA platforms

Manage business logic volatility

Manage complex business logic Business-driven organization RuleFlow Dynamic select

Manage complex deployment

ILOG’s Transparent Decision Services Developer Business expert Governance Integration Agility ILOG BRMS TDS

Transparent Decision Services Benefits Agility and compliance first (short term) Accelerate the time to value by leveraging flexible decision services Improve compliance management by making the decision logic transparent Reuse and governance next (long term) Maximize the reuse of decision services Improve SOA governance by empowering business teams

Benefits

Agility and compliance first (short term)

Accelerate the time to value by leveraging flexible decision services

Improve compliance management by making the decision logic transparent

Reuse and governance next (long term)

Maximize the reuse of decision services

Improve SOA governance by empowering business teams

Action plan Don’t create black boxes for your decision services Limited to no business agility Limited to no reusability Limited to no business alignment BRMS as a first step into SOA Legacy modernization Keep your business processes simple Identify eligible decision services Separate business rules & processes rules

Don’t create black boxes for your decision services

Limited to no business agility

Limited to no reusability

Limited to no business alignment

BRMS as a first step into SOA

Legacy modernization

Keep your business processes simple

Identify eligible decision services

Separate business rules & processes rules

Things you can do On SOA at http://soa.ilog.com Read a white paper Decision Services: the next SOA Challenge Watch a multimedia overview ILOG in Business Process Management On industry solutions at http://www.ilog.com/industries Banking, Insurance, Government, Telecom… Contact me at agendre@ilog.com

On SOA at http://soa.ilog.com

Read a white paper

Decision Services: the next SOA Challenge

Watch a multimedia overview

ILOG in Business Process Management

On industry solutions at http://www.ilog.com/industries

Banking, Insurance, Government, Telecom…

Contact me at agendre@ilog.com

Q A & Thank you [email_address] www.ilog.com