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I recently spoke with two vendors with rules-based solutions, both of whom have announced significant new product releases, each with very different types of solutions, but both of which have their place in an SOA infrastructure.

Pegasystems announced Pega 5.1. This first new release in 2 years is focused on ease of use. The new browser based user interface incorporates Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) for interactive capabilities formerly only available in fat client applications. For example, you can mouse over a row or column and bring up additional information. The new version is designed to make it easier for novice users to be productive in the environment. Whereas the old version exposed all the rules, the new version uses wizard-like interfaces to expose only the rules necessary for the task at hand.

Pegasystems SmartBPM Suite uses rules to make business processes easier to change. For example, the localization capabilities make it possible to develop the process once, and deploy everywhere changing the rules where necessary for localization and internationalization requirements. Pegasystems also offers industry frameworks to fast track solutions. The Insurance Framework has over 80,000 objects available, making industry solutions faster and easier to implement. Pegasystems also have frameworks for healthcare, customer service management, and compliance.

A new important capability now available is Rule Conflict Analysis which provides the ability to automatically find unreachable logic in decision trees and tables. It can detect whether a condition is unreachable, contradictory, or incomplete. The system can then give a warning at the development stage. The earlier these issues are detected, the easier and less costly they are to fix. This capability significantly helps improve the quality and reliability of the design and reduces the skill sets necessary to achieve it.

Pegasystems is a BPM solution well suited to automating complex decision intensive processes, including human workflow. Check out Pegasystems: http://www.pega.com/

Posted by bethgb at 06:37 PM in | Digg This | Add to del.icio.us

Posted by: Mark at July 18, 2006 05:55 PM