DaveBirchall.com on Business Technology

Archive for August, 2008

InRule is a widely used Business Rules Engine from the USA. The BRE is a fully featured business rule authoring and management environment. Solentive recently signed sole distribution rights to InRule in Australia. InRule replaces the business logic layer in an application which means that the time needed to develop can be significantly reduced.

Further savings can be made post deployment due to that fact that business logic can be controlled and authored by non technical business users. This provides more agility for a rapidly growing and evolving project. Further information can be obtained at www.inrule.comwww.davebirchall.com or by contacting Dave Birchall on 0432 968684 or via

InRule allows non-technical business users to change business language using domain specific Language (DSL)

At the recent partner conference in Far north Queensland, Microsoft announced the launch of its new financing solution. Finance is made available through Microsoft partners for software development projects and software and service deals. Loans are available from 2 or 3 years for amounts up to 10k and 2 to 5 years for $10 and over. More information is available by contacting David Birchall on 0432 968 684.

 

Automation:  “the technique, method, or system of operating or controlling a process by highly automatic means, as by electronic devices, reducing human intervention to a minimum. ”

Business Logic: “the underlying system of reasoning used to actualize business intent”

Business Logic Automation:  “The process of automating business logic creation, modification, verification, distribution, and application”

Business logic automation is about putting people in control with applications that are built for change. Knowing that change is coming and knowing what a change will be are two different things.  Most of us know that it will rain at some point in the next month.  What we don’t know is exactly when.  How can this be automated?  Should we wait until it is raining to go to the store and purchase an umbrella?  Or do we carry an umbrella with us in case we need it?  The latter is a more automated response model for reacting to changes in the weather.  Automation requires planning for change and the respective transaction costs associated with reacting to it.  In many respects, going to development every time a predictable business requirement change occurs is like going to the store for an umbrella every time it rains. We might not know what the interest rate will be in six months, but we do know it will change at some point, and building a solution that minimizes the transaction cost of making the required software change is what business logic automation is all about.

In terms of business logic, the automation we are talking about is the automation of the change implementation process itself.  The business logic, even if hardcoded, is still automated from the standpoint of it being applied at runtime.  We are at the point where the change process is what needs to be automated next.  Business logic automation puts business users at the helm of application business logic, without the expensive iterative back and forth between analysts and developers.

Many business logic implementations today operate via a human-intensive process which is plagued with handoffs and expensive iterations of trial and error.  Automating business logic addresses these difficulties through a series of tools and services tailored to each activity in the business logic life cycle.

There’s a really neat feature in Word 2007 that I thought I would give a wurl. It’s simple but effective and it allows you to blog off line directly into word. This is great for me because the most convenient time to post is on the way to work on the train. You can blog to your wordpress account after entering a few settings and you’re off.

Here goes! Further information is available here

Just a quick post for now. This is the sizzle video created by MS for the 4.0 launch. Short, sharp and to the point.

Brad Callen is an online partner of mine and he has recently written an ebook about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

If you are unaware of what SEO actually is or what it involves this is a great place to start. In short SEO is the process of getting your side listed on the major search engine(s). Until now this process has been a bit of a black art.

Brads done a great job on demystifying it and there are some more surprises in store beyond that,

Download you free copy now. There absolutely no catch. Why would there be?

There’s a great new google group over at

http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia

There seems to be an enormous amount of buzz in the Australian start up scene at the moment which is great.

I am just getting news on some new funding availability so I will investigate and post details back shortly.

The Rete Algorithm is a marked improvement on Sequentially organised systems. To understand the benefit you need to understand what it is not.

In a sequenial BRE, the rules are executed one at a time in a sequential order. The more rule you add, the more time is needed to work through them. Sequential Rules engines works prohibitively slowly for large or complexed implementations. The problem is further exasperated in solutions with a high amount of traffic.

Instead the Rete Algorithim is used as a way of calculating the quickest route to proceed through a ‘maze’ of rule. In simple terms, we are able to create rule about which rules to action. The obvious benefit is that the system can handle much larger amounts of data and faster and simulate business logic which is then automated.

I don’t know whats wrong with me this week. I just don’t seem to be able to resist the urge to write overly dramatic headlines. This one came from a weird train of thought I found myself having in a daydream like fashion on the way into work

Could we be at such a point in the ‘information age’ that if we haven’t automated your business by now, then you stand to fade away into the background wondering what happened.?

Quickly I realised that the answer was no. Stupid thought really. In fact I think we are some way away from it from many of us, but I then payed some more serious attention to a bigger question. If it IS coming, when will that day be?

In many ways we have technology available to us that is only limited by either our imagination or our courage to act. We are able to automate things that managers wouldn’t ever dream were possible. Its only our ignorance that prevents us from benefiting.

Some further food for thought. Since some businesses are find things tough right now… Imagine if you were able to automate some or all of what you did. You knew your customers better, you served customers better. Your service levels were better. Perhaps everything was better

Imagine if only you had the secret. Imagine how the competition would marvel at how you did it. Perhaps its not such a distant dream after all?