change

Are your systems just interfaces to a data structure?

December 29, 2011

Tad Anderson just wrote a great review of Decision Management Systems, my new book, over on his blog on the SOA World Magazine site. Two of his comments struck me particularly. The first summarized what I consider to be the biggest limiting factor in information systems today:
There are not too many systems being created today [...]

Read the full article →

Predictive Modeling Tools for Analytic Teams #FICOWorld

November 3, 2011

The other session I got to see at FICO World was a panel discussion on analytic modeling tools with representatives from UniCredit (Italy), Ferratum (Finland), Nedbank (South Africa), and Citi.
Challenges and rewards of building an analytic modeling team

Always start from scratch with fresh, inexperienced teams and this is both challenging and rewarding
Challenges are personal and [...]

Read the full article →

Opening Keynotes at #BBCCon11

November 1, 2011

Gladys Lam kicked if off by introducing the three chairs of the conference – Kathleen Barret Chair of IIBA who heads up the business analysis tracks, Roger Burlton of BPTrends who heads up the business process tracks and Ron Ross of BRSolutions who heads up the business rules forum tracks. The three chairs then came [...]

Read the full article →

Decision Management Orchestrating Consistent Enterprise-wide Decisions #iod11

October 25, 2011

Erick Brethenoux, Pierre-Henri Clouin and Asit Dan presented on IBM’s Decision Management approach – a nice chance to see both the Business Analytics and WebSphere bits of IBM talking about the same problem. CEOs consistently tell IBM that volatility, uncertainty and complexity are continuing issues. CIOs with a mandate to transform the business are responding [...]

Read the full article →

Transformation in the era of big data and analytics #iod11

October 25, 2011

Steve Mills opened up the discussion talking about Big Data, making the point that the art of the possible when it comes to data has been growing steadily for many years – though the current explosion in data is pretty impressive. For instance 1.3B RFID tags in 2005 and 30B in 2010, 4.6B mobile phones [...]

Read the full article →

Analytics Keynote #iod11

October 24, 2011

Deepak Advani kicked off the first day’s analytics keynote by noting the number of different analytics communities that are now part of IBM – Cognos, SPSS, Algorithmics and more. Analytics, he says, is a broad change that is just beginning and will impact everyone. Rob Ashe followed and made the point that the opening keynote [...]

Read the full article →

Opening Keynotes at #iod11

October 24, 2011

Jeff Jonas‘ great ad for analytics, talking about crossing a road as an analogy for the power of predictive analytics, kicked off the first real content of the keynote. Jeff talked about enterprise amnesia, the challenge of enterprises being unable to process all the data they have flowing in. Jeff uses a puzzle metaphor and [...]

Read the full article →

Book Review – Agile Business Rules Development

October 4, 2011

Decision Management can only succeed if the business rules for decisions can be effectively managed. Effective management must involve both business and IT organizations. There must be alignment and collaboration if the business rules are to be managed correctly. Indeed empowering this collaboration is the primary value of a business rules management system. Yet most [...]

Read the full article →

Here’s how to use Decision Management to improve cross-channel experience

August 29, 2011

Retailing today had an interesting article – “Best Buy, Sears, Target tops in cross-channel performance” – about the importance and challenges of becoming a cross-channel retailer. I was struck by the potential of Decision Management Systems to improve cross-channel experiences in a couple of key areas:

60% had inconsistency across in-store and online promotions;
Obviously inconsistency is [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar: How to build Decision Management Systems – Part 3 Decision Analysis

August 23, 2011

[ November 29, 2011; 10:00 am to 11:00 am. ] Decision Management Systems are the next generation of information systems. Agile, analytic and adaptive, Decision Management Systems put business rules management systems, predictive analytics and optimization to work improving the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations. Decision Management Systems are agile – easy to change, easy to keep compliant and transparent in their behavior. They [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar: How to build Decision Management Systems – Part 2 Decision Services

August 23, 2011

[ October 27, 2011; 10:00 am to 11:00 am. ] Decision Management Systems are the next generation of information systems. Agile, analytic and adaptive, Decision Management Systems put business rules management systems, predictive analytics and optimization to work improving the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations. Decision Management Systems are agile – easy to change, easy to keep compliant and transparent in their behavior. They [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar: How to build Decision Management Systems – Part 1 Decision Discovery

August 23, 2011

[ September 21, 2011; 10:00 am to 11:00 am. ] Decision Management Systems are the next generation of information systems. Agile, analytic and adaptive, Decision Management Systems put business rules management systems, predictive analytics and optimization to work improving the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations. Decision Management Systems are agile – easy to change, easy to keep compliant and transparent in their behavior. They [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar Series: How to build Decision Management Systems

August 23, 2011

I will be hosting a three part free webinar series How to Build Decision Management Systems this Fall.
Decision Management Systems are the next generation of information systems. Agile, analytic and adaptive, Decision Management Systems put business rules management systems, predictive analytics and optimization to work improving the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations. Decision Management [...]

Read the full article →

Decision Management related events Fall 2011

August 23, 2011

This is an update of an earlier post on Decision Technology Events for October 2011
There are a number of great events related to Decision Management themes and technology platforms this Fall.  Here’s my list so far:

Computerworld BI & Analytics Perspectives 2011, 18-20 September, Phoenix, AZ @BIAPCW
I am giving the opening keynote “From Business Intelligence to Predictive [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar: Active Decisions for the “Aware” Organization

August 23, 2011

[ September 29, 2011; 10:00 am to 11:00 am. ] I am giving a webinar on Active Decisions for the “Aware” Organization with RedHat on September 29  at 10am Pacific.

Organizations need systems that allow them to respond to fast changing conditions. These systems must be easy to change as requirements change and be able to respond to what is happening in real-time. Rules-based decision management systems [...]

Read the full article →

CIOs are getting serious about business rules and decision management

August 18, 2011

My friends at Corticon had an interesting press release today about a survey they just conducted – More Than 40 Percent of CIOs and CTOs Surveyed Plan to Automate Decision Management Processes. There were some interesting results in this. First, as their headline notes, we are starting to get some serious consideration of automated decision-making, [...]

Read the full article →

Webinar: Driving Decisions with Business Rules

August 16, 2011

[ September 15, 2011; 10:00 am to 11:00 am. ] I am giving a webinar on Driving Decisions with Business Rules with RedHat on September 15  at 10am Pacific.

Business rules management systems (BRMS) are a mature technology that has been available for many years. Capturing business policies, regulations and domain expertise so that they can drive system behavior is a compelling proposition. Systems that automate and [...]

Read the full article →

First Look – Silvertail Systems

July 19, 2011

Silver Tail Systems was founded in 2008 by founders with a background in web search, trend analytics and fraud detection. After joining eBay to fight phishing and other kinds of fraud like fake auctions and fake bids, the team sat down and figured out the tools that would have been helpful tackling these fraud challenges. [...]

Read the full article →

What, really, is the business of a mortgage broker?

July 11, 2011

Thanks to @susanliza1 I saw a tweet from @ArthurAranda of Hudson City Savings in which he said
The business of a mortgage broker is knowing numerous & complex lending rules, regulations, procedures, & policies. It is not for everyone.
Given what I do – helping companies build decision management systems – this is interesting to me. Is [...]

Read the full article →