What is a Business Rule Engine?
En what do you need to know when you want to use one?
A Business rule engine (BRE) is a software application that helps manage, execute and automate business rules. These rules determine how processes within an organization run and ensure that decisions are made consistently and error-free. Watch this short video about what a business rule engine is. A BRE allows a company to make complex decisions based on predetermined logic, without the need for manual intervention. This is especially useful in dynamic environments where business rules change frequently or where consistency and speed are crucial.
What does a business rule engine do?
A business rule engine automates logic and decision-making processes within an organization. Logic can take many forms. They can be if-then rules. Such as “if the customer is under 18, then they should not order this product." But it can also be calculations. Or combinations of the two. AI is also playing an increasing role in decision making. We'll come back to that later in this article.
By using a Business rule engine, organizations can:
A visual representation of a simple if-then rule.
Manage rules centrally
All business rules are stored in one central location so that changes can be made easily.
Automate decisions
A business rule engine executes rules based on predefined conditions without human intervention.
Reduce mistakes
Automation minimizes manual errors.
Increase flexibility
A business rule engine makes it possible to respond quickly to changes in regulations or business goals.
For example, in an insurance company, a business rule engine can automatically assess whether a claim meets policy requirements, making the process more efficient and transparent.
Fixed structure
Business rules have a fixed structure. The structure must comply with five basic principles in order to be used effectively in a business rule engine. A business rule engine also works according to fixed steps. These fixed structures and rules ensure that your rules can be used in different applications and easily adapted to changing situations.
What is an example of using a business rule engine?
Business rule engines are used in many different industries. For example:
Financial services
- Automatically approve or reject loans based on fixed calculations and evaluation criteria.
- Detect and identify fraud based on behavioral patterns.
E-commerce
- Personalized discounts or offers based on customer behavior and purchase history.
- Calculate shipping costs based on location, weight and customer's chosen shipping options.
IT
- In software, a pop-up should appear with a warning under certain circumstances.
- Software must show one of two possible screens based on a calculation.
Gezondheidszorg
- Automatic compliance with regulations and medical protocols, such as when approving medication dispensing.
Overheid
- Review of tax returns.
- Awarding grants.
When to use a business rule engine?
We mentioned it in the introduction: A business rule engine is especially useful in dynamic environments where business rules change frequently or where consistency and speed are very important. There are roughly four key reasons for choosing to use a business rule engine: consistency, efficiency, governance and agility. Deploying a business rule engine is particularly useful when these four benefits actually lead to a significant impact within your organisation. This is especially the case in the following four situations.
Rules are complex or changeable
Reviews based on a single criterion are not that complicated. In a store, for example, some products are available only to customers over a minimum age. The store employee can judge that. That rule is simple and unambiguous. When an assessment must comply with complex laws and regulations, it becomes more complicated. Some assessment processes have as many as 200 criteria. Sometimes those criteria are based on complicated calculations. Then decision-making also becomes complicated. Often rules also change every year, increasing the risk of a person forgetting or misinterpreting a criterion. When clients want to apply different rules from each other, a business rule engine can also save a lot of time.
Consistency is crucial
Not all decisions are equally important. Some decisions have a big impact on customers. Consider, for example, approving loans or insurance claims. Or prescribing medications. With those decisions, you need to be sure that the decision was made fairly. And that that same decision is made the same way over and over again. Personal preferences of an employee towards the customer, for example, should not play a role.
Mistakes are costly
Prescribing the wrong drugs can cause enormous damage to a patient's health. When misjudging a claim, an insurance company can lose a lot of money. Wherever the financial or immaterial consequences of errors are significant, it is important to minimize the likelihood of errors.
Scalability is needed
A business rule engine is a way to automate decisions. It allows you to make more decisions in less time. Organizations with many transactions or decisions benefit.
In short, a BRE is a logical choice when automation, speed and consistency are needed to gain competitive advantage.
Some organizations view their intellectual property as a reason to steer away from using a business rule engine. You can read more here about why IP, intellectual property, should not hold you back in choosing more efficiency.
How do you select a business rule engine?
Choosing the right business rule engine begins with a clear analysis of your business needs and a careful evaluation of available options.
When choosing a business rule engine, you should consider the following factors, among others:
1
Functionality
Does the BRE support all the rules and processes you need?
Does it provide the flexibility to add new rules or modify existing ones?
2
Integration
Can the BRE integrate seamlessly with existing systems such as CRMs, ERPs or databases?
Does the BRE fit into the current or future application landscape?
Is the system built from services?
3
Usability
How easy is it to modify or add rules?
Do you need technical knowledge, or can business users do it themselves?
How quickly can you make changes?
Are changes live immediately? Are they usable right away? And what happens to the old rules?
Can multiple versions of a ruleset run side by side?
4
Scalability
Can the BRE handle growing amounts of data and rules without performance degradation?
5
Costs
Does the system fit within the budget? Consider licensing, implementation and maintenance costs, as well as additional hosting costs (a high but less visible cost component in many systems).
6
Compliance
Is there an understanding of who modifies which rules?
Does the solution have an auditing function?
Is the execution of business rules insightful?
Is documentation automatically generated and then readable?
Selecting a business rule engine? Start smart.
Download our whitepaper for a ready-to-use blueprint that saves you hours of research.
It breaks down exactly what to look for, the key questions to ask, and how to evaluate potential outcomes. You’ll also get practical tips to sharpen your approach and a checklist to prepare before reaching out for information or proposals.
What is a business rule policy?
A business rule policy refers to the strategic approach to how business rules are managed and applied within an organization. The business rule engine plays an important role in this. The business rule policy includes the agreements around:
- Defining rules
- Documenting rules
- Monitoring and optimizing
The content of your business rule policy also reflects how mature the organization of your business rule management is.
Defining rules
Which rules are essential for business operations, and how are they set up? Who has access to the rules and who can set them up or modify them? In what order are rules implemented? And as an organization, how do you monitor whether rules still match each other or if there are inconsistencies between rules?
Documenting guidelines
How are business rules documented? How do you monitor that the rules are compliant with laws and regulations? How are changes managed? Who is responsible for updates? What happens to the old decision rules? Do you record a history of them? Where are error messages recorded? And who takes action on them?
Monitoring and optimization
Are rules evaluated regularly to ensure they remain current and effective? How are new rules tested?
A good business rule policy ensures efficient operation of the business rule engine and guarantees that it contributes to the organization's strategic goals. A good business rule engine makes establishing a business rule policy easier through transparent documentation and automatic testing facilities.
When do you use a business rule engine and when AI?
A Business Rule Engine and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can both be used for decision-making and automation. AI is immeasurably popular and more and more models, systems and applications are emerging. So when do you choose a business Rule Engine and when do you deploy AI?
Explicit definition of rules
If you already know what you want, and what you want can be well captured in business rules, then it is better to use business rules. With a Business Rule Engine, you define and manage rules and decisions explicitly. This is especially useful in situations where clear, predictable rules apply. This is the case when the decision rules are based on fixed conditions and logic, such as tax calculations, compliance checks or credit ratings.
When you make rules around regulation and compliance - especially in industries such as finance, health care and government - compliance with established rules is crucial. But in addition, it is also important that your decisions are transparent and 100% traceable. You have to be able to prove that you have implemented the rules properly. In addition, you must be able to adjust the rules quickly in such a case . If the law changes, the rule must also change. Preferably, you don't have to depend on an IT department. Finally, a business rule engine ensures that you are consistent in your decisions: a customer who meets the same conditions is treated the same way. All your decisions are fast and reliable , and therefore few mistakes are made.
Complex and unpredictable
AI comes in handy when decisions cannot be easily captured in fixed rules, especially in complex and unpredictable situations. That is, for example, when large amounts of data are needed for patterns. AI can analyze unstructured data (such as text, images and speech) and derive decisions from it.
Sometimes a prediction or recommendation is needed. You can think about spotting patterns of behavior in fraud detection. Based on historical data, you can make a prediction with some degree of reliability.
With AI, there is self-learning capability. AI models improve themselves through experience and can adapt to new situations without manual updates.
Sometimes decision-making is a creative process. There, too, you can use AI. Consider chatbots or image recognition, for example. The interpretation needed to properly understand a long textual response from a customer and use it to make a decision can be performed by AI.
Below we summarize the differences for you
| Business Rule Engine | Artificial Intelligence |
| Predictable rules | Unpredictable situations |
| Fixed data points | Unstructured data |
| Transparent decision-making | Non-transparent decision-making |
| Reducible, consistent decisions | Evolving, learning decisions |
| Fast, reliable decision-making | Prediction and interpretation |
Ideally, you can deploy AI as part of your decision-making process in a business rule engine. That way, you keep decision-making transparent where you can and leverage the capabilities of AI in the situations that call for it. Make sure to have the right AI governance in place to keep control of your AI based decision making.
The business rule engine, essential with complex decision-making
With a business rule engine, your organization can work faster, smarter and more efficiently. Especially when your decision-making is complex, the outcome has a high impact on your customer, or the volume of decision-making processes is high. It streamlines processes, reduces errors and ensures consistent compliance with rules. Whether you are in financial services, IT or another sector, a business rule engine can play a key role in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage.
Rulecube offers a business rule engine that you can deploy in your organization. You can also fully embed it in your software. In addition, the rulecube platform also provides a solution for workflows into which your business rules must fit and the forms you need to request information that you do not have in your database. Want to know what you can actually achieve in your specific organization with a business rule engine? Then request a personal demo today.