ILOG JRules provides a full function business rule management system (BRMS) that enables all business rules to be externalised. The externalisation enables the business to develop the rules directly thereby ensuring that the rules accurately reflect the business policies. Externalising the rules also ensures that external auditors and regulators can view the rules to verify that the enterprise is enforcing their requirements.

The rules engine is a set of Java classes and therefore can become an integral and seamless component of a complete application.

No other product takes the separation of business rules from application logic to the level of JRules. The recently released JRules 6.0 has greatly improved functionality, chiefly in its support of the business user, and also the performance and scalability of the run time engine.

The effective use of JRules does require some rethinking of the development process, but this should not be hard and the benefits obtained will definitely repay the effort. Topics: Business Intelligence Business Process Management