What is a Business Rules Engine?

A Business Rules Engine (BRE) is a tool for automating and centrally managing a company's business processes and rules. Business rules based on logic can be defined, supplemented, modified, analyzed, and reviewed flexibly. Actions are executed based on established "IF-THEN" conditions, creating reusability that replaces manual data maintenance. Above all, a BRE ensures faster handling of recurring tasks and rule changes through process automation.

A Business Rules Engine uses imported data as the basis for business rules. These rules can, in turn, be linked with various applications to trigger the desired actions there.

A Business Rules Management System (BRMS) is the platform in which business rules can be defined and triggered by a Rules Engine (independent of the applications used). In the BRMS, the business rules are ultimately stored and centrally managed, independent of external programs and applications. Especially when working with large and diverse databases, a Business Rules Engine offers a significant advantage for companies as it can save time, costs, and resources.

What are Business Rules?

Millions of decisions need to be made every day. In most cases, this happens based on rules established for the business system and a defined decision logic. Business rules, also called rules, are present in almost every area of a company and are as diverse as the company itself. Business rules often describe the regulations needed to automate processes in a company. Through simple IF-THEN conditions, business rules can simplify processes and enable them to be executed more quickly.

Examples of business rules:

• The sales department of a company must determine the credit limit for a new customer.
• The HR department must decide whether a candidate will continue in the application process.
• It must be checked whether all policies are being followed.
• The purchasing department of a company must determine whether a supplier meets certain requirements.

A concrete example of a business rule in customer service could look like this:

IF a customer navigates on the FAQ page of a company,

THEN assistance is offered via a chat bot.

This reduces the volume of inquiries, as many questions may already be answered in advance by the automated chat bot, relieving the responsible employees.

What are the benefits of a Business Rules Engine?

A Business Rules Engine automates business rules and processes, enabling dynamic processes that can be executed quickly and flexibly. Because of these adaptable rules, reusability is created that can be implemented company-wide and replaces previously used lists. Multi-source control allows companies to automate processes based on neutral data from various sources. These data and processes can be analyzed, optimized, and measured for results using a BRE. A Business Rules Engine provides increased independence from the IT department by allowing rules to be defined and modified easily. Changes and responses can thus occur simultaneously and individually. Errors that often result from manual data maintenance are reduced, and more time is created for other activities. From error minimization and consistent compliance with guidelines, increased security results. Even in emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Business Rules Engines can be used to manage the complex logic of systems more easily. A Business Rules Engine is versatile, as automated processes can be applied, for example, in pricing an online shop, in approval processes for travel expense reports, or in compliance with regulations and guidelines.

What can swoox.io do?

swoox.io is a no-code Business Rules Engine that can search, filter, structure, compare, and process large amounts of data with differently structured datasets based on logical conditions. On this data foundation, processes are created that can be digitized and automated. With more than 100 connectors, swoox.io offers a wide range of possibilities to utilize data and also use it for analysis purposes. Whether in marketing, customer service, or dynamic pricing, swoox.io can automate any process based on data, as it is universally applicable. Using swoox.io, various valuable parameters such as customer needs and quality checks can be considered and integrated into business processes. By separating execution code from the rest of the business process management, rules can also be modified without programming knowledge, achieving independence from the IT department.

swoox.io is easy to implement into an existing company structure, simple to use, and thus simplifies ongoing tasks, creating more time and space for other valuable activities.