DaveBirchall.com on Business Technology

Archive for July, 2008

Grow in a slowdown and reduce your headcount…  Wow did I just say reduce your headcount. Erm what I meant to say was ’streamline your operations’ or ‘reduce you reliance in manual processes’.

Come on lets get real. There are some businesses out there that need to reduce costs right now and quickly. No-one likes loosing good people but its a harsh reality of business at the moment.

Whether this is part of your cost reduction strategy or not Business Process Automation is an important component in creating a leaner meaner fighting machine to weather the Recession storm that is now upon us and forecast to deepen.

We have recently put the finishing touches on our workflow automation ‘core’ we should really put some thought into giving it a fancy title shouldn’t we? We have been using this to connect to a businesses existing systems as a way of both monitoring the traffic of the workflow as well as having the ‘intelligence’ to assign task to other users. The intelligence in question is a series of business rule unique to your business.

Lets pick an industry. Say Logistics. A consignment is entered into the system for pick up and the system calculates the closest vehicle to pick it up. In its calculation the following rules are considered

• The the vehicle too large for the customers premises
• Is there room on the vehicle?
• Is the vehicle over weight?
• Will the extra job force the driver or exceed his hours or rest breaks

The system automatically notifies the driver, The driver accepts the job and the system texts the customer to confirm confirmation.

The rules in question are applicable to any industry but in this example we have built business logic into the role of Transport operations manager. The actions taken by the system are compliant with the companies policies for late pick up. The manager can handle more work and can focus time on account management or driver liaison which are more humanistic tasks.

If you need more clarification on Business Process Automation and what it can do for your business. Drop me a line. 0432 968684

What is a BRE?

The Business Rules Engine (BRE) is a software system that executes one or more business rules in a runtime production environment. A BRE can be used in Business Process Automation to significantly streamline the operational efficiency in a business.

A modern BRE is best thought of a rule management system. The rules of a business can change as the business grows or evolves. Certain rules may be applicable within a certain timeframe for example and therefore Business rules need to be updated and managed with the changing needs of the business.

The BRE can be used as a vehicle to translate ‘business logic’ into information workflows.

What are Business Rules?

Rules are everywhere. In fact a good business is valued or assessed on its systems, policies and procedures. These can also be known as business rules.

Business rules are visible in all businesses from SMB to Corporate. If you are able to document and map your business rules, you stand a good chance of significantly increasing the efficiency of your business through software and automation of some of your business processes.

The following table provides examples of some of the rules that might effect decisions in various industries.

You will notice that all business rules can be summarised into two categories

Either IF – THEN statements or IF – THEN – ELSE statements

The IF – THEN statement is also known as an inference rule and can be used to look up make decisions such as ‘Should this customer be approved for a mortgage?’ by executing rules of the form “IF some-condition THEN allow-customer-a-mortgage”. They can also be used to create fact tables which may allow the system to statements such as. If the conditions are ‘wet’ and the vehicle is over 1.5 tonnes, then the maximum permitted speed is 40 kph in populated areas.

The other condition, the IF – THEN- ELSE statement is also referred to as an ‘Event Condition Action’ rule.

Modern Rules Engines can really be considered rule management systems. For instance our rules engine provides a rule authoring environment, as well as a server, testing environment and library. Effectively a library of rules can be written, reused, activated and deactivated over time.

The rules are no longer in the control of a programmer but a business analyst who can write or modify the rules in Domain Specific Language (DSL). This means that the rules are written in a language that is industry specific rather than code.

How can is it used?

Our BRE can be used as part of a customworkflow solution or a part of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in unison with Biztalk.

A interesting application for a BRE could in the automation of a help desk functionality. Where a large knowledge base exists, the BRE can be used to understand where the knowledge base is applicable through rules.

More reasons to use a BRE…

Every business is different Our rules engine is may deliver some or all of the following benefits.

·
Drastically
reduce development time and costs

o
From
5000 lines of code in C# to 150 lines of code in the BRE.

·
Significantly
reduce maintenance cost.

·
Change
business rules on the fly – less change requests and less programming!

·
Build
a faster more reactive business systems.

·
Protect
data consistency by using a BRE to handle complex calculations.

·
Remove
manual Processes where possible

·
Allocate
human resources to more humanistic tasks.

·
Free
up your overstretched IT department.

Need to know more?

If you need to know more or have any questions about how BRE can help your business, feel free to contact us.

iPhone was launched worldwide last Friday. If you didn’t know that, you have either been locked in a cupboard or on another planet. In typical apple style the media went into melt down to cover the queues of people ( or devotees) desperate to get their hands on it first.

Some of my colleagues simply strolled down to the shop after the queue dies down and bought on without too much fuss.

So I asked them, what does the iPhone do that my windows mobile doesn’t do? No one could really answer this in a way that I could consider definitive. Then, over my morning coffee Ray, our lead architect handed me his and said ” see for your self.”

In the moments I had to play with it, I started to get the picture. There was no one feature that stood out for me but the experience was a wonderful thing. Its a solid piece of kit, its easy to navigate and just fantastic to use.  Essentially, what apple have done is take something that works and add ’sex appeal’ to it. Typical apple really.

The enormous screen helps matters considerably and makes for a far better experience than my HTC touch.

Word has it that there is a growing uptake in apple technology for business use. For instance, using mobileme your iPhone takes on push email functionality and starts make your old blackberry quiver in the corner of you desk. Lets face it 20GB of hard-drive in you pocket could also become handy too.

Further reading

Another successful implementation for us and this time the customer is…. US! You know the old adage about plumbers with leaky taps, well our own CRM was a long time coming but well and truely worth the wait. I have used a number of CRM’s in my Sales career including the usual suspects such as ACT!, Filemaker and Salesforce and SugarCRM. This is by far the most exciting CRM I have used to date. Thats right – I said exciting!

So what’s all the fuss about? Well for me good technology is technology that makes my life easier. If you know me, you may know that I am the first person to feel the urge to shout expletives or feel the urge to throw things at your monitor when things don’t go my way. It’s therefore refreshing when something comes along that works right away.

Now before I give a 100% thumbs up rating, I should add here that the engineer that installed the system had a few ‘challenging moments.’ The installation is for an experienced software engineer and Microsoft prefer that they are CRM certified.

But lets down to the business end of the application… Firstly, as a user you have some choices to make. Do you want to view the CRM in a seperate environment such as a web browser or would you prefer to view all of your information in Outlook? This comes by way of an Outlook tool bar which not only tracks important email in CRM but also gives you access to everything that I can think of a singular, familiar interface. I haven’t tried it, but I expect I could spend my entire day within outlook without ever having to leave.

I expect there are few people out there that don’t have some experience in outlook and familiarising yourself with Dynamics CRM is no more difficukt than reading your email. A full history of clients is easily accessible and the ’story’ of our client contact can be accessed within a few clicks.

One of the real beauties however is the ease with which data was imported and campaigns could be put together. CRM easily merges with word and outlook which makes a direct mail, or personalised email news letter with a follow up call acheiveable within a few screens in the quick campaigns wizard.

Workflows can be automated and configured from within the application and custom fields can be added by your average line manager rather than the ‘IT guy.’ All of the usual reports can be accessed as standard and addition reports can be authored easily.

We have only had dynamics CRM live in our office for a few weeks but already we are starting understand mor about our customers that we imagined possible in such a short space of time.

Beyond all this, there’s an enormous amount of functionality that I haven’t yet had the opportunity to play with so expect to hear more in the coming weeks. I may even do a quick video on this in the next few weeks. If you want to know more about how CRM can fit your team, feel free to get in contact.

As a software development company, we are mostly asked to either ‘boldly go where no other pre – existing solution has gone before’ or to assist start up companies to develop their idea and convert dreams into functionality.

In the later case, its often true to say that the project sponsor has developed the platform in prototype form using a highly accelerated design environment. As the business takes off and the number off users increases, attention turns to more business related activities and the focus is taken off development in favor of marketing, PR, accounting company structure and a whole gambit of other activity.

Its at this critical point in the role out that cracks can start to appear in the design and the original architecture of the system. The company is put under pressure to address technical issues along with a whole raft of other challenges that come with the launch of the new start-up. To further complicate things, the system can be poorly documented which means that outsourcing the project to a third party is a further investment in time.

In my experience, start ups have a tendency to shy away from software development companies for the simple reason that cost is a chief concern. Ironically, this approach can cost businesses money in the long term and sometimes even in the development phase of the role out.

Sadly few technology start ups are aware of the enormous benefits of outsourcing the development from the beginning and may even have some false perceptions about what it involves. What follows is a ten point guide to address some of the aspects of outsourcing that may not have previously considered.

1) Large development teams – Some iterations of your development will be suited to a lead developer and some may be suited to a entry level or graduate developer. If you have a variety of skill sets in your team, you can assign the right person to the right task, hence saving money.

2) Code Re-use. Any development house worth their salt will have accumulated a code library from previous projects. Code can be reused and tailored rather than written line by line. This not only accelerates development but makes for a leaner and more cost effective delivery.

3) Code check in and check out – Teams adopting Agile development methodology will be building several parts of your project at the same time. How do you know that what is written by team A is compatible with what is written by team B? A reputable developer will adopt the practice of ‘checking in’ the code regularly to check code consistency. This can drastically reduce the elapsed time and therefore cost of the development. An investment needs to be made in terms of software and hardware to make this cost effective.

4) Design Phase – Your team of choice should have expertise to bring to the table. In the design phase the team should suggest functionality you may not have previously considered and to give you a reality check on ideas that are unworkable. They should also build with the life cycle of the product in mind. A system intended to last five years would be built in a different way that a proof of concept.

5) Technology Partners – There is a growing trend to look towards emerging markets for the provision of development days. The belief seems to be that development days are becoming commoditised. To me this is missing the point by a mile. Your chosen developers should be your ‘technology partners’. They need to guide you through the experience every step of the way and more importantly, to get your feedback and input as the project comes together. Some robust conversations may even happen along the way but the dialogue need to remain open as you work towards your common goals.

7) Success rate. Theres a common phrase that gets banded around my office. ‘In software development you are only as good as you last job.’ Think about it, if you had a 100% success record Its in your interest keep your reputation clean. Chose a company that is as passionate about the project as you are. They will be careful to select the job as they need to be confident that they can deliver. You may even need to work hard sell them the concept.

8)  Intellectual Property. Yes, you can outsource your development whilst retaining your IP. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. A Non Disclosure Agreement may put your mind at rest and this should be a standard procedure for a quality software development firm.

9) Project Management The development will most likely involve some degree of Project Management and testing before release. These are difficult skills to acquire for a small in-house team.

10) Transparency – Perhaps the biggest fear that people encounter is the fear of the unknown. How is my project progressing? How much time has elapsed in each iteration? Are we ahead or behind schedule? A reputable company will provide transparency at each step of the way. Our approach is to hold regular iteration planning meetings with clients as well as to provide full access to the project reports via a web based account

Conclusions

Projects can and often can be run successfully in-house but it is important to be aware of the pitfalls. Software development requires a unique blend of skills that can be hard to resource for and in a tight skills market this it can be doubly difficult. It can in fact be liberating to distance oneself from the day to day difficulties and challenges of the project and be allowed to get on with the business of being in business.

When I talk to people who have successfully started a business and made profit, the same key questions always come to mind.

What have you learned along the way that you didn’t see coming?
To what do you attribute your success?

Some common themes emerge and I will share them with you now.

• Things always take longer than you thought they would.
• Things are always much more complexed than you ever imagined.
• People often spend more than they though they would.

So given all that, what is the common denominator of success? Some would argue that its bringing the right sort of expertise on board and having them buy into your idea. Whilst there’s an enormous amount of truth in this, you can’t achieve this without what I believe to be the real key to success.

You need to have an unbending belief in your idea.

You need to stand strong when all the doubters try and talk you out of it. You need to hold true to your course when people tell you your have drifted off course. Can you convince the funders? What about technology partners? What about your spouse or even the media?

If you enjoy what you do and you believe in your idea, the passion will come out without even trying.

So ask yourself…

What do I like doing?

I stumbled across this interview that I thought summed this up nicely.