Decision Management

Decision Management is a strategy and technology stack that builds on existing enterprise applications and IT infrastructure, leveraging data to manage uncertainty, increase transparency and give the business control of their systems. Decision Management is a proven framework for implementating predictive analytics, data mining and business rules technology in operational systems. Decision Management Systems are agile, analytic and adaptive.

Operational Decisions
At the core of Decision Management is a focus on Operational Decisions. These decisions are not the big, high-value decisions beloved of management consultants and CEOs. These decisions are those required to make day to day operations run effectively. They ensure that customers are treated consistently, that the right price is offered, that the most effective offer is made. While the value of each individual decision is small, the cumulative effect is very large because organizations make these decisions often.

Business Rules Technology
Business rules are the core building block of operational decisions. Business rules are atomic, declarative statements of business intent. Business rules implement the policies, regulations, know-how and expertise critical to decisions. A business rules management system lets you effectively manage and deploy business rules for maximum agility. A Decision Case for Business Rules builds the business case for adopting or extending a BRMS.

Predictive Analytics
One of the most powerful features of Decision Management is the ability to bring predictive analytics into play. Predictive analytics includes data mining – used to investigate data and derive trends and characteristics that can be represented as business rules – and predictive analytic models that predict how customers might behave in the future. Decision Management allows these insights to be applied not just to broad statements or corporate strategies, but deep down into day to day operations. A Decision Case for Predictive Analytics gives you a clear understanding of the decisions in your targeted business area where applying predictive analytics will add real value and show a strong ROI.

Decision Analysis
Organizations use performance management techniques and technologies to continually evaluate their performance against metrics and monitor processes. Decision Analysis applies these same techniques to constantly monitor and evaluate decision performance so that the impact of decisions on the business can be assessed and used to improve decision making. Because the things that determine if a particular decision is a good one are often out of your control, a decision-making approach must constantly be challenged. Decision Analysis evaluates new approaches to see if a better approach is possible or if an existing approach has ceased to be effective.

Optimization
Complex trade-offs and contradictory constraints can be hard to manage in decision-making systems. Optimization technology can find optimal or at least feasible solutions based on your business constraints and objectives. Whether making a workable decision or finding the set of decisions that generate the best overall results, optimization is a powerful technology.

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