Comments on: IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have bought Business Rule Technology. What’s up with that?

By: » Surveying the Platform Player Rules Acquisitions Karl Reinsch’s Blog

Thu, 07 May 2009 04:11:39 +0000

[...] Sinur of Gartner has a fairly recent post where he surveys the platform players and their recent acquisitions of rules technologies. Jim looks at each player and gives his [...]

By: Oracle and Business Rules: Purposed Split Strategies

Oracle and Business Rules: Purposed Split Strategies — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:01:37 +0000

[...] in November, I gave some history of the power vendors attitude towards business rules(see http://blogs.gartner.com/jim_sinur/2008/11/18/ibm-microsoft-oracle-and-sap-have-bought-business-rule...) After some more detailed interaction Oracle on the topic, I have some new insights for you. Oracle [...]

By: Jim Sinur

Jim Sinur — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:56:21 +0000

I agree that operational and/or managerial processes are not the only entry to leveraging rules better. With the premium on measurement drvien by challenging times, this makes sense. I hope they meet in he middle. It’s kind of like starting two tunnels on either side of the mountain. This should be designed to meet in the middle

By: Neil Raden

Neil Raden — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:43:36 +0000

Jim,

I see some of this coming from a different angle – BI, not operaational systems and architecture and rules engine vendors.

Consider Oracle, which offers RTD (Real-Time Decisions) as part of its OBI EE suite (formerly Siebel Analytics). Siebel introduced RTD in ’05 before being acquired by Oracle, to provide r-t, self-learning predictive modeling to plug into Siebel CRM. They used the technology from Sigma Dynamics and after Oracle acquired Siebel, Oracle purchased the assets of the Sigma Dynamics.

So sort of skipping the BRMS piece, Siebel jumped right into decision services. They were on the right track.

I’m hearing more and more of my BI contacts (clients, not vendors) getting interested in this, even if they don’t know what to call it. I think that, while we wait for the big stack vendors to sort out what they’re doing with rules, the other side of the house may get a leg up on decision services as a natural extension to BI (which was, after all, once called decision support).

-NR
twitter: nraden

By: Jim Sinur

Jim Sinur — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:14:37 +0000

I would like to see one of the power vendor take the lead. I think it would jump start the momentum for the platform players. It might be up to the independents, however.

By: James Taylor

James Taylor — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:10:41 +0000

Nice post Jim – added my thoughts here:
http://smartenoughsystems.com/wp/2008/11/21/the-small-impact-of-business-rules-on-the-big-players/

It will be interesting to see what happens and which of the vendors figure out how to use business rules to make their applications and platforms more decision-centric.

By: The small impact of business rules on the big players » Smart (Enough) Systems, the blog

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:09:46 +0000

[...] Sinur brought up an interesting point today when he blogged IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP have bought Business Rule Technology. What’s up with that? The big players seem to be toying with business rules – there’s plenty of activity but not [...]