The Importance of an Intuitive Business Rules Engine: Key Features for Optimized User Experience

PRZEMEK HERTEL
September 18, 2024
Blog

Imagine you have a brilliant, genius farmer. The guy knows everything about plants, soil, seeds, and yield. He can even forecast weather based on wind direction, temperature, and moves of birds.

You can provide him with bigger acreage and scale earning, if only he used tools and machines. But he doesn't know how. He's afraid of a tractor, combine, and plow.

Imagine wonders he would make if these machines were intuitive and easy to use, not requiring this farmer to conquer his traumas and beliefs with a long, grueling onboarding.

This is your company right now. You have brilliant employees with tons of experience that you could scale in a matter of minutes giving them tools to enhance their potential. 

But you can't because they don't want to use it. They want no change. Their afraid of their incompetence.

It is why Higson's intuitive business rules engine is as easy to handle and onboard as it gets.

Key points:

  1. Intuitive BREs partially automate complex decision-making processes, ensuring consistency and efficiency across operations.
  2. User friendly interfaces so business users can manage rules without technical knowledge.
  3. Scalability, integration and compliance management are key in modern BREs.
  4. An intuitive BRE will get you to market faster, more accurate and more customer satisfaction.

Why Intuitiveness is Paramount

Who haven't faced the scaling obstacle by the name "My employees are resistant to change"?

Actually, there is a data to show it. 66% of change initiatives fail, with employee resistance accounting for 39% of these failures. 

70% of change initiatives are hindered because of employees resistance, which is often rooted in misunderstanding or lack of information about the change. This resistance is often rooted in fear of the unknown and discomfort with new technologies, especially when they are not user-friendly. 

Another survey indicated that 70% of employees would be more productive if workplace technology were easier to use.

The resistance stems mostly from two factors:

  • lack of will to change – human beings as a species don't like change. What's known is considered safe, allowing for survival, and most of us don't crave anymore than that. We get complacent, not to say lazy. 37% of individuals would not share an innovative idea or automation due to comfort with existing processes,
  • fear of the unknown – 60% of employees resist change primarily because of it. 
  • fear of being exposed as incompetent – According to a Forbes article, 70% of people experience imposter syndrome at some point in their careers, which is closely related to the fear of looking incompetent. Imagine your director with 20+ years of experience afraid to use a computer. 

It is worth overcoming. The report shows that every dollar invested in UX yields an impressive return of $100, resulting in an outstanding ROI of 9,900%. This regards the consumer side of an app, but if it works for consumers, it should work for employees.

Setting up a new employee with the necessary technology and workspace typically costs between $1,000 and $2,000, depending on the role and equipment required. An intuitive tool might cut the onboarding time and lower this cost a bit.

Intuitive Business Rules Management System

This is the list of features every intuitive business rules engine should have.

User Friendly Interface 

We achieve that with a graphical interface to model and decision tables without coding. This is particularly important in industries like insurance and finance where rules are complex and need to be updated frequently.

Scalability and Performance

The engine must handle large volumes of rules and data while executing business rules seamlessly. For example, in insurance a BRE might need to process thousands of policy rules at peak times.

Integration

Seamless integration with existing systems like databases, CRM and ERP systems. This ensures the BRE can access and use all relevant data for decision-making and execute business rules based on up-to-date information and most recent policies.

Versioning and Change Management

It means a robust rule repository that supports versioning and change management to maintain the integrity and traceability of business rules. This is particularly important in regulated industries like finance.

Automation and Workflow Management

Automation of complex workflows and decision-making is a core function of a BRE. This automation can reduce manual tasks and improve overall efficiency.

Compliance and Transparency

Compliance with regulations and transparency in decision-making is key to trust and accountability, especially in insurance and finance.

How User Friendly BREs Empower Business Users: Higson Studio

Intuitive user interface of business rule engine puts power in the hands of the business user allowing them for managing business rules without IT involvement. The ability to edit business rules by non-technical users means rapid changes to rules and business processes without crushing business logic. This way organizations can respond quickly to new opportunities or challenges. It cuts time-to-market greatly, giving you a competitive edge.

This is where Higson Studio shines.

Designed with the needs of business users in mind, Higson Studio offers an intuitive graphical interface that enables users to model, test, and deploy business rules, almost without writing a single line of code.

With its decision tables, users can easily manage complex rules in industries like insurance and finance, where regulatory requirements change frequently. The clear, logical layout of Higson Studio ensures that business users, not just IT professionals, can take control of rule modifications. This reduces reliance on technical teams and shortens time-to-market, allowing companies to adapt more rapidly to industry demands.

Higson Studio enhances UX by combining ease of use with powerful functionality, empowering business users to fully leverage the potential of their business rules engine without needing deep technical knowledge. This makes it an essential component of any modern business rules management system.

Higson Studio

How to Optimize Your Business with a Powerful Business Rules Engine: Higson

Higson a BRE for insurance and finance industry recommends selecting a tool that fits your business needs. When choosing a BRE consider scalability, integration and user-friendliness.

Higson’s BRE solutions give businesses flexibility and agility. By centralizing business logic and partially automated decision-making, these BREs deliver consistency, efficiency and compliance.

A case study of a mid-size insurance company that implemented Higson’s BRE saw 30% reduction in policy issue time and 25% increase in underwriting accuracy in the first year. These improvements translated to higher customer satisfaction and lower operational costs.

Do You Have Advanced Business Rules Requirements?

Contact us with your use case, and we'll see if improved, intuitive rule management is for you.

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