Integration and development of IBM WebSphere operational Decision Management and BPM

Actual Case Business Description

To give readers a clearer and faster understanding of IBM Websphere Operation Decision Management (WODM) 's strong business decision making capabilities and IBM Business process Manager (BPM)-strong flow modeling and management Ability, this article first to the reader to introduce a simplified shopping mall consumption settlement process of the actual case, the business process is as follows:

Customers by virtue of shopping small ticket and membership card, to the mall cashier to apply for consumer settlement

After receiving the application, the cashier will scan the consumption record and membership card into the data deposit and settlement system.

Billing system According to the membership card number for customer information inquiries, and inquires out the level of the membership card

Billing system According to the membership card level and customer consumption of the total amount of money to find the discount rate they should enjoy

System calculates and returns the final amount after a discount to the cashier

Cashier collects cash from customers or debit card

System to customer loyalty card to integrate and upgrade

Usually in different holidays, the major shopping malls will offer a different discount rate to members and non-members, and different levels of members enjoy a different discount rate. In addition, the total amount of consumption will also have an impact on the discount rate. Analyzing the above settlement process, business personnel and decision makers in the mall often participate in the policy decisions above activity 3 and activity 7 due to different market requirements.

For Activity 3, this article uses the most common discount rate for shopping malls, that is, the discount rate that is determined by the level of the customer's membership card and the total amount of individual consumption. Below is the shopping mall 51 Labor Day period discount preferential strategy:

Customers are gold members, if the total consumption of a single sum of 5000 yuan, enjoy 70 percent discount, if its total consumption between 2000 to 5000, you can enjoy 80 percent discount, if its consumption is less than 2000 yuan, you can enjoy 85 percent discount.

Customers are silver card members, if the total consumption of a single sum of 5000 yuan, enjoy 75 percent discount, if its total consumption between 2000 to 5000, you can enjoy 85 percent discount, if its consumption is less than 2000 yuan, you can enjoy 90 percent discount.

Customers are Puka members, if the total consumption of a single sum of 5000 yuan, enjoy 80 percent discount, if its total consumption between 2000 to 5000, you can enjoy 90 percent discount, if its consumption is less than 2000 yuan, you can enjoy 95 percent discount.

Customers are non-members, if the total consumption of a single sum of 5000 yuan, enjoy 90 percent discount, if its total consumption between 2000 to 5000, you can enjoy 95 percent discount, if its consumption is less than 2000 yuan, can not enjoy any discount.

For activity 7, suppose that the mall's integration strategy is to spend 100 yuan product 1 points, and its membership card upgrade strategy is:

Membership card level for silver cards, if the card points over 5000, then upgrade the card for gold.

Membership card level is Puka, if the card points over 2000, then upgrade the card for the Silver card.

The IBPM can quickly combine the task nodes of these shopping malls, and when the business process needs to be changed, the developer can quickly adjust the process to meet the needs of the market. However, if the discount strategy in activity 3 above is implemented using the Decision Gateway or Script node in the BPM process, first, the process becomes complex and difficult to understand, as shown in Figure 1. Second, these variable numbers, such as discount rates, consumption ranges, and integral escalation thresholds, will be hard-coded into program scripts or processes, but these data will often change. At this point, it is difficult for developers to find a specific location, and it is easy to modify errors. In addition, the generation gap between developers and business people also increases the likelihood of errors.

Figure 1. Using the Decision Gateway to implement discount policies

The strong business decision-making capabilities offered by IBM WODM make up for this disadvantage. Using WODM can quickly create a wide variety of business rules, business decision trees and decision tables. In addition, the decision Center provided by WODM provides a bridge between developers and business decision makers, allowing business decision makers to participate directly in the formulation and modification of rules. For the discount strategy in this case, the Decision Table provided by WODM provides a concise and clear description of the strategy. When the discount strategy needs to change, business decision makers can directly log in to the Decision Center (Decision Center) to modify the rules. Figure 2 Below is a calculation decision table for discounts that are created using WODM, as seen from the Decision Center.

Figure 2. Using WODM to implement discount policies

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