IBM® Operational Decision Manager (ODM) V8.9 expands management capabilities for decision services in the Business Console, introduces new build automation system for DevOps and facilitates integration with API management products.

New capabilities in ODM V8.9 include:

• Decision Center - Business Console

  • Improved management of dynamic domains and resources

  • Comprehensive release and branch management with compare and merge functions that are designed for decision services

  • New filtering capabilities that make it easier to navigate or edit large decision tables

  • Support for custom scenario provider for decision service testing

• Decision Server Rules:

  • Generation of OpenAPI compliant descriptions for easy publication and management of runtime decision services with API management solutions, such as IBM API Connect™

  • A new, lightweight Build command, which is provided as a Maven plugin, to simplify decision service build automation and integration with DevOps infrastructure

  • Ability to utilize IBM Cloud Product Insights, an IBM Bluemix® service, to monitor Decision Server and Decision Center product usage

  • A decision engine that is now selected as the default and recommended rule engine

  • Includes a faster and lighter sample server that is based on IBM WebSphere® Liberty

Decision Server Insights benefits from improved performance, better resource usage, and new advanced connectivity properties.

ODM V8.9 also brings some simplification in the feature set, with the removal of announced deprecated modules and some outdated platforms.

Overview 

Process Transformation is the IBM solution for reinventing business operations, by infusing every process with intelligence and expertise to deliver greater client centricity. This approach drives greater efficiency and optimization in end-to-end processes through software capabilities, such as operational decision management, business process management, and case management.

ODM is a key offering in the IBM Process Transformation portfolio. It allows businesses to automate and manage day to day operational decisions and get greater visibility and control over how those decisions are made in their organizations. It provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use platform that allows you to capture, automate, and manage frequently occurring and repeatable business decisions. As a result, you can:

• Identify opportunities more easily.

• Respond to market demands quickly.

• Minimize risks.

• Operate consistently.

The ODM offerings, which are structured as Advanced, Standard, and Express editions, address the incremental requirements from basic rules to full decision management:

• ODM Express provides an entry point that is designed for initial business rules projects.

• ODM Standard lets you adapt decision logic of applications at the speed of business. Its dedicated rule authoring and validation environments for business stakeholders gives visibility into control over, and automation of point-in-time business decisions.

• ODM Advanced builds on the capabilities of ODM Standard with Decision Server Insights that helps capture events, build context, and apply it to operational decisions in real time. You can detect situations as they occur to present risks or opportunities, and to enable the appropriate action.

Additional capabilities are added to Version 8.9 that include improvements for Decision Center, Decision Server Rules, and Decision Server Insights.

ODM V8.9 supports organizations in virtually every industry by:

• Automating and governing operational decision making across business processes and applications to help improve business insight and ensure consistent outcomes

• Helping detect opportunities and risks in real time

• Easily and consistently helping business stakeholders to implement, test, and deploy decision changes to meet new market demands and policy requirements

• Understanding how business decisions that drive operations are made

• Applying decisions consistently across applications

For additional benefits of ODM, see IBM Knowledge Center.