The Road To Operational Excellence - Typepad · 2009-08-07 · The Road To Operational Excellence:...

The Road To Operational Excellence:

Common barriers and how to remove them Decisioning

July 2009

The material in this document is the property of Fair Isaac Corporation, is provided for the recipient only, and shall not be used, reproduced, or disclosed without Fair Isaac Corporation’s express consent. © 2009, Fair Isaac Corporation.

http://www.fico.com

© 2009 Fair Isaac Corporation. All rights reserved.

Background FICO has a wide and diverse experience in dealing with all kinds of financial, decisioning and operational issues. Between them, our consultants have hundreds of years of project experience. As part of our Operational Excellence Programme we wished to exploit that experience to benefit all our existing customers. To that end we asked our consultants to identify those difficulties which are the most common across our client base and define a set of services to manage and mitigate them. In this document, common barriers to operational excellence are addressed by specific services, grouped into operational areas. All the services are designed to achieve high return on investment. Each service is flexible and may be tailored to the needs of the customer. Whether provided directly by FICO or through one of our network of international partners, the service will be delivered by a specialist consultant certified by FICO. As a valued customer we wanted to share these ideas with you to provide food for thought and an opportunity for further collaboration. If you wish to discuss a specific service, please contact the FICO address shown on that service’s description page; for a more general discussion about the Operational Excellence Programme, please contact:

Dave Woods or Dennis Witkins [email protected] +44 (0)7930 113051

http://www.fico.com


BARRIERS TO OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE IN DECISIONING (BLAZE ADVISOR®) Some common barriers experienced by customers striving to achieve optimum performance of their decisioning systems are addressed by services described on the following pages:

Business Analysis techniques not appropriate to Blaze Advisor, page 18 Demonstrating capabilities of Blaze Advisor is difficult, page 11 How do you Quality Assure your SI vendors?, page 9 Lack of transparency, agility and business control, page 10 Models not re-used, page 6 Unexpected data requirements, page 18 Decisioning skill shortage, page 18

Project

Implementation time is lengthy, page 10 Project budgeting and prioritisation is difficult, page 17 Raising awareness of FICO recognised best practices, page 9 Decision projects lengthy, pages 7, 18 System testing is time-consuming, page 14 System testing is not repeatable, page 14 Test data provision is manual for each test cycle, page 14 Time to Market is high, page 7

Technical

Rules auditing is not available, page 8 Release management is prone to human error, page 12 BDS is not compatible with latest technologies, page 19 Releasing software is time-consuming, page 12 Blaze Advisor integration with external services is difficult, page 13 Repository security breaches, page 15 Code duplication and lack of standards, page 10 Decision service is not business focused, page 8 Credit bureaux calls are not possible from Blaze Advisor, page 21 System structure is less well-defined, page 20 Full rules harvesting is impractical, page 17 System performance deteriorates, page 20 Implementation of models is long, page 6 Inaccurate model output, page 6 Inconsistent methods of maintaining multiple repositories, page 16 Limited understanding of data requirements, page 17 Models are not business-friendly, page 6 Project validation is complex, page 7

We offer a comprehensive set of services which are aimed specifically at addressing these barriers: see our “Index of Services” on page 4.

http://www.fico.com

http://www.fico.com/en/Products/DMTools/Pages/FICO-Blaze-Advisor-System.aspx


Decisioning (Blaze Advisor®)

Index of Services

BL01: Executable Analytics .............................................................................................................................................. 6

BL02: Blaze Advisor Upgrade Service .............................................................................................................................. 7

BL03: Blaze Advisor Rule Reporting Service .................................................................................................................... 8

BL04: FICO Guardian Services ........................................................................................................................................ 9

BL05: Blaze Advisor Interactive Question-and-Answer Framework ............................................................................... 10

BL06: Generic User Interface ......................................................................................................................................... 11

BL07: Release Management .......................................................................................................................................... 12

BL08: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) .................................................................................................................... 13

BL09: Blaze Advisor Test Harness ................................................................................................................................. 14

BL10: Authentication and Authorisation Manager ........................................................................................................... 15

BL11: Best Practice Review ........................................................................................................................................... 16

BL12: Decision Requirements Analysis Workshops (DRAW) ......................................................................................... 17

BL13: Decision Requirements Analysis Workshops Training ......................................................................................... 18

BL14: Migration Of Blaze Decision System Solutions To Blaze Advisor ......................................................................... 19

BL15: Blaze Advisor Health Check ................................................................................................................................. 20

BL16: Blaze Advisor – BureauxLink Interface ................................................................................................................. 21

BL17: Product-Specific Training ..................................................................................................................................... 22

BL18: Project Management Services.............................................................................................................................. 23

BL19: BRMS Project Initiation – Fundamentals of Decision Harvesting Services Workshop ......................................... 24

http://www.fico.com


BL20: Project Initiation – Decision Harvesting Services ................................................................................................. 25

BL21: Project Initiation – Decision Harvesting Training Services ................................................................................... 26

BL22: Blaze Advisor BRMS Starter Service ................................................................................................................... 27

BL23: Blaze Advisor Basic Upgrade Assessment .......................................................................................................... 28

BL24: Blaze Advisor Performance Tuning Services ....................................................................................................... 29

BL25: Decision Simulator Implementation Services ....................................................................................................... 30

BL26: Blaze Advisor Staff Augmentation Services ......................................................................................................... 31

BL27: Blaze Advisor Turnkey Solutions .......................................................................................................................... 32

http://www.fico.com


BL01: Executable Analytics

An end-to-end service offering to help you design, develop, execute and test your analytical models, integrate them into your runtime systems and track their effectiveness

FICO’s “Executable Analytics Service” offering transforms your paper models into executable services in Blaze Advisor or plain Java. Predictive Model Implementation through this service enables businesses to:

Determine the best action Apply workflow or sets of further rules / strategies Assign risk rankings that influence key business decisions

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Implementation of models is lengthy Inaccurate model output Models not business-friendly Testing is limited Model re-use not achieved

It takes 3-6 months+ for IT Teams to implement each model Minor model changes become sizeable IT implementations The output from our modelling teams does not get implemented accurately Models are hidden in legacy code that business users may not understand Limitations on testing, tracking and validation of custom implementation. Consistency and reuse across channels not commonly achieved

FICO experts convert Analytical Models into a business Rule Service-based scorecard

The business decision service accepts a single

input document (XML or Java) and returns an output object that contains the score and the reason code

A Rule Maintenance Application is provided for

viewing and manipulating scorecards for business users

Unit Testing can be carried out using your data A Java-based deployment service is available for

“black box” deployment independent of Blaze Advisor

Performance Tracking and regression testing are

optional

Time to market: Implementation timeframes are shortened to between 4 and 6 weeks

Models are now managed in a repository allowing

Traceability and Versioning Lifecycle Management Re-use

The implemented model can be managed by your business users

Model maintenance ownership shifts to your

business users and can be done in real time Streamlined, easy and best practice-based

testing and tracking

Estimated Effort: 20 days FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL02: Blaze Advisor Upgrade Service

An end-to-end service offering to help you upgrade to the latest version of Blaze Advisor and enhance your productivity using its new features

FICO's Blaze Advisor upgrade service offering helps you to upgrade to the latest version of Blaze Advisor more quickly. The latest version of Blaze Advisor will help you to enhance your productivity; the new product features help you to design and build projects more effectively, in shorter timeframes. This will result in faster movement to production and a shorter time to market.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Rules projects are lengthy Project time to market high RMA functionality is limited Project validation is complex

Takes a long time to develop rule projects - no help during build Time to market is increased as any major / critical change has to be done by a developer through the IDE, with associated lengthened cycle times Inability to build complex formulae and / or calculations through the RMA Changes made using the RMA cannot be checked for accuracy easily. No functionality is available to compare versions of a given project

FICO experts will: Upgrade your current decision services to utilise

latest Blaze Advisor technology Mentor your team on the useful features of the

latest version of Blaze Advisor and how to optimise their use for successful projects

Assist with your implementation of Blaze Advisor

according to FICO best practices

Authoring Intellisense speeds up your project development

Free form editor enables the concept of a Super

User in the RMA allowing relatively complex changes to be done using your RMA

Formula Builder helps with the construction of

complex formulae and set operations when building rules using the RMA

Allows one single web link for all RMAs. Allows comparison of projects / folders / entities.

Additionally filtering may be used in the IDE or the RMA

Estimated Effort: 20 – 30 days FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL03: Blaze Advisor Rule Reporting Service

The provision of an enhanced Blaze Advisor rule reporting service

Enhancement of the reporting capabilities of Blaze Advisor by creating new custom rule reports.

These reporting capabilities will enhance your rule management processes Knowledge transfer of these components to your IT team will ensure that maintenance is simplified Support for custom reports can also be provided from FICO

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Rules service not business- focused Rules auditing not available

Existing rule service report not fully usable by business users A business-friendly report that contains a snapshot of rules is essential for audit purposes and is not included as a standard feature in the product

Gather your requirements together into a business-friendly decision service report

Design and develop custom reports, or position

the generic decision service reporting component to address your requirements specifically

Ensure you are trained in using this report service

in your rule management processes

Enhanced reporting features lead to greater user satisfaction and better auditing of your decision service management process

Ongoing support from FICO gives you the

reassurance that these reports will be supported by FICO in the future


http://www.fico.com


BL04: FICO Guardian Services

The provision of cardiologist-level support to partners / clients’ SI vendors engaging in Blaze Advisor projects

FICO’s Guardian Services will: Ensure that best practices are followed by our partners and / or your SI vendors Enable smooth execution of projects by ensuring involvement in multiple phases of the project Enable our partners to take on the design and development of “customisation requirements” Ensure a proactive approach to problems by ensuring optimal project design

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Raise awareness of recognised best practices How do you Quality Assure your SI vendors?

Existing SI vendors or partners may not be fully aware of FICO best practices and may have created suboptimal solutions Given current economic conditions, more projects may be pushed to SI vendors and you will need a way to ensure that quality is not compromised

Mentoring your SI vendor and our partners on FICO best practices relating to: Rule harvesting Rule architecture Deployment / Technical architecture Writing rules for performance Customisation requirements

Participation in project planning, environment setup

Design and code reviews to ensure solutions

meet FICO standards and best practices Assistance with problem resolution

Improved project planning and execution Risk reduction Adoption of FICO best practices Cost savings by engaging partners / vendors

whilst still ensuring high quality deliverables Access to FICO experts during project execution Access to internal product development team Access to FICO lifeline support Decision services which conform to FICO best

practices

Estimated Effort: Time and Materials-based FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL05: Blaze Advisor Interactive Question-and-Answer Framework

The provision of an interactive Question and Answer framework for Blaze Advisor, to enhance your business functionality

Effective price-positioning for interactive / Q and A functionality Helps to penetrate ‘pre-rules’ business areas where multiple request-response scenarios are involved Utilises Blaze Advisor decision trees to implement valuable business functionality often not addressed by rule implementations Reduces dependency on third-party systems for the Sales / Sourcing aspect of business which requires creation of dynamic question trees based

on real-time customer responses

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Implementation time lengthy Lack of transparency, agility and business control Code duplication and lack of standards

Implementing an interactive information-gathering service for applications is often embedded in applications as client server code Logic is hard coded and requires IT to manage; business users have no direct control and it takes too long to make relatively minor modifications to the flow Multiple implementations exist to provide the same functionality for various products, applications and channels (i.e. call centres, online and telephone). This limits re-use and often requires duplication of effort, with limited use of recognised best practices and scalable architecture

Use the pre-configured Q and A framework built using decision trees and XSD schema

Develop a front end (ASP or JSP page) if

required Provide you with a fully-flexible Q and A

framework in which you can add, edit or delete questions, and specify appropriate data types for each answer

Allows you to use Blaze Advisor for interactive applications in real time, in addition to the powerful rule execution functionality

Eliminates the need to go to another vendor for

a different product for interactive components, removing the requirement for separate integration with Blaze Advisor decision services

Immediate benefit can be seen for Insurance

quotation-generation applications, IVR setups, call centres


http://www.fico.com


BL06: Generic User Interface

The provision of a generic user interface to Blaze Advisor

A rich graphical user interface to Blaze Advisor Showcase Blaze Advisor as a complete application, with a front-end GUI and back-end processing Enter data to be processed and view generated results dynamically

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Demonstrating the capabilities of Blaze Advisor can be difficult

Blaze Advisor is dependent on external programs to communicate with users, which can impose technical limitations It can be challenging to demonstrate the capabilities of Blaze Advisor without a front-end interface program. Often time is taken up in developing such programs, and as a consequence project costs may be driven up This affects the perception of Blaze Advisor as a competitive business rules engine solution through no fault of its own

The provision of a web-based front end to allow you to enter Business Object Model data

Allow you to submit this data to a running

decision service and capture the decision results The provision of a generic User Interface using

an easily configurable framework such as Spring, Struts or Java Server Faces

Using Java FX to provide a rich graphical user

experience to do justice to the advanced technology of Blaze Advisor

Save the expense of sourcing, building and interfacing a separate user interface layer

Save the project lead time in developing and

testing the user interface layer Immediately see what Blaze Advisor can do When linked with the Rules Maintenance

Application, you can modify business rules, enter data and view decision results as part of lifecycle management


http://www.fico.com


BL07: Release Management

The provision of a Release Management toolkit

Release Management functionality covers:

A control panel for rule service deployment Version Control for rule service deployment Promotion of a rule service version into a specific environment with one click Revert to a previous rule service version with one click

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Release management can be prone to human error Releasing software is time-consuming

Manual release management is a technical process, when it should (at least in part) be an automated business process. It is prone to error when it should be foolproof. Software releasing should be a quick and simple process. Generally the user experience is poor involving text editors and command-line scripts. At the same time release management of rule services is business-critical

The provision of a Control Panel for Release Management which can be viewed from within the Rules Maintenance Application

A completely generic Blaze Advisor project that is

already tried and tested Visibility of which version of a decision service

has been deployed into each environment

The time and overhead that you spend in managing rule service releases manually will be saved

Potential errors in deployment process can be

completely eliminated Business-critical deployments can be managed

in an agile manner The technical task of deployment is brought into

alignment with your business users’ experience of quickly changing rules via a Rules Maintenance Application

You can now quickly deploy decision services

across development, system test, user acceptance test, and production environments


http://www.fico.com


BL08: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Exposing the Blaze Advisor solutions suite as a component of a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Open up Blaze Advisor to the world of Service Oriented Architecture Take any external service and incorporate it into your Blaze Advisor decision services Seamlessly integrate with other FICO products Make componentised, reusable decision services

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Integration of Blaze Advisor with external services can be difficult

Integrating Blaze Advisor with other services relies on orchestration by an external program. The external services can only be incorporated into decision services with customised code, so connecting to new services is not straightforward. Blaze Advisor decision services cannot easily communicate with other Blaze Advisor decision services, resulting in the possibility of decision services having overlapping functionality that should be reusable

Allow management of the interactions with other decision services and external services via your Rules Maintenance Application

Leverage other FICO products into the Blaze

Advisor solution, utilising the whole DM Tools Suite with Blaze Advisor at the centre

By reusing smaller componentised decision services, your maintenance and development costs are reduced significantly; for example, low-level knockout rules can be reused by multiple decision services without them having to be contained in the same repository as your other decision services


http://www.fico.com


BL09: Blaze Advisor Test Harness

An integrated test suite that extends Blaze Advisor’s existing BrUnit functionality

The Blaze Advisor test harness extends and complements the existing BrUnit test capabilities. After a small amount of configuration provided by FICO’s Professional Services team, the test harness will save you time and money by enabling you to run a suite of tests through your existing Blaze Advisor framework.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits System testing is time-consuming System testing not repeatable Test data provision is manual for each test cycle

System testing is a time consuming process System testing is often not totally repeatable Your decision service test data must be manually updated before each test run can be initiated

Integrate an easily configurable test harness with your existing framework

Provide the ability to run multiple tests from Blaze

Advisor and your RMA

Perform multiple test runs at the click of a button Test data can be supplied in XML format Reduce your costs by reducing the time and

labour involved in testing


http://www.fico.com


BL10: Authentication and Authorisation Manager

The provision of a customisable authentication and authorisation manager enabling control over repository access

The authorisation and authentication module provides an easily manageable layer of security to your Blaze Advisor rules repositories. After customisation provided by our Professional Services team you will have full control over access to repository components including which resources can read or update them.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Repository security breaches

Your users may be able to access repository components that do not pertain to their role. Different users require different levels of access for repository components (e.g. read-only access)

Customisation of an authentication and authorisation manager

Provision of read / write access control at

repository level Control of component access rights using XML or

privileges stored in a database

Limit the access to, and use of, repository components to authorised parties within your business

Increase your control over repository

accessibility SHA-1 password encryption


http://www.fico.com


BL11: Best Practice Review

The provision of a review and associated training to communicate the FICO best practice standards for Blaze Advisor decision systems

We pride ourselves in providing our clients with the best the market has to offer, so our solutions are delivered according to a set of clearly defined best practices. As organisations who also value high standards we are sure that you are eager to preserve the use of recognised best practices while maintaining your solution. To this end we are happy to offer our services in educating your team in the most effective way to do this.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Inconsistent methods of maintaining multiple repositories

Repositories may be maintained by several people using different techniques. There are several routes to the same outcome: which is the best?

Workshops to discuss the best way to produce a solution

Provision of training to impart understanding of

what the FICO recognised best practices are and why they are used

Your maintenance costs are reduced due to more understandable repository components

The standardisation of your solutions aids

maintainability The ability to select most the performant and

fitting solutions for your requirements

Estimated Effort: 5 – 10 days, on-site FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL12: Decision Requirements Analysis Workshops (DRAW)

A package of services to scope one or more potential Blaze Advisor decision services, define their dependencies, and provide a high-level implementation roadmap

DRAW is a workshop technique for decomposing a decision into a network of sub-decisions with required areas of data and knowledge, documented in a Decision Requirements Diagram (DRD). In a short engagement, FICO will run workshops with you on selected potential decision services, document their information dependencies, and produce an implementation roadmap with estimates of effort.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Limited data requirements understanding Full rules harvesting impractical Project budgeting and prioritisation difficult

You have ideas for a number of opportunities for projects involving implementation of decision services in Blaze Advisor; their feasibility is uncertain due to an incomplete understanding of business knowledge and data requirements Full business rule harvesting for all of your identified opportunities is impractical Budgeting and prioritisation difficult due to lack of detailed requirements, leading to a high risk of Blaze Advisor project overruns, or even failure

Agreement with you on a shortlist of decision service opportunities

DRAW sessions with your domain experts and

stakeholders (1-2 days per opportunity) Off-site analysis of results A report of our findings, including: A DRD and supporting definitions for each of

your opportunities Analysis of dependencies Suggested modules for efficient development

Presentation of the results, including proposals

for subsequent projects

Detailed scoping of your potential decision services

Identification of all your information

requirements: business knowledge and input data

Breakdown into functional modules for staged

implementation Estimates of effort for implementation of the

functional modules Provision of high-level implementation roadmap

taking into account all information dependencies

Estimated Effort: 5 – 20 days, partly on-site FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL13: Decision Requirements Analysis Workshops Training

Training in the Decision Requirements Analysis Workshop technique, allowing you to become self-sufficient in identifying the scope and requirements of potential Blaze Advisor projects

DRAW is a workshop technique for decomposing a decision into a network of sub-decisions with required areas of data and knowledge, documented in a Decision Requirements Diagram (DRD). In this training course FICO teaches the fundamental method, demonstrates it in master classes using your real opportunities, and enables you to become self-sufficient in DRAW.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Decisioning skill shortage Project over-run Unexpected data requirements Business analysis techniques not appropriate to Blaze Advisor projects

You have identified one or more potential decision services but lack the skills to plan your implementation Blaze Advisor development projects can lack focus and overrun with frequent extensions to scope You encounter problems with unexpected data requirements mid-way through development

Standard Business Analysis techniques may not be well adapted for decision service requirements analysis

Training in the principles of Decision Requirements Analysis and DRAW

Templates for all work products Demonstration of DRAW for one example

decision service relevant to your business Supervision of trainees in DRAW and rule

harvesting for further example decision service(s) Review of work products produced by trainees for

example decision services

Acquisition of skills in decision service scoping and requirements definition

Adoption of FICO best practices Actual requirements defined for selected

example decision services, documented in formal work products

Estimated Effort: 5 days, on-site FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL14: Migration Of Blaze Decision System Solutions To Blaze Advisor

An end-to-end service to help our Blaze Decision System clients migrate to the Blaze Advisor product and enhance their productivity using new functionality available in Blaze Advisor

Our migration service will help you to achieve a quicker upgrade. Our team will help implement FICO recognised best practices during the migration process to Blaze Advisor, which once complete will allow richer decision services to be delivered in shorter timeframes. Upgrading to Blaze Advisor offers all of the benefits of the latest decision framework including:

Authoring Intellisense ● Lifecycle Management, Improved performance for large rulebases ● A complete verification service Deployment tools and more…

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits BDS is not compatible with latest technologies

BDS / FIDS does not make the most of the latest available technologies BDS is a retiring product BDS is no longer actively developed

A migration kick-start using our BDS to BA migration tools (only available to FICO Professional Services)

We advise you on how to make the most of the

new features in Blaze Advisor We ensure that FICO recognised best practices

are followed throughout your migration process

Reduced risks for your migration project Your migration will be completed in a shorter

timeframe with the tools and FICO methodologies

Reduced time to market


http://www.fico.com


BL15: Blaze Advisor Health Check

A service offering to help our clients ensure that their Decision Services are as optimised, performant and well-structured as when they were first delivered

Our solutions are delivered initially according to a set of clearly defined best practices to maximise performance and efficiency whilst remaining easy to navigate. As time passes and the rule services are updated it may be that some of these considerations no longer apply. Accordingly we are able to offer our services and guidance to assist with re-optimising your decision services.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits System performance deteriorates System structure less well defined

Your repository structures may move away from FICO best practice Your solutions grow and become less performant Your solutions may become less well-structured over time

A review of your existing solutions Provision of guidance on how your solution may

be optimised A Health Check report identifying potential

problems and offering guidance. This is tailored to your individual requirements and will cover one or more of the following areas: Internal rules repository structure Coding standards / Best practice Decision service deployment and associated

code Decision service performance

Performant solutions A reduction in your maintenance costs Standardisation of your solutions will improve

their maintainability

Estimated Effort: 5 – 10 days, primarily on-site FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL16: Blaze Advisor – BureauxLink Interface

Provision of an interface component to enable Blaze Advisor to invoke BureauxLink calls and evaluate returned Credit Agency data

BureauxLink is a FICO product which is used to retrieve consumer credit data from the three main credit reference agencies in the UK. An interface between Blaze Advisor and BureauxLink allows business rules within a Blaze Advisor decision service to makecalls to BureauxLink and evaluate the Credit Agency data returned.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Credit bureaux calls not possible from Blaze

Inability to make BureauxLink invocations from within Blaze. In previous engagements the clients have had to create a custom implementation to achieve this task. Creation of mappings to and from the relevant BureauxLink tables can be an arduous and time-consuming process

Provision of a generic interface from Blaze Advisor to BureauxLink that handles the conversion of request data to a BureauxLink format as well as conversion of the response data into a meaningful format for Blaze Advisor

An interface that supports the three main UK

Credit Agencies: Experian Equifax CallCredit

A ready-made interface from Blaze Advisor to BureauxLink to enable your decision services to retrieve Credit Agency data directly and to act upon it within your business rules

A substantial reduction in the time taken to

implement your credit agency data retrieval process as a part of your decision services


http://www.fico.com


BL17: Product-Specific Training

Provision of a range of product-specific training for FICO Decisioning software

FICO offers the following range of product-specific training:

Blaze Advisor Fundamentals ............................... 4 days MBPA for Score Cards ................................................... 4 days Blaze Advisor Rule Maintenance Application ...... 3 days Model Builder Basic and Data Spider ............................. 3 days Blaze Advisor Rule Server ................................... 3 days Model Builder and Segmentation ART Module .............. 4 days Blaze Advisor for Business Rule Analysts ........... 2½ days Model Builder for Decision Trees ................................... sold as add-on Blaze Advisor for TRIAD ...................................... 5 days

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Limited knowledge of how product works at a technical level

Your users understand the concept and operation of the software at a business level, but not at the more detailed technical level

A full range of training courses as shown above, from beginner through to advanced level

A greater understanding of the technical operation of the underlying product allowing you to source technical skills in-house

Estimated Effort: Varies dependent on training requirement FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL18: Project Management Services

Provision of experienced Project Management resources to support y resource shortfalls. Extension of FICO Delivery Management resources’ activities to include management of the whole project rather than just the FICO elements

Our successful delivery of projects is based on the following principles: The provision of expert advice from “day one” – our Delivery Management team has a combined total of over 150 years’ Project Management

experience, with industry-recognised qualifications (PRINCE2™) We set clear objectives, define scope and use a structured process to manage risk – we have a proven project methodology The project is delivered on time, on budget – we have a successful track record of delivery for global blue chip customers

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Head count restrictions

You have insufficient skilled resources in-house to deliver your portfolio of projects

Experienced Project and Programme Management covering your whole project lifecycle, or any part or parts of it (e.g. implementation, testing)

You can take advantage of your existing

relationships and contractual agreements with FICO

Provision of specific resources to suit your needs:

Project Management Programme Management Leadership of work streams Testing Management Implementation Management

The service provides a pool of experienced and professional resources that can be made available to bridge your in-house resource gap

The project management service is fully backed up by FICO in terms of continuity, service levels and warranties

Estimated Effort: 5 days – 18 months, dependent on the nature of the engagement FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL19: BRMS Project Initiation – Fundamentals of Decision Harvesting Services Workshop

During FICO’s Decision Harvesting Fundamentals Service, we teach you how to perform decisions requirements harvesting and analysis of business decisions using FICO’s decision harvesting methodology and best practices

Two FICO Decision Analysts will mentor clients’ teams and demonstrate how to create clear, complete and unambiguous business decision specifications using a subset of their application's business decisions. This practical and hands-on engagement is proven to be the best way to empower clients’ Business Analysts and Subject Matter Experts to complete decision harvesting using FICO's best practices.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Business decisions not documented No visibility of business rules Difficult to make changes to existing business logic

You have little or no documentation of your business rules You cannot quickly tell what the application is doing Without knowing existing functionality it is difficult to make improvement to business decisions

Consultancy to provide: A systematic review of current practices for

gathering and documenting business decisions and business rules

Decision Harvesting Workshops to teach your

Business Analysts and Subject Matter Experts how to harvest business decision and business rules

Documented decisions, business rules and

business terms using FICO best practice templates

Increase visibility of your existing business decisions

Empower your business users to own business

policy and decisions Decrease the time and cost of making changes

to your business rules Increase the understanding of your business Decrease development and implementation time

Estimated Effort: 2 Decision Analysts for 5 weeks (four weeks onsite / one week offsite) FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL20: Project Initiation – Decision Harvesting Services

One or more FICO Decision Analysts will perform decisions requirements harvesting and analysis of your business decisions using FICO’s decision harvesting methodology and best practices

FICO’s Decision Analysis and Documentation Methodology is a process that produces decisions analysed and documented in accordance with best practices and ready as input to architecture.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Decision Analysis and/or Documentation skill shortage Project over-run Business Analysis techniques not appropriate No visibility of business rules

Standard Business Analysis techniques (e.g. use cases) are not well adapted for decision service requirements analysis Without knowing existing functionality it is difficult to make improvement to business decisions

Consultancy to provide: Decision Analysis Decision Documentation Rule Harvesting Logical dependencies between decisions

identified and documented High level Business Object Model developed Documented decisions, business rules and

business terms using FICO best practice templates

Identified decisions documented in an unambiguous format

Decisions organised into conceptually related

groups Every term in every rule documented All logical relationships between decisions

documented Quality standards enforced at the individual rule,

rule group / decision and relationship between decision levels

Estimated Effort: Varies dependent on the nature of the engagement FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL21: Project Initiation – Decision Harvesting Training Services

Provide an introduction to Decision Analysis and Documentation for Blaze Advisor applications

The class includes the flowing topics : What Are Business Rules, How to spot a good candidate for a Business Rules Approach, How to identify locations where rules reside, How to document Business Rules, How to group Business Rules, The importance of thinking in a Decision paradigm, Best Practices for capturing, documentation and analysing Business Rules, Identifying dependencies between decisions, Best Practices for locating, documenting and analyzing Business Decisions, Examples of templates used to document Decisions, Rules, Terms and their metadata, How worksheets can be used as a very helpful tool in Decision/Rule analysis, Verification of Decision/Rule requirements with business experts.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits No visibility of business rules Difficult to make changes to existing business logic Not confident using Blaze Advisor

Your business cannot quickly tell what the application is doing Without knowing existing functionality it is difficult to make improvement to business decisions You understand the advantages of using Blaze Advisor but you are not exactly sure where to start

Consultancy to provide: Decision Analysis Techniques Decision Documentation “Rule Harvesting” Identifying Decision Dependencies Best Practices for quality control at the rule,

decision and decision dependency levels. Introduction to specialized worksheets for

documentation and analysis Hands-on workshop (optional) One day conceptual overview of Blaze

Advisor including its components and their interrelationships e.g. SRL, rule sets, rule flows, RMA, templates etc.

Increase visibility of existing business decisions Empower your business users to own business

policy and decisions Decrease the time and cost of making changes

to your business rules Increase the understanding of your business Decrease the time taken to design and develop

your next Blaze Advisor application Conceptual understanding of Blaze Advisor;

Business Analysts can communicate with rule architects and developers using a common vocabulary

Confidence to implement your next set of business rules in Blaze Advisor


http://www.fico.com


BL22: Blaze Advisor BRMS Starter Service

A packaged service that combines our Full Decision Harvesting offering with the traditional FICO Blaze Advisor Fundamentals training class and technical mentoring in how to apply these newly acquired skills to a real-world problem

This service gives you critical expert guidance in broader aspects of the definition and design phases than the decision harvesting engagement alone. Certified FICO experts will mentor your business analysts on the art of business decision analysis by completing the specification of a subset of your business decision requirements. A FICO trainer will provide up to 12 of your team with four days of classroom training on the FICO Blaze Advisor product, and a senior business rule architect will mentor your technical architects by completing the high-level design for a single business rule service.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Decision analysis and / or documentation skill shortage Not confident using Blaze Advisor Rule Architecture or Blaze Advisor implementation skill shortage

Consultancy to provide: Expert guidance and mentoring in Decision

Harvesting Decision Harvesting training Expert guidance and mentoring in design Relevant Blaze Advisor training Expert guidance and mentoring Implementation of a rule service

The complete package covers all aspects to get you started with Blaze Advisor:

Decision Harvesting Analysis and Documentation Design and implementation Includes education in Blaze Advisor for up to

12 students and education in Decision Harvesting and Analysis

In short, the most complete starter service package offered. Your staff will gain hands-on experience with

The complete life cycle of a Blaze Advisor rule service:

Requirements harvesting Analysis Design implementation

as well as Blaze Advisor and Decision Harvesting education


http://www.fico.com


BL23: Blaze Advisor Basic Upgrade Assessment

A focused one-week engagement in which a Blaze Advisor consultant reviews and analyses your entire Blaze Advisor installation to determine an upgrade strategy

The Blaze Advisor repository, deployed rule services, RMA’s, and supporting software are examined closely to identify any customisations or non-standard elements that cannot be handled by the FICO repository upgrade utility. After assessing the scope and level of effort required for the migration, the FICO analyst will perform a basic migration using the repository upgrade utility if possible, or will develop a plan for full migration service if a basic migration is not feasible. Deliverables include:

A summary of key functional and technical features in the new release A migration plan for moving to the new release

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits No resources available to analyse Blaze Advisor migration issues or scope migration task No resources to develop a migration plan

Blaze Advisor expertise is required to analyse clients’ specific migration requirements If a standard upgrade isn’t possible, a detailed upgrade plan is necessary for cost estimates and project plans

Consultancy to provide: A detailed review of upgrade issues presented by

Blaze Advisor repository, deployments, RMAs, and other components

Migration of Blaze Advisor repository if basic migration is possible

A detailed upgrade plan and proposal if full service upgrade is required

Reliable, detailed migration plan and estimates On-site mentoring in new release features


http://www.fico.com


BL24: Blaze Advisor Performance Tuning Services

An offering designed to help our clients ensure that their Blaze implementations are optimised and well-structured

FICO’s Blaze Advisor professionals have extensive experience in applying performance tuning techniques in hundreds of real-world Blaze Advisor applications. If performance is important to you, you owe it to yourself to sign up for FICO’s Blaze Advisor Performance Tuning Service to make your application even more efficient. Over a four-week period, one of our experts will help you extract the best performance from your Blaze Advisor application, focusing on two general principles: rule-based tuning and application management. The premise of Blaze Advisor performance-tuning is very simple: the more efficient the rules, the more efficient the rule engine will be in processing them, and the quicker the overall application will become. Identify bottlenecks, improve start-up time, reduce memory requirements, write better rules and optimise your Blaze Advisor installation.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits System performance deteriorates System structure less well defined

Repository structure may move away from best practice Solutions become less well-structured over time

Consultancy to: Carry out a systematic review of your current

repository and environment Identify gaps relative to FICO best practices Implement performance-tuning improvements

Improve your system performance Reduce your maintenance costs Standardisation of your solutions improves

maintainability


http://www.fico.com


BL25: Decision Simulator Implementation Services

Consulting service to help Blaze Advisor clients deploy powerful rules-driven simulations with Decision Simulator

Decision Simulator enables business users to configure and run simulations to explore the business impact of rules prior to deployment, making it possible to identify opportunities for improvement and avoid costly errors in strategies that might otherwise be missed. FICO’s Decision Simulator Implementation Service helps Blaze Advisor clients get started using Decision Simulator. FICO’s certified Blaze Advisor experts consult with clients to understand their simulation needs. From these requirements, FICO works with clients to map their data to the Decision Simulator input object and to define the output and reports. After building out the Decision Simulator solution, FICO unit tests the simulations using client-supplied data on an existing rule service. This is an 11 week engagement, including support from a Decision Analyst and a Rules Architect to define, design and implement a Decision Simulator solution.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Need to understand impact of changing rules Need to analyse new strategies before they are implemented Need fast time-to-market response for new strategies

Decision Simulator enables you quickly to assess the impact of proposed rule changes Compare alternative strategies and pick the best one with Decision Simulator Increase agility by using historical data to vet changes to your policies faster

Consultancy to: Analyse and document your simulation

requirements Map your data to Decision Simulator engine and

reports Run unit test simulations using your data Note: Integrating with third-party reporting tools, developing custom reports and / or building new rule services are out of scope.

Improved decision strategies by comparing alternative approaches (e.g. “what-if” analysis)

Avoid costly strategy errors that may have been

missed otherwise Provide clear evidence to streamline acceptance

process for rule changes Ensure the expected outcomes are in line with

business goals (e.g. Profit and Loss calculations)

Estimated Effort: 1 PM, 1 Decision Analyst, 1 Rules Architect for 11 weeks FICO Contact: [email protected]

http://www.fico.com


BL26: Blaze Advisor Staff Augmentation Services

Assistance in the design and development of the repository and rule service, with a true partnership allowing comprehensive knowledge transfer with FICO's rules experts

FICO Blaze consultants, working collaboratively with clients’ staff, handle specific design and development tasks for the rule repository and rule service. Consultants also provide coaching and mentoring of clients’ staff. Deliverables consist of assigned components of the installation, such as rulesets, templates, rule service deployments, RMAs, as well as custom code and customised components. With this service, FICO creates the first iteration or release of a rules service, and then coaches clients on the second iteration of functionality. This offering provides better-performing rules services with a lower total cost of ownership.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits Available staff insufficient to meet project deadlines Available staff lacks skills to develop complex or customised components

FICO experts provide highly productive support and assistance FICO experts can handle all Blaze Advisor development requirements

Consultancy to assist you with the design and development of specified components of a Blaze Advisor repository and rule service

Faster, more timely development of rule projects More cost-effective use of resources., faster ROI Quality software that conforms to FICO best

practices


http://www.fico.com


BL27: Blaze Advisor Turnkey Solutions

The complete Blaze Advisor project is designed and developed by FICO’s certified Blaze Advisor experts, with minimal impact on your internal staff

FICO consultants design, develop, and deliver the full Blaze Advisor solution. FICO provides the full range of design and Blaze Advisor development skills required to deliver a completed Blaze Advisor project. Requirements may be provided by clients or gathered by FICO business analysts. Based on these requirements, FICO certified consultants design and develop the repository, RMA, rule service, and any necessary ancillary components. The deliverable is the completed Blaze Advisor project.

Client Pain Points FICO Services Business Benefits No qualified staff available for Blaze Advisor project Project deadlines cannot be met

FICO consultants are experts in all aspects of Blaze Advisor development FICO consultants are committed to meeting schedules

Consultancy to design and develop complete Blaze Advisor projects

Deliverables include Blaze Advisor repository,

rule service, and RMA FICO Consultants also provide knowledge

transfer to your staff

Faster, more timely project completion Quicker ROI Quality software, guaranteed to conform to FICO

best practices


http://www.fico.com

The Road To Operational Excellence - Typepad · 2009-08-07 · The Road To Operational Excellence:...

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