Specialist software and services company DVT and leading analytics software company FICO have announced a strategic partnership that will see DVT market, implement and support FICO’s business rules management system Blaze Advisor in South Africa.
The partnership comes as part of FICO’s global strategy to expand the use and value of Blaze Advisor into new markets, and specifically beyond the financial services industry where the software has become an industry standard.
FICO Blaze Advisor integrates with other analytics and business modelling platforms to facilitate and simplify high-volume operational decision-making. It provides control, speed, accuracy, consistency and transparency of business logic, which is critical when responding to changing business, economic and regulatory conditions.
Hardy Jonck, who heads up the Business Agility unit and model-driven development at DVT, says DVT is a natural fit for FICO in South Africa.
“This partnership allows us to combine our unique approach to developing agile business solutions with best of breed development tools – particularly the Mendix platform with which FICO has a global integration agreement – in various domains including government agencies, utilities, manufacturers and telecommunications companies, all of which have already seen strong benefits from FICO’s Blaze Advisor in other countries,” says Jonck.
FICO’s tools put business in direct control, enabling users to quickly change decision logic by simply changing the underlying rules of the business models they’re working with.
FICO also provides tools to discover new facts hidden in customer and sales data and makes it easy to react quickly to change driven by accurate analytics. Combined with Mendix, FICO Blaze empowers business owners to make decisions quickly and to roll out new solutions that integrate with legacy systems.
“For example, if I have a business strategy I want to test, I can use a Mendix model to map out the processes and FICO’s tools and Blaze Advisor to analyse and optimise their performance,” adds Jonck. “Best of all the outcomes are immediately ready for audit towards compliance to various acts specific to each industry.”
Mark Farmer, who oversees FICO’s operations in Africa and Western Europe, says DVT’s knowledge base, and its extensive experience with Mendix, made it the obvious choice as FICO expands its business in South Africa beyond the financial services sector.
“We chose DVT not only for its excellent reputation as a technology leader, but also its proven track record and tightly-integrated family of complementary agile business development solutions,” says Farmer. “In partnership with DVT, we plan to bring the tremendous benefits of agile decision management to new industries.”
FICO pioneered the development and application of critical technologies behind decision management, including predictive analytics, business rules management and optimisation.