Avent’s big problem solved smoothly

The Chump was tipped off by the nice folks at Enterprise Decision Management – a Weblog to Enterprise Software Journal’s in-depth look at Avent’s recent problems with rules management.

Avnet is one of the largest distributors of computers and electronic components in the world and brought in US $13 billion in revenue last year. What kind of problems could they have? Well, even an Avnet can have problems with its vendor incentive programs.

To cut to the chase, Avnet selected Fair Isaac’s Blaze Advisor business rules management system “to address the issue, and then built an online rebate management application with it. The results have been dramatic: changes that took weeks can usually be done within days.” The rollout took about three months from scratch to completion of an online rebate management application.

Avnet has reported a four percent earnings increase from supplier rebates and incentives, and the investment in Blaze was thus paid for in two months. An Avnet spokeswoman touts Blaze Advisor for its ability to interface with tools and technologies including Java and Oracle; ease of use for developers; and simplicity in making business-rule changes.

Reports ESJ: “The network infrastructure at Avnet includes IBM Regatta servers running the AIX operating system; Oracle 9; and Java on IBM’s WebSphere application server.”

The writer of the piece, entitled “Case Study: Rules Management Solution Powers Customer Incentive Program” is Linda Briggs, founding editor of Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and a former senior editorial director at 101communications.

The entire article can be read at ESJ.com.