At Core, you’ll often hear us boasting about how robust and powerful our rules engine is. However, usually when we say this, we’re met with blank stores or quizzical looks. For most of our clients, who are primarily compensation administrators and not software engineers, they have never heard of a rules engine, and therefore, are completely unaware of the benefits that a rules engine provides to managing commissions.
In Core, our rules engine is the driver behind our extreme automation capabilities. Our rules engine works behind the scenes to carry out functions like:
- Automatically joining disparate commission data together
- Filtering out predefined data, account fields, or other criteria
- Calculating specified data sets to produce incentive payment amounts
- Measuring performance results such as quota attainment, sales contests, and revenue schedules
In this article we’ll break down in more detail what a rules engine is, how rules work, and why a rules engine is the best technical environment for processing and managing commissions.
What is a Business Rules Engine?
When it comes to the structure of an application, a business rules engine (BRE) is a system that executes functions automatically based on predefined logic or rules.
Data within the system is used as input that is interpreted by the rules engine, based on predefined rules, to produce outputs. The process happens entirely behind the scenes in a matter of seconds, but starts with the engine analyzing the data. During this process, the engine is matching criteria within the data against the set of requirements defined in each rule. Once the data has been processed, the engine then works to carry out the functions of the rule and produce specified outputs
What is a Rule?
At its simplest, rules provide the context for how the rules engines carries out specific functions. In commissions, this includes everything from how to pull data into the system, managing what data sources are included in commission calculations, and how to calculate incentive payments.
Think of it like this: rules are like a recipe and the rules engine is like the chef who prepares the meal based on those instructions.
Examples of Rules in Commissions:
Core’ system supports three different types of rules for producing results:
- Payment rules calculate commissions, bonuses, and other incentive amounts earned from various sales activities.
- Info rules produce non-payment performance metrics like quota attainment, sales contest rankings, product margins, revenue schedules, etc.
- Data management rules transform data to support rules building and reporting requirements.
In Core, collections of these rules, grouped into plans, are used to automate the commission process.
For example, one rule might contain all the details for calculating the amount to pay for closing a new sale. Another rule could support the calculation steps and data for commissions earned for renewing a service contract.
For instance, in a commission calculation scenario, the rules engine might have rules like:
- “If a sales representative sells more than $10,000 in a month, apply a 10% commission rate.”
- “If the sales amount is between $5,000 and $10,000, apply a 7% commission rate.”
- “If the sales amount is below $5,000, apply a 5% commission rate.”
Benefits of a Business Rules Engine
A BRE is particularly valuable when there are several components and complex dependencies for a given rule, as is often the case when it comes to commission plans and structures. So, the most obvious advantage to a rules engine is the level of automation it provides to ever-changing variables.
Along with automation, there are countless other reasons why a rules engine is best suited for handling the complexities of commission processes. These include:
- Improved Efficiency: Automation is key in a commission platform and that’s exactly what a rules engine provides. A BRE automates otherwise manual and repetitive tasks to improve operational efficiencies. Instead of manually evaluating the input of all of your sales data to see how it aligns with your commission structure, a rules engine completes this process for you, and does so in a matter of seconds.
- Greater Flexibility: A business rules engine makes it easy for non-technical users to manage rule logic. In fact, Core’s no-code rules engine allows users to make changes directly to their rule structure through an intuitive graphical interface with drag and drop functionality. Being able to modify rules easily is what makes Core’s platform agile and highly adaptable to changes. Users can manage exactly how the platform functions and can customize the system to fit their specific requirements through the rules engine.
- Scalability: Because a rules engine is capable of managing multiple variables and complex dependencies, it is ideal for supporting increased volumes of data as your business grows. Core’s rule versioning features are also specifically designed to help with scalability as it allows administrators to implement changes to rules without losing links to reports or other outputs, while maintaining a history of changes over time.
- Increased Accuracy: When processing commissions manually, it’s easy and common to make mistakes. An incorrect sales amount gets attached to a sales rep’s commission, or the fact that they have met their monthly goal gets overlooked and they miss out on an expected bonus. There are so many variables to keep track of and monitor, it’s nearly impossible to get it right 100% of the time using manual processes. With a BRE, the system works to ensure that everything is done correctly by verifying that all inputs are valid before performing any actions.
- Transparent Structure: When an error occurs, a rules engine makes it infinitely easier to identify exactly what could be causing the system to produce the wrong output. There’s absolutely no need to pore through lines of code when you can pinpoint exactly where the discrepancy is in the flow of logic using Core’s intuitive graphical interface. Additionally, when implementing a new rule in Core, or making changes to an existing rule, you can audit results directly from the rule’s graphical display to ensure accuracy.
Automate Commission Plans of Any Complexity with Core’s Rules Engine
Core’s rules engine is what makes our platform so powerful and adaptable. With over 20 years’ experience in commission automation, our rules engine has been continually updated and enhanced to ensure that it automates even the most complex commission plans.
Users can feel empowered to build and maintain their commissions rules by leveraging our intuitive graphical drag and drop rules designer – no coding necessary. Core’s rules engine was specifically created with compensation administrators in mind. You don’t need to know the ends and outs of how a rules engine works. It’s user-friendly, intuitive, and capable of managing every facet of commission management.
Contact us or schedule a demo to see the full extent of what our rules engine is capable of and why we’re so proud of it.