Announcement letter for IBM Operational Decision Manager for z/OS V8.5

Content

Overview:
The offering provides end-to-end, lifecycle support for business decisions invoked from COBOL and PL/I applications. This includes capabilities for decision testing and simulation within the zRule Execution Server (zRES) for z/OS environment and the ability to trace the execution of how a business decision is made in the zRule Execution Server through the Decision Warehouse feature.

IBM ODM for z/OS provides multiple, business-rule execution choices for z/OS customers. This includes a business rule deployment option for Enterprise COBOL, PL/I, and IMS batch applications, which can run stand-alone or hosted within a CICS 4.x or CICS 5.x region. IBM ODM for z/OS also provides support for decision evaluation for COBOL and PL/I applications in IMS environments, both online and batch (support of IMS V10 and later) with the zRule Execution Server for z/OS .

New and enhanced capabilities in IBM ODM for z/OS , V8.5:

• Support for PL/I Language - Extends your ability to utilize decision management and modernize your applications.
• Improved CICS and IMS integration with the Decision Engine - Includes performance improvements and persistent connection support.
• Expanded support for Decision Engine - Now available on WebSphere Application Server for z/OS .
• Simpler deployment configuration - Includes control card-based deployment definitions.
• Comprehensive change management and governance - Includes a design that is based on the new Decision Governance Framework, a ready-to-use, prescriptive approach for both large enterprises and small and medium businesses.
• New integration options with IBM Integration Bus (IIB) - Allows software architects and developers to more easily integrate IBM ODM decision services.

• Automating and governing operational decision making across business processes and applications to help improve business outcomes
• Helping detect opportunities and risks in real time
• Easily and consistently implementing changes to meet new market demands or policy requirements
• Supporting incremental modernization of existing CICS , IMS , and batch applications written in COBOL or PL/I without a complete re-write
• Facilitating consistent decision evaluation across platforms, projects, and processes by allowing the reuse of business models between rule projects in z/OS and distributed applications
• Detecting events and event patterns in real time to enable situational awareness and response of actionable situations ( IBM ODM)
• Automating the response of highly variable decisions based on the specific context of a process, transaction, or interaction
• Managing and governing rules-based decision logic separately from application code in order to provide better visibility, understanding, and maintainability compared to traditional application development
• Integrating with a number of other z/OS technologies to create comprehensive decision management solutions written in COBOL or PL/I, using CICS , IMS , or z/OS batch execution environments.