Corticon Accelerates IT Development and Maintenance for State Departments of Transportation

As regulations change and driving populations grow, states must nimbly respond to public demands for easy access and web-based applications.

As of 2019, there were 284.5 million registered vehicles in the U.S., and the number was growing. State government agencies charged with registering, licensing and inspecting these vehicles are facing increasing workload and a public that demands more self-service options.

But state IT departments often contend with intractable legacy systems that make it costly and time-consuming to add integrated service applications. As states have begun to modernize away from legacy software, many have turned to Progress Corticon business rules management system (BRMS).

With Corticon, they can rein in the costs and shorten the development cycles of creating new services and maintaining current ones. Corticon streamlines the building and deployment of detailed business rules for transactions such as vehicle registration, fee calculation, title applications, transfers, renewals and more.

Departments can automate these key transactions with less effort and shorter timeframes:

• Vehicle registration and fees
• Title applications and fees
• Transfer applications
• Online driver’s license applications
• Notifications of renewal, delinquent registrations and payment issues

Read: Corticon & State Governments ebook

A BRMS Cuts Budget and Speeds Development

Automation for tasks such as vehicle registration, licensing, fee calculation or notifications requires business logic. The business logic includes rules such as how much to charge for certain licenses or what kind of registration commercial vehicles must have. Development teams use the BRMS to represent those rules in the application.

Respond faster with less cost

When legacy systems were developed, the business logic was hard-coded into the application. Rules were sprinkled throughout the code so when it’s time to update or change them, there’s no fast way to find them.

With a BRMS, the rules are represented in one service, which applications can call when a logical calculation is needed. If a regulation changes, the project team can easily find the relevant rules and make the necessary updates one time for all client applications. For new automation, rule designers can reuse business logic and ensure new rules don’t cause conflicts.

Lower the risk of inconsistently applied rules

As the number and types of service apps proliferate, it becomes dangerous to hide the business logic throughout software code. If some updates are missed or some applications are changed while others are not, the overall service to the public becomes unreliable.

Managing the rules via BRMS reduces the risk of inconsistencies because the project team can develop and test all the rules together. No hidden logic is missed in updates and the same rules serve all client applications.

Corticon Amplifies the Business Value of a BRMS

Corticon was developed by business rule experts who understand what it takes for a BRMS to provide lasting value to the business. That’s why Corticon maximizes transparency, maintainability and flexibility.

Corticon customers cut effort and timelines by up to 90%.

Streamline development by strengthening the link between transportation experts and IT

While transportation analysts understand the details of licensing, registration and fees, it’s often difficult to communicate that information to IT. The process takes time and is prone to confusion.

Corticon smooths the communication between teams with its no-coding, user-friendly development environment, Corticon Studio. In Studio, non-technical teams who know the business logic best can enter the rules directly. Then Corticon translates those rules to code for deployment. As a result, Corticon lowers the communication barrier and reduces the risk and cost of misunderstandings.

Minimize expensive errors with powerful testing

Every project team works to prevent errors, but when dealing with complex regulations such as vehicle safety or myriad types of registrations, logical bugs can slip through. If they go unnoticed until integration testing or even deployment, they can cost up to 30 times more to fix.

Corticon Studio includes special features designed to catch logical problems before they become bugs in the software. These tools help rule modelers identify conflicts and uncover data scenarios which the rules don’t address.

The rich testing suite in Studio also helps find errors quickly. Subject experts can run regression tests against “known good” results to ensure new or updated rules don’t have unintended consequences. Each test also provides a procedural record of rule execution, so modelers can ensure that every use case is being handled properly before the rules are handed over to IT for integration.

Ensure continued responsiveness and ease of maintenance

Corticon Studio encourages best practices which make code understandable after original rule modelers have left the team. Each rule has a plain language explanation of its function, and modelers can leave comments on any part of the project, noting regulation sources, to-do items, testing details and more. The test function also tracks the execution of rules for each use case, so it’s clear how the rules are operating.

Protect IT investment by adapting to evolving architectures

To protect the initial investment, a BRMS must continue to contribute as technology evolves around it. Corticon’s rule engine, Corticon Server, fits seamlessly with Java or .Net environments and integrates with legacy mainframes, service-oriented REST-based architectures, or containerized applications in the cloud.

Twenty-eight States Have Chosen Corticon

Across the U.S., 28 states have selected Corticon to handle the logical decisions for departments ranging from transportation to health and human services. Corticon’s transparency, flexibility and ease of use, help state agencies manage increasing regulatory complexity and service demands even as budgets tighten. And its renowned reliability deftly handles the high transactional volumes required for mission-critical applications.

There’s nothing like firsthand experience to help you determine if Corticon is right for your state. If you’d like to test drive this powerful rules engine and see for yourself, download a trial version or request a demo today.

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