Australian business rules software provider, RuleBurst, has commenced work with the Department of Finance and Administration on a $6 million business rules management solution which forms part of the Department’s new Parliamentary Entitlements Management System (PEMS).

RuleBurst’s business rules software is to deliver administration of the complex set of allowances that Federal Senators, Members and their staff are entitled to under a range of legislation. 

As part of the solution, RuleBurst has partnered with two members of the UXC group of companies, QSP Asia Pacific Pty Ltd and Dytech Solutions, that will provide the project management, business analysis, system development and integration and ongoing support services. RuleBurst is responsible for capturing the complex legislative rules, policy, determinations, procedural and guideline rules relating to the entitlements of Parliamentarians and their staff, and integration of those rules into the broader processing application.

“Our RuleBurst 7 software is well suited to the capture and deployment of the complex rules required to ensure accurate and rapid administration of PEMS. With the capability to model rules in Microsoft Word, RuleBurst 7 fulfils Finance’s key requirement that the business rules engine supports maintenance of business rules using plain English. This is important so the language used in the rules can be understood by Finance business staff. With over 1,000 rules, when complete, PEMS will administer the entitlements of around 2,000 individuals that range from Senators, Members and their staff, to former Prime Ministers and Parliamentarians” said Surend Dayal, chief executive, RuleBurst Limited.  

“Winning this tender as part of the QSP Asia Pacific prime contract is a strong testament to our proven expertise with business rules in the Australian public sector, the quality of our software and the recognised strength of our partners. This win will help contribute to RuleBurst’s strong revenue growth in 2006. It also represents our model for large projects of this kind, to work with partners to provide an end to end solution incorporating complex business rules.” said Dayal.   

The contract for the development of PEMS was signed in December 2005, and the system is due to go into operation in 2007.