BRE 9.0 From FirePond Bows.(FirePond Business Rule Engine (9.0)(Product Announcement)

FirePond has released version 9.0 of FirePond Business Rule Engine (BRE). This version is designed to establish the company's Web-based sales "configurator" (configuration tool) as an independent application that can be rapidly deployed with out-of-the-box product, pricing and needs analysis functionality and easily maintained by line business managers. FirePond BRE also drives the FirePond Application Suite for the interactive selling of complex products across multiple sales channels. With the addition of a new Enterprise Java Bean API (application program interface), core sales configuration functions and data can be deployed in any Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-compliant application server environment (such as IBM WebSphere, FirePond and other third-party applications). Highlights of the enhancements include an option for stand-alone configuration; out-of-the-box, industry-specific data models for rapid deployment; the ability for users to create configuration rules using a simple natural language int erface; enhanced role-based editing views that are tailored to specific job functions reducing complexity for users populating and updating the rules engine database; the addition of a new tool for visually identifying, mapping and importing data from external systems; a standard browser-based test application; extensive rules search functionality and an intuitive tools navigation interface.