Case Study: a large Brazilian durable goods retailer streamlines compensation with IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules

Streamlining compensation program with IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules BRMS

A large Brazilian durable goods retailer faced significant challenges with its outdated and inflexible incentive compensation system. The 15-year-old COBOL program, which managed 60 complex rules for calculating sales commissions and bonuses, was difficult to maintain, prone to breakdowns, and required a monthly 12 to 18-hour processing run that created immense pressure to meet payroll deadlines. Seeking a more transparent and manageable solution, the company turned to IBM and implemented the IBM WebSphere ILOG JRules BRMS.

The IBM solution modernized the retailer's compensation process by breaking the massive monthly batch run into smaller, daily processing jobs that take only 55 minutes each. This provided employees with real-time visibility into their earnings through an intranet portal and gave the business the flexibility to easily adjust and test compensation rules. As a result, the retailer eliminated system downtime, improved employee morale, and freed its IT team from the constant pressure of supporting a fragile, single-point-of-failure system.