Automated matching technology can deliver business benefits in a wide variety of business situations - wherever a solution is sought from among a set of possibilities. Even where those possibilities are complex, and need to be tailored or configured for each customer situation. 

Our matching technology brings together dynamic rule-based configuration and structured search and selection, to create a unique high-performance matching solution.  

Concepts

Services are described in an xml document as a set of attributes or properties, and placed as advertisements in a Matching Systems Engine.  These service descriptions can also include business rules that will be applied during the matching process to determine whether the service should be offered to that particular customer, and if so, what values the set of attributes should have.  

A customer query, like a service description, consists of an xml document describing the customer and their requirements as a set of attributes or properties.  When the query is submitted to a Matching Systems Engine, the matching process is triggered, and the business rules determine which advertisements should form part of the set of offers to be returned to the customer.  During this process, those offers that match the customer situation are configured using their business rules, taking into account the characteristics of the customer (the customer properties).  These rules might also trigger the fetching of information from existing operational systems, databases or even other Matching Systems Engines.  

In this way, the matching engine creates a set of offers that match the customer's situation, while also taking into account the business rules provided with each advertisement. 

Methodology

Matching Systems is more than just smart technology.  Our development methodology complements the core Matching Systems Engine and its tools to ensure a successful transfer of a matching solution from the drawing board to an efficient and scalable high-performance implementation.  An early proof-of-concept prototype can be designed during a workshop lasting just a few days, and deployed in a timescale ranging from just a few days to a few weeks.

Because the technology has been designed with scalability and distribution in mind, there is no need to scrap the prototype after a successful trial - it can be used to form the foundations for the full-scale production system, with an expanded information model and integration with legacy systems and corporate databases.

For more information on the wide range of business domains to which this technology can be applied, select one of the options on the neighbouring panel.  Alternatively, for more technical details, enter our Technology section.