From XPS to DMN: A Turning Point in the Decision-Making Process after 25 Years of Innovation

With the introduction of XPS 25 years ago, SCHUMANN had a sustained impact on the world of evaluation and decision-making. The system offered an innovative possibility to structure and evaluate complex decisions and it quickly found many applications in a wide range of different fields. Especially in the risk management software CAM, XPS played an important role. Here, it was primarily used for risk assessment and the evaluation of business partners. It enabled the efficient and precise evaluation of mass decision-making in order to make well-founded decisions.

But 25 years after its introduction XPS is showing signs of old age. The technological landscape has changed fundamentally and new requirements on evaluation and decision-making systems have evolved. Essential customer desires – the better comprehension of evaluation processes and the ability to influence them – could only be fulfilled to a limited extent with XPS.

In order to meet these new requirements, SCHUMANN has decided to replace XPS in the core of the risk evaluation with the industry standard DMN (Decision Model and Notation). DMN offers a wide range of advantages compared with XPS, including:

• Improved modelling: DMN makes it possible to design decision-making models that are easier to understand and provide a better overview.
• More flexibility: DMN can be flexibly adapted to the requirements of various areas of application.
• In addition to analysing the credit worthiness of customers, extended analyses in areas such as KYC, compliance, ESG and further risks can therefore be integrated.
• Open standard: DMN is an open standard that is supported by numerous software suppliers.

In addition to the advantages above, DMN offers further benefits that make the change from XPS worthwhile:

• Improved communication: The decision-making models are easy to understand, which improves the communication between all those involved.
• Increased quality: The transparency and comprehensibility of the decision-making models contribute to improving the quality of decisions.
• Cost efficiency: DMN helps to reduce the development and maintenance costs of decision-making systems.
• Improved compliance: DMN can support companies in complying with regulatory requirements.
• Future-orientated solution: DMN is a future-secure standard that is constantly being developed further.

SCHUMANN has already collected positive experiences with the use of DMN in various areas. These include:

• More efficient evaluation of reports: Through DMN, evaluation of individual reports has become more precise and efficient. The interfaces to SCHUFA KYC Now and D&B Direct, for example, have already been realized in this way.
• Complex commercial credit insurance decisions: DMN is also at the heart of the CCI-Manager, in which complex checks on insurance above and below the discretionary credit limit are represented.
• Optimised decision-making processes: DMN has contributed to optimising decisions in the leasing process and for limits. Systems of rules can therefore be processed more quickly and efficiently in order to integrate customers' own individual rules.

DMN is not only a cleaner, more efficient replacement for XPS. This change also opens up new possibilities:

• Triggering of a "business event": Previously, tasks could only be started from XPS. Now, processes can also be started and controlled through a "business event".
• Integration of (external) evaluation systems and information sources: The fundamental technology is designed openly. Further company-internal information sources or external AI tools are technically easy to integrate into the evaluation process. The results of the AI can thus be used as an input for the rule systems.

The change from XPS to DMN will take place in stages. SCHUMANN will actively support customers with this process and provide the necessary tools and resources.

Talk to your project team about it.