Identifying a group of products relevant to data provided by a user

1. A method for using a rule-based system implemented by at least one physical processor to identify from a set of available products a group of products relevant to data provided by a user, the method comprising:

creating with said rule-based system a number of rules based on said data provided by said user;

for each available product in said set of available products:

creating a combined ruleset comprising said rules based on said data provided by said user and a number of rules characterizing said available product; and

determining with said rule-based system whether a conflict exists in said combined ruleset; and

returning to said user said available products for which no conflict was found as said group of products relevant to said data provided by said user.

2. The method of claim 1 , in which said determining with said rule-based system whether a conflict exists in said combined ruleset comprises determining whether any of said number of rules characterizing said available product combines with any of said number of rules based on said data provided by said user to create a logical inference for said rule-based system.

3. The method of claim 1 , in which said combined ruleset further comprises a number of rules based on external conditions.

4. The method of claim 1 , in which said number of rules based on said data provided by said user and said number of rules characterizing said product comprise description logic.

5. The method of claim 1 , in which said creating said number of rules based on said data provided by said user comprises executing a translation function to translate a term or a condition provided by said user into a format able to be processed by a logical reasoner implemented in said rule-based system.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a subset of products from said set of available products by using a database query, said subset comprising products of a type specified by said query, in which said subset is used as said set of available products.

7. The method of claim 1 , in which said products comprise financial products.

8. The method of claim 7 , in which said rules characterizing said product represent financial terms and conditions of said product.

9. The method of claim 7 , in which said rules based on data provided by said user represent information about said user.

10. The method of claim 7 in which said rules based on data provided by said user represent customer specifications for a desired financial product from said set of financial products.

11. A computing system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled to said processor, said memory having stored thereon executable code configured to implement a rule-based logical reasoner when said executable code is executed by said processor;

in which said processor is configured to:

create a number of rules based on said data provided by said user;

for each available product in said set of available products:

create a combined ruleset comprising said rules based on said data provided by said user and a number of rules characterizing said available product; and

determine with said rule-based logical reasoner whether a conflict exists in said combined ruleset; and

return to said user said available products for which no conflict was found as said group of products relevant to said data provided by said user.

12. The computing system of claim 11 , in which to determine whether a conflict exists in said combined ruleset, said processor is further configured to determine whether any of said number of rules characterizing said available product combines with any of said number of rules based on said data provided by said user to create a logical inference for said rule-based system.

13. The computing system of claim 11 , in which said combined ruleset further comprises a number of rules based on external conditions.

14. The computing system of claim 11 , in which said number of rules based on said data provided by said user and said number of rules characterizing said product comprise description logic.

15. The computing system of claim 11 , in which said creating said number of rules based on said data provided by said user comprises executing a translation function to translate a term or a condition provided by said user into a format able to be processed by a logical reasoner implemented in said rule-based system.

16. The computing system of claim 11 , in which said processor is further configured to generate a subset of products from said set of available products by using a database query, said subset comprising products of a type specified by said query, in which said subset is used as said set of available products.

17. The computing system of claim 11 , in which said set of available products comprise financial products.

18. The computing system of claim 17 , in which said rules characterizing said product represent financial terms and conditions of said product.

19. The computing system of claim 17 , in which said rules based on data provided by said user represent at least one of: information about said user and user specifications for a desired one of said financial products.

20. A computer program product for determining an appropriate product for a customer, said computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable code embodied therewith, said computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code configured to create a number of rules based on said data provided by said user;

for each available product in said set of available products:

computer readable program code configured to create a combined ruleset comprising said rules based on said data provided by said user and a number of rules characterizing said available product; and

computer readable program code configured to determine whether a conflict exists in said combined ruleset; and

computer readable program code configured to return to said user said available products for which no conflict was found as said group of products relevant to said data provided by said user.

21. A method for using a rule-based system implemented by at least one physical processor to conduct a search to identify from a set of available products a group of products relevant to data provided by a user, the method comprising:

creating with said rule-based system a number of rules based on said data provided by said user, said data provided by said user being data describing a desired product for which a search is to be conducted among said set of available products;

for each available product in said set of available products:

creating a combined ruleset comprising said rules based on said data provided by said user and a number of rules characterizing said available product; and

determining with said rule-based system whether a conflict exists in said combined ruleset;

for each individual product for which no said conflict exists in said combined ruleset, identifying that product to be listed in search results to be returned to said user; and

returning to said user said search results which indicate available products for which no conflict in said combined ruleset was found as said group of products relevant to said data provided by said user.