************************************************************
DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
May 26, 2002 -- Vol. 3, No. 11
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
************************************************************
We apologize for an error that sent a duplicate copy of the
DSS News, May 12, 2002, Vol. 3, No. 10 to subscribers.
************************************************************
Featured:
* DSS Wisdom
* Ask Dan! - Who are the major vendors of Excel add-in
programs for building model-driven DSS?
* More Ask Dan! - What is the reaction to your new DSS book?
* What's New at DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Releases
************************************************************
Check Dan Power's new book, Decision Support Systems:
Concepts and Resources for Managers. Get information at
http://www.dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power02.html .
************************************************************
This newsletter has more than 850 subscribers from
50 countries. Please forward this newsletter to people interested in
Decision Support Systems or suggest they visit DSSResources.COM.
************************************************************
DSS Wisdom
Gerald R. Wagner, the founder of EXECUCOM Systems, wrote in 1983 "...
optimization in decision support has its greatest potential in the
allocation of resources among a diverse variety of alternative futures
-- that is strategic planning: doing the right things as opposed to
doing things right. After all, the strategic issues are where
executive minds excel, and it is there that support will be most
fruitful." (p. 432)
from Wagner, G. R. "Optimizing Decision Support Systems." In House, W.
C. (editor). Decision Support Systems: A Data-Based, Model-Oriented,
User-Developed Discipline. New York: Petrocelli Books, 1983 pp.
421-432. (reprinted from Datamation).
************************************************************
Check the IAP Systems DSS case
using Exsys CORVID at DSSResources.COM
************************************************************
Ask Dan!
by Daniel J. Power
Who are the major vendors of Excel add-in programs for building
model-driven DSS?
In an attempt to provide a comprehensive answer to this question, I
visited the web sites of vendors listed on the Spreadsheet-based DSS
vendor page at DSSResources.COM, did some searches on "add-ins" with
Google and conducted an email interview with Charles Von Thun, CEO of
Decisioneering, Inc. (http://www.crystalball.com). This Ask Dan! column
reports my findings.
First, what is an Excel add-in program? An add-in program enhances the
basic functionality of a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel. There
are two types of add-in programs: those that provide optional commands
and features and that are packaged with the spreadsheet application and
are selected when the spreadsheet is installed, and commercial add-in
programs available from independent vendors at an additional cost.
Second, who are the major vendors? At least 12 companies have Excel
add-in programs that can be used to increase the sophistication of a
specific spreadsheet-based, model-driven DSS. The purpose and design of
a DSS determines whether the proposed DSS requires the purchase of an
add-in program. My search identified three major vendors of commercial
add-in programs that are useful in building model-driven DSS:
Decisioneering, Frontline Systems, and Palisade Software.
Third, what did Mr. Charles Von Thun have to say? In an email interview
received Thursday, May 16, 2002, Mr. Von Thun, CEO of Decisioneering
wrote: "Many companies use enterprise scale systems to collect and
organize transactional and financial information. But what these systems
offer in size and power they lack in flexibility and robustness. Even
the largest companies push a snapshot of data to a spreadsheet model
where they ultimately make their most important decisions. The add-ins
are the tools that enhance this process."
From a technical perspective Von Thun cautioned "It is important to
distinguish between the applications that access Excel for data
interchange and the true plug-ins. These external applications are
usually not modeling centric, which we think is a huge minus."
Further Mr. Von Thun notes, "We have seen continuous evolution and
improvement of spreadsheet add-ins. Excel used to support only .xla
add-ins (VBA macros), but evolved to supporting .xll (library) add-ins
in 1997. Microsoft recently added macro security using certificates and
code signing, and with the move to Office XP and .NET capabilities, we
now have a whole new way to manipulate and build within Excel.
Von Thun also indicated "the most exciting trend we are seeing is the
increased attention we are getting from the mainstream business users.
Risk modeling and simulation are no longer the domain of power users,
and with this trend we expect the demand for easy-to-use, high-quality
add-ins to increase."
Fourth, so what do the commercial add-in packages do? Are they
interchangeable and competing products or do they serve different
modeling functions? In the next few paragraphs, I'll provide a few
highlights, but you'll need to check them out and see how each might
meet your needs.
The major product of Decisioneering, Inc. is Crystal Ball 2000
Professional Edition. It is a suite of Excel-based risk analysis,
optimization and forecasting tools. You can visit Decisioneering at
either http://www.decisioneering.com or at http://www.crystalball.com.
Frontline Systems (http://www.solver.com and http://frontsys.com)
provides the optimization add-in or "Solver" that is packaged with
Excel, but they also sell Premium Solver Platform Version 3.5. It is a
more powerful program and comes with example spreadsheet models and a
user guide.
Palisade Software (http://www.palisade.com) markets the well-known @RISK
add-in. @RISK 4.5 is available in three editions: Standard,
Professional, and Industrial. The Palisade DecisionTools Suite includes
five products: @RISK, PrecisionTree®, TopRank®, BestFit®, and RISKview™.
Other optimization add-ins include GeneHunter
(http://www.wardsystems.com), Evolver (http://www.palisade.com),
What'sBest (http://www.lindo.com) and XPRESS (http://www.dash.co.uk).
Decision Support Services has a product called Decision ToolPak
(http://www.decisiontoolpak.com). It consists of three decision modeling
add-ins for Microsoft Excel: TreePlan, SensIt and RiskSim. XLSIM
(http://www.analycorp.com) is a Monte Carlo Simulation add-in for Excel.
Simtools.xla (http://home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/addins.htm) adds
statistical functions and procedures for doing Monte Carlo simulation
and risk analysis in spreadsheets.
Some add-ins can also help with building data-driven DSS. Analyse-it!
(http://www.analyse-it.com) and XLSTAT (http://www.xlstat.com) are
statistical software add-ins. The XLSTAT add-in offers over 40 different
functions to enhance data analysis.
Finally, what can we conclude about spreadsheet add-in programs? DSS
developers need to learn when it is appropriate to use add-ins to build
more powerful model-driven DSS and managers need to understand the
purpose of spreadsheet add-ins.
In my email interview, Charles Von Thun (CEO at Decisioneering) took a
broad perspective on spreadsheet add-in products. Let me end this Ask
Dan! with another quote from him. Von Thun noted "Every business we talk
to uses spreadsheets to model decisions. Some users are more
sophisticated, some barely scratch the surface of the power of modeling,
but there is no doubt that spreadsheets (more specifically Excel
spreadsheets) are the standard for decision modeling." I agree with you,
Charles! We have just begun to understand how spreadsheets and add-ins
can be used to build more powerful model-driven DSS ...
If you're interested in learning more about Excel add-ins to enhance
model-driven DSS, you should follow the vendor links.
Many thanks to Charles Von Thun, CEO of Decisioneering, Inc., and
Jennifer Mogck, Marketing Communications Manager at Decisioneering, Inc.
You can contact Jennifer at jmogck@decisioneering.com.
************************************************************
More Ask Dan!
by Daniel J. Power
Editor, DSSResources.COM
What is the reaction to your new DSS book?
My book, "Decision Support Systems: Concepts and Resources for Managers"
will probably never be a non-fiction best seller, but it continues to
move up the sales ranking at Barnes & Noble. Some of the online book
retailers have it in stock for immediate delivery. Also, Wal-Mart.COM
started stocking it with their "everyday low price" 30% discount. If
you're searching for it, the ISBN # is 1-56720-497-X.
Alexander Verharen, Global Practice Manager for eBusiness Services at
QAD Global Services (http://www.qad.com), sent me an encouraging email
May 18. Alexander wrote: "I ordered my personal copy immediately
FURTHERMORE I have ordered another 8 for my colleagues!!!! I found I had
an "Aha! Erlebnis" on almost every page! Keep up the good work!" I'll
try Alexander and thanks for the feedback!
For more information about my book, check
http://dssresources.com/dssbookstore/power02.html or send me an email,
Daniel.Power@DSSResources.COM.
************************************************************
What's New at DSSResources.COM
05/22/2002 Created For Professors page at DSSResources.COM. The page is
still under construction. Please send your suggestions to
power@dssresources.com.
05/12/2002 Posted case by EXSYS Staff, "IAP Systems Using Exsys CORVID
Expert System Software to Support Corporate Families on Overseas
Assignments", EXSYS, Inc., 2002, URL DSSResources.COM/cases/.
************************************************************
DSS News - May 9, 2002 to May 23, 2002
Complete news releases can be found at DSSResources.COM.
05/23/2002 Healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations praise
MicroStrategy's New 7i Business Intelligence platform.
05/23/2002 Schneider Logistics uses Cognos Global Extranet to turn
information into competitive advantage.
05/22/2002 VistaPortal Software announces enhancements to VistaJDBC for
streamlined supply chain integration and enterprise reporting.
05/22/2002 Applied OLAP, Inc. Announces New Alliance with ThinkFast
Consulting, Inc.
05/21/2002 SPSS Inc.’s Web-based interactive report distribution
software now delivers native language output.
05/21/2002 Optiant Co-Founder named a top young innovator by MIT
Technology Review.
05/21/2002 IDC finds three-month payback for Network Appliance
enterprise content delivery networks.
05/21/2002 Iteration and Sagent team enable real-time delivery of
business intelligence.
05/20/2002 Informatica data integration software supports military
health system's data warehouse, data mart initiatives.
05/20/2002 Crystal Decisions reaches milestone with 11 million licenses
shipped worldwide.
05/20/2002 Brio Software announces Brio Metrics Builder 7.
05/20/2002 GeoDecisions and IntelliWhere partner to deliver logistics
solution for real-time deployment of military and emergency personnel.
05/20/2002 ProClarity wins Technical Excellence Award at SQL Server
Magazine Live! and Windows & .NET Magazine Live! Event.
05/15/2002 Databeacon helps make Baxter Healthcare a safer place.
05/15/2002 Teradata data warehouse implementation listed by Gartner,
Inc. as a leader in "Ability to Execute" and "Completeness of Vision".
05/15/2002 Business Objects introduces BusinessObjects Broadcast Agent
5.5.
05/15/2002 MarketFirst to integrate industry leading analytic
applications from Business Objects.
05/15/2002 CVS drugstores enters major deal with MicroStrategy.
05/14/2002 Health Net Dental and Vision launches new tool for
contracting brokers.
05/14/2002 IMC Holdings, Inc. uses Comshare® for strategic tool to drive
performance and profitability.
05/13/2002 digiMine Provides Dow Jones with data mining and analysis
solutions for web properties.
05/13/2002 Hermes Pensions Management Limited goes live on Macgregor
Trade Order Management System.
05/13/2002 Discrete Wireless introduces improved Fleet Management
Services.
************************************************************
You can read 696 DSS News releases in
the Subscriber Zone at DSSResources.COM.
************************************************************
This newsletter is available online in the Subscriber Zone
at http://dssresources.com/newsletters/ .
************************************************************
DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2002 by D. J. Power. Please send your questions to
daniel.power@dssresources.com. You have previously subscribed to the DSS News
Mailing List.
|