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DSS News
D. J. Power, Editor
January 5, 2003 -- Vol. 4, No. 1
A Bi-Weekly Publication of DSSResources.COM
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Featured:
* Ask Dan! - Where can I find or download a DSS demo?
* What's New at DSSResources.COM
* DSS News Releases
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Ask Dan!
by Daniel J. Power
Where can I find or download a DSS demo? What vendors have decision
support demonstration software?
Requests for information about DSS demos is a frequent query to Ask Dan.
The answer changes however depending upon what vendors are doing at
their web sites and with their products. Recently, Peter Keenan posted a
request on ISWorld for information on DSS demos, Hector Diaz wrote
"Where can I download a DSS demo?" and Bassem Farouk wrote "where can I
download a free trial for GDSS software?" So I'll try to provide a
starting point in this response. Some vendors will be missed in this
response and they should contact me with details of their free demos
and/or downloads. Readers may also want to check the DSS Vendor Pages at
http://dssresources.com/vendorlist .
Buyer Beware! If you are considering downloading demonstration software,
keep in mind that the software may use significant resources on your
computer. Also, the size of some demos often results in slow downloads.
Demonstration software downloads have limitations and restrictions so
read the materials at the web site providing the software carefully. You
will usually need to complete an on-line request form and you may need
to speak with a sales representative.
A biased sampling. It is hard to find good demonstration downloads
related to building data-driven DSS. A number of vendors do however
showcase web-based demonstrations of DSS built using their software. The
following list includes downloads for some development tasks like ETL
and some web-based demonstrations of data-driven DSS. Downloads of
single user development tools for building knowledge-driven and
model-driven DSS are much easier to find. Finding demos for
communications-driven and Group DSS is also a problem because by design
such software is a multi-user, server based application. The only GDSS
demo download that I've found is at Meetingworks.com. I haven't tried
downloading the 8-participant license of Meetingworks for Windows, but
I'm sure the company hopes you'll try it and then upgrade to
Meetingworks Connect and Meetingworks InternetEdition. Also, please note
I have not tried most of the demonstration downloads listed below ... so
send me feedback if you try any of them ... In general, I think
Microsoft Excel is the best introductory development environment for
learning about building both data-driven and model-driven DSS.
Check the following vendors for decision support related demos:
1. Actuate Software Corporation - Actuate Reporting System and
e.Spreadsheet Designer Demo,
http://www.actuate.com/productdemo/index.asp
2. Advanced Software Applications - ModelMAX Plus is a modeling,
scoring, and profiling analytical tool,
http://www.asacorp.com/HTML/Products/products.htm
3. arcplan, Inc. - dynaSight, there are several web demos available
showing the utilization of dynaSight in different computing
environments,
http://www.dynasight.com/demos_live.html
4. ArcView MapObjects 2.1, download a 90-day evaluation version at
http://www.esri.com/company/free.html.
5. Attar Software - XpertRule Knowledge Builder,
http://www.attar.com/samples/kb_setup.htm, and XpertRule Miner,
http://www.attar.com/samples/xm_setup.htm
6. Bayesia S.A. - BayesiaLab,
http://www.bayesia.com/GB/produits/bLab/BlabPresentation.php
7. Business Objects - WebIntelligence, a query, reporting, and online
analytical processing tool, an online demo,
http://www.businessobjects.com/products/webi/
8. Brio.Enterprise and Brio.Report self-running demonstrations at
http://www.brio.com/products/demo/index.html
9. Business Forecasting Systems, Inc. - Forecast Pro,
http://www.forecastpro.com/downloads_&_demos.htm
10. Cygron Pte. Ltd. - DataScope, a data mining and decision support
tool, http://www.cygron.com/TrialDownload.html
11. Databeacon Inc. - Databeacon 5.3, online demo and download an
evaluation version, http://www.databeacon.com/
12. Decisioneering - Crystal Ball 2000 simulation software demo, an
Excel add-in, http://www.decisioneering.com/dss/
13. Decision Systems, Inc. - decisionport,
http://www.decisionsystems.com/dsiport.htm
14. DIMENSION 5 - miner3D.excel,
http://www.miner3d.com/m3Dxl/download.html
15. Enterprise Solutions, Inc. - MeetingWorks at www.Meetingworks.com
(FREE 8 participant copy of MeetingWorks GDSS).
16. Entopia, Inc. - Quantum Suite,
http://www.entopia.com/products_pg3.3.htm
17. Expert Choice at www.expertchoice.com (free EC2000 trial version).
18. Insightful Corporation - Demos include Insightful Miner, a data
mining workbench, and example web applications,
http://www.insightful.com/products/demos.asp
19. Infoharvest - Criterium Decision Plus (an AHP implementation) at
www.infoharvest.com (free student version of CDP 3.0).
20. KMtechnologies - work2gether, electronic repository for company
documents and ideas, web-based flash demo only works in Internet
Explorer, http://www.kmtechnologies.com/en/Products/flashdemo.asp
21. Logic Technologies - BestChoice3 at www.logic-gem.com/bc.htm.
22. Lumina - ANALYTICA 2.0 from www.lumina.com, try it free for 30 days.
23. Megaputer Intelligence, Inc - PolyAnalyst Pro, suite of data mining
algorithms, and TextAnalyst, http://www.megaputer.com/php/eval.php3
24. Palisade Corp. - DecisionTools Suite, @RISK, PrecisionTree, TopRank,
BestFit and RISKview,
http://www.palisade.com/html/trial_versions.html
25. Pilot Software at www.pilotsw.com has a walkthrough online of its
Balanced Scorecard system.
26. Treeage - DATA 4.0 trial download at www.treeage.com.
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What's New at DSSResources.COM
01/04/2003 Updated Spreadsheet-based DSS page, includes new development
tips.
01/02/2003 Rotated Guestbook, What's New, and did other changes
associated with a new year. For Old What's New, see the 2002 What's New
page, 2001 What's New page, 2000 What's New page, or the 1996-1999
What's New page.
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Send your Ask Dan! questions to askdan@dssresources.com
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DSS News Releases - December 23, 2002 to January 03, 2003
01/02/2003 Aberdeen Group announces top predictions for 2003 IT trends;
global technology spending will grow, bright spots include enterprise
Linux, business integration, and WiFi.
01/01/2003 CIO spending plans remain on track -- seventy percent to
spend on new initiatives in 2003.
12/31/2002 University of Washington Academic Medical Center deploys
Carefx's Fusion Context Manager.
12/26/2002 Timeline receives Israel patent on data mart generation
technology.
12/24/2002 Archi-Tech Systems Inc. has extended its DART Product Suite
to include a decision support tool for DDD or source non-retail data.
12/23/2002 Documentum 5 wins product of the year from Transform
magazine.
12/23/2002 Increased expertise management software adoption expected in
2003; Kamoon fueling market growth.
12/23/2002 IDC Predicts 2003 will be a good year for Linux, Wireless
LANs, and Messaging, but not for Itanium or IT services.
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DSS News is copyrighted (c) 2002 by D. J. Power. Please send
your questions to daniel.power@dssresources.com.
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