New platform offers easy to use, comprehensive predictive and prescriptive analytics: data mining, text mining, forecasting, simulation and risk analysis, linear, nonlinear and stochastic optimization in a web browser, using a point-and-click interface familiar to millions of business users.
INCLINE VILLAGE, NV – May 22, 2019 – Frontline Systems, developer of the Solver in desktop Microsoft Excel®, has released Analytic Solver® V2019, a SaaS (software as a service) cloud and desktop platform that offers Excel-savvy business analysts point-and-click tools to create predictive and prescriptive analytics models themselves, without needing expert data scientists or programmers.
Available now in Microsoft AppSource, Analytic Solver (simulation and optimization) and Analytic Solver Data Mining (forecasting and machine learning) are the only currently-available tools of their kind that work in a browser with Excel Online, as well as in desktop Excel for Windows and Macintosh. A companion ‘Windows desktop-only’ version is also available for download from www.solver.com, for users in the 9% of large firms who haven’t yet upgraded to Office 365 subscription versions of Excel.
Analytic Solver V2019 has been rewritten from the ground up using JavaScript, REST API, Azure and Office 365 technologies, but it inherits the full power and ease of use of Frontline Systems’ analytics software from over 25 years’ experience supporting business analysts using these methods in practice.
“Other vendors are talking about ‘democratizing analytics’ through easier to use tools,” said Daniel Fylstra, Frontline’s President and CEO, “but Frontline has been delivering on this vision for years.”
User Interface Familiar to Business Users
Analytic Solver V2019 offers a user interface with a Ribbon and drop-down menu choices, a Task Pane for model analysis and navigation, and the full range of Excel features for model building, whether it’s used in a browser, on Windows, or on Macintosh. All the elements of optimization, simulation/risk analysis, and data mining models are saved in the user’s Excel workbook, which can be transferred freely between cloud and desktop. Unlike other prescriptive analytics tools, models and their results are ‘fully transparent’ as Excel spreadsheets, readily understood at all levels of management.
Using Data and Models from Cloud and Desktop Sources
Loading data sets, query-based summaries, and representative random samples of data from SQL Azure databases, and Apache Spark Big Data clusters is a simple point-and-click operation in Analytic Solver V2019. Users who are learning – via Frontline’s own online courses at Solver.Academy, or the hundreds of university courses that use Frontline’s analytics software – can easily choose from a dropdown list of 100 example models and datasets, crafted to illustrate ideas in data mining, forecasting, simulation and risk analysis, linear, nonlinear and stochastic optimization.
Easiest-Ever Model Deployment to Power BI, Tableau and Web Applications
Where deploying a model in a production application was once a difficult process that often meant rewriting the model in a programming language, Analytic Solver V2019 models can be prepared for deployment by simply clicking the Create App dropdown menu – which immediately yields a self-contained, working application in Power BI®, Tableau®, or even in a standalone web page, using JavaScript and Frontline’s RASON® service. RASON models also work readily with C/C++, C#, Java, R and Python, and are flexible enough to run on desktop PCs, on-premise servers, or on websites or in mobile apps, using REST API calls to Frontline’s cloud service.
Frontline Systems Inc. (www.solver.com) is the alternative to analytics complexity, helping business analysts and managers gain insights and make better decisions for an uncertain future, without the cost, delays and risk of ‘big vendor’ tools. Its products integrate forecasting and data mining for “predictive analytics,” Monte Carlo simulation and risk analysis, and conventional and stochastic optimization for “prescriptive analytics.” Founded in 1987, Frontline is based in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300).
Excel® and Power BI® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. Tableau® is a registered trademark of Tableau Software Corp. Analytic Solver® and RASON® are registered trademarks of Frontline Systems, Inc.