Advanced Analytics Tool Makes it Easier Than Ever for Business Analysts to Use Optimization Methods in Spreadsheet Models, on Desktops, Tablets, and in the Cloud.
INCLINE VILLAGE, NV – December 9, 2015 – Frontline Systems, developer of the Solver in desktop Microsoft Excel®, has released a major enhancement of its Solver add-in for Excel 2016, Excel Online and Excel for iPad®. The free Solver add-in makes it easier than ever to optimize business models defined in spreadsheets, on desktop PCs, mobile devices, and in the cloud.
Optimization with Solver is used to find better ways to allocate scarce resources, maximize profits or minimize costs or risks, in a wide range of applications in finance and investment, marketing, manufacturing and production, distribution and logistics, purchasing, and human resources, as well as science and engineering.
Rapidly Growing User Base for Advanced Analytics
“Solver and our other tools make advanced analytics accessible for everyone,” said Daniel Fylstra, Frontline’s President and CEO. “This new release extends Solver to the hundred-million-plus users of Office and Excel on iPad and iPad Pro.”
Frontline’s Solver add-in for desktop Excel, first introduced with Excel 3.0 in 1990, has been included in over 1 billion copies of Microsoft Office and Excel distributed since then. Frontline’s Solver add-in for Excel Online, introduced in July 2013, was the first advanced analytics tool for a cloud spreadsheet, and was followed by Risk Solver® and XLMiner® add-ins in 2014 for simulation and risk analysis, statistical analysis and visualization. Frontline expects to exceed 100,000 adoptions of its advanced analytics add-ins for Excel Online and Google Sheets, close to year-end 2015.
New User Interface Optimized for Tablets and Browsers
The new Solver add-in features a task pane based, accordion-style user interface that works well in touch-based use on the iPad, as well as touchpad use on laptops, while still serving mouse-based users on desktops. New functionality in this release includes automatic algebraic diagnosis of optimization models, more powerful linear, nonlinear and evolutionary Solver Engines, and new reports in Excel 2016.
Ability to Scale from Small to Large State-of-the-Art Models
The Solver add-in enables everyone to solve modest-size optimization models for free, up to 200 decision variables and 100 constraints (same as the Solver in desktop Excel). But users of Frontline’s Premium Solver® and Analytic Solver® tools for desktop Excel can ‘publish’ their models to Excel Online, and solve much larger problems, use more powerful Solver engines and more computing time, up to the limits of their desktop licenses (from 2,000 to over 2 million decision variables) – all using the same Solver add-in. Optimization models are solved on Frontline’s RASON® Server, running on Microsoft Azure, which also handles ‘embedded analytics’ models in web and mobile apps written in the RASON modeling language, that Frontline released earlier this year.
Frontline Systems Inc. (https://www.solver.com) is the leader in analytics for spreadsheets and the web, helping managers gain insights and make better decisions for an uncertain future. 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® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. iPad® is a registered trademark of Apple Computer Inc. Analytic Solver®, Premium Solver®, Risk Solver®, XLMiner® and RASON® are registered trademarks of Frontline Systems, Inc.