INCLINE VILLAGE, NV – September 17, 2014 – As spreadsheet users move between desktop Excel and web-based Excel Online, analytics software developer Frontline Systems has more than kept pace. Frontline, original developer of the Solver add-in that ships with desktop Excel, was one of the earliest vendors to release an advanced analytics “app” for Excel Online, the free Solver App, in July 2013. Now Frontline also offers the subscription-based Premium Solver App, which enables users to solve large-scale mathematical optimization problems – solving for thousands or even millions of decisions – through a web browser, just as easily as they do in desktop Excel with Frontline’s Premium Solver Platform.
“We are democratizing analytics for both spreadsheet users and web users,” said Daniel Fylstra, Frontline’s President and CEO. “We're making it easy to move from self-service business intelligence to self-service advanced analytics.”
Upward Compatible from Excel Solver, Solves Models in the Cloud
Like Frontline’s enhanced Solvers for desktop Excel, the Solver App and Premium Solver App for Excel Online are upward compatible from the Solver included in Excel. Users can simply open a workbook with a Solver model created in any previous version of Excel for Windows or Macintosh, and solve it immediately in the cloud. Through a web browser, users can easily create or modify their models on any browser-capable device, from tablets or even phones to laptops and desktops. On demand, powerful Solver engines running on Windows Azure based cloud servers, maintained by Frontline Systems, find the optimal solution.
Use with Microsoft Power BI Amplifies “Self-Service Business Intelligence”
Frontline’s advanced analytics tools build upon Microsoft’s recent investment in data access and “self-service business intelligence” that have made Excel much more than a spreadsheet. Just as Frontline’s advanced Solvers for desktop Excel work with Power BI’s desktop add-ins, Frontline’s Solver Apps extend the capabilities of Power BI’s web-based business intelligence and sharing tools.
With Microsoft's Power Pivot – an Excel add-in based on SQL Server Analysis Services’ xVelocity database engine – Excel functions as a modern, in-memory, multidimensional database, easily capable of holding 100 million rows of data. The Power Query add-in, based on SQL Server Integration Services, provides an exceptionally powerful and easy to use ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) capability for this in-memory database, drawing data from a huge range of sources, from Hadoop clusters and Oracle databases to Windows Azure Data Marketplace. Frontline’s Analytic Solver add-ins work with both Pivot Tables and direct samples that draw data from this multidimensional database.
Using Office 365 with Microsoft’s Power BI extensions, users can easily upload their Power Pivot-based Excel workbooks to the cloud, share their spreadsheet-based reports and their dashboard visualizations created with Power View, and even refresh their data from both cloud-based and on-premise databases. And with Solver App and Premium Solver App, users can immediately re-solve to find new optimal decisions based on their latest operating data.
Works with On-Premise SharePoint 2013 Servers
Like other Apps for Office, the Solver App and Premium Solver App work in desktop Excel 2013 and the Excel Web App included in SharePoint 2013, as well as Office 365 Excel Online. Companies who aren’t yet comfortable with cloud-based solutions can Frontline’s Solver Server on an on-premise Windows server to get the same results. Solver Server can support both the Solver App and Premium Solver App, running in a SharePoint 2013 environment, and Frontline’s Premium Solver Pro and Premium Solver Platform add-ins, running in desktop Excel 2013, Excel 2010 or Excel 2007.
Frontline Systems Inc. (https://www.solver.com) is the leader in spreadsheet-based analytics software, 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.” Frontline developed the solvers/optimizers in Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro, distributed to more than 1 billion spreadsheet users. Founded in 1987, Frontline is based in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300).