Modern JavaScript-based Office Add-in works in Excel for the Web, Windows and Macintosh, enables business analysts to create analytics-powered decision services, “point and click” without coding, using optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, data mining and machine learning, rules and decision tables.

INCLINE VILLAGE, NV – July 14, 2020 – Frontline Systems has released a major new version of Analytic Solver®, its toolset for Excel for the Web, Windows and Macintosh, that greatly simplifies the normally-arduous task of deploying an analytic model for use across an organization.

Analytic Solver works in Microsoft Excel to enable business analysts who aren’t data scientists to build and solve analytic models themselves.  It is upward compatible from the Solver in Excel, which Frontline originally developed for Microsoft.  Analytic Solver works with RASON, Frontline’s Azure-hosted platform, to empower users to ‘publish’ and manage analytic models as RESTful decision services, easily usable in Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, or any application that can consume JSON or OData.

New in this release, Excel workbook models built with Analytic Solver can be “used as-is” on the RASON Server. Among other benefits, this means that users of @RISK, a popular desktop-only Excel add-in for Monte Carlo simulation and risk analysis from Palisade Corporation, can easily convert their models to Analytic Solver, where they can be run in Excel for the Web, published to RASON without coding, and managed as RESTful cloud services.

“We’re enabling business analysts to fully utilize their Excel skills, without having their models ‘trapped on a desktop’ or limited to use data in one workbook”, said Daniel Fylstra, Frontline’s President and CEO.  “Analytic Solver and RASON users can ‘move beyond Excel’ to gain cloud-based model and data access, management and governance, without losing the advantages of Excel.”

Results from Analytics in Months, not Years

Analytic Solver plus RASON is a complete "decision management suite" that supports the full range of business rules, forecasting, machine learning, optimization and simulation methods, from small models to large, multi-stage analytics workflows.  But unlike other platforms that require extensive implementation consulting, six- to seven-figure budgets and year-long deployment schedules, Frontline’s tools enable a company’s own staff to get results in months, by leveraging what they already have: business expertise and Excel skills for model creation, modern low-code/no-code tools such as Power Apps and Power Automate for model deployment, and Office 365, Dynamics 365, Common Data Service, OneDrive, and CData’s Cloud Hub tools for data management.  By leveraging OData standards, RASON enables easy use of analytic model results as data – a key idea.

Major enhancements introduced in this Analytic Solver release include:

  • New Deployment Wizard enables business analysts to create RESTful services themselves
  • Manage Models dialog enables monitoring of deployed cloud services from within Excel
  • Multi-stage “data science flows” in Analytic Solver are deployed as RASON decision flows
  • Analytic models in Excel or RASON work in Power BI, Tableau, server and desktop apps
  • 15 new PSI Simulation Functions enable easy cloud use of time series simulation methods
  • 9 new PSI Optimization Functions enable live sensitivity results on worksheets

More major Analytic Solver enhancements introduced in 2020 include:

  • DMN- and FEEL-compatible decision tables enable business rule creation and testing in Excel
  • 36 new/enhanced PSI probability distribution, statistics and property functions for simulation
  • Faster LP/Quadratic Solver for linear, quadratic (LP/QP) and mixed-integer (MIP) models
  • New versions of Gurobi Solver, Xpress Solver, and Artelys Knitro Solver engines

Free Trials, Learning and Coaching Resources

Business analysts and developers can sign up for free trial accounts to evaluate Analytic Solver and RASON together at https://www.solver.com, and RASON alone at https://rason.com. They can use tools to create and solve models in Excel and RASON, exercise the REST API, try out dozens of example models illustrating use of decision tables, predictive models and machine learning, optimization and simulation, and download the Analytic Solver and RASON User Guides and Reference Guides in PDF form.  For more information please contact sales@solver.com.

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 for risk analysis, conventional and stochastic optimization for “prescriptive analytics,” and business rules and Excel calculations to make the best business decisions.  Founded in 1987, Frontline is based in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300).

Microsoft Excel, Office 365, Dynamics 365, Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. CData Cloud Hub is a trademark of CData Software Inc. @RISK is a trademark of Palisade Corp.  RASON® and Analytic Solver® are registered trademarks of Frontline Systems Inc.