Palisade, which provides risk and decision-analysis software, has released version 6.0 of its DecisionTools Suite package for Microsoft Excel. The latest version will enable companies across a wide range of industry sectors to use quantitative analytics to analyse risk and make smarter decisions to minimise it.
An integrated set of analytical tools, the DecisionsTools Suite helps organisations make decisions in a variety of business disciplines, such as new investments, product design, portfolio optimisation, mergers and acquisitions and project cost estimations. Anchored by Palisade’s risk analysis software @RISK, Suite 6.0 also includes new versions of PrecisionTree, RISKOptimizer, TopRank, Evolver, NeuralTools, and StatTools. Together, the products provide sophisticated Monte Carlo simulation, decision trees, optimisation, statistical and neural network analysis, all from a common Excel platform.
The integration of Microsoft Project with Excel via a new interface layer enables users to import project schedules to Excel and @RISK. The Excel interface enhances the flexibility of schedule modelling and – for the first time – allows project managers to integrate cost and schedule models in a single location. As a result, project managers can determine the actual probabilities of meeting deadlines or budgets and plan contingencies accordingly.
@RISK’s new double-sided tornado graph is much easier to understand, making it important for management reporting. The chart displays exactly how much each risk factor causes the output to change, enabling better mitigation strategies. In addition, @RISK now offers spider line graphs for sensitivity analysis, as well as flexible options for conveniently displaying desired statistics and data in the same window as the graph.
‘Decision makers benefit from the DecisionTools Suite’s ability to tell them not just what might happen in a given situation, but the probabilities of different scenarios occurring,’ said Randy Heffernan, vice president at Palisade. ‘This is powerful insight that it is impossible to gain from a standard spreadsheet.’
