SPREADSHEET ADD-INS SURVEY

The information in this survey is excerpted from responses to a 1-page questionnaire sent to
more than 25 vendors in December 1996. The survey is not comprehensive. It reflects information
received by the posted deadline. The information was collected and compiled by OR/MS Today.
The listings are limited to software products that fit the parameters of the survey. The comments
were provided by the vendors.

Due to size limitations the online version of the survey is an abridgement of the printed version
that included 24 information fields. The complete survey appeared in the February 1997 issue
of OR/MS Today. To order a copy of this issue, contact Nora Craver at +44 23 8110 3411 ext. 201
or send e-mail to: .

Please open your browser window to its maximum width for better viewing.

If you are a vendor in this survey, visit the Vendor Page for information on enhancing your
current listing. If you publish a Spreadsheet Add-In package and are not included in the survey,
send e-mail to Lionheart Publishing, Inc. to be contacted when we publish future editions.


Key to abbreviated column heads:

Type of Product:
SIM. = SIMULATION
OPT. = OPTIMIZATION
FOR. = FORECASTING
DEC. = DECISION ANALYSIS
FIN. = FINANCIAL ENGINEERING
LINKS = LINKS to ANALYTIC ENGINES
Spread-sheets:
EXC. = EXCEL
LOT. = LOTUS
QP = QUATTRO PRO
Limitations:
Lim. COM. = COMMERCIAL
Lim. EDU. = EDUCATION
Price:
COM. = COMMERCIAL
EDU. = EDUCATIONAL
NOTE: Y indicates a positive response, N indicates either a n../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.cssative response or no response

Product

Publisher

Type of Product

Spread-sheets

Limitations

Price

Product Description

SIM.

OPT.

FOR.

DEC.

FIN.

LINKS

EXC.

LOT.

QP

Lim. COM.

Lim. EDU.

COM.

EDU.

@EQUITY&r../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.css;

Financial Engineering Associates

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

Option pricing and risk management functions for equity-based derivatives. @Equity properly handles discrete dividend payments.

@Exotics XL

Montgomery Investment Technology Inc.

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Limited time usage

$999

call

Pricing and analysis of second-generation "exotic" options, such as average, barrier, lookback and spread options.

@GLOBAL&r../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.css;

Financial Engineering Associates

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

Exotic option and derivative pricing functions for options on global commodities, currencies and energy products.

@INTEREST

Financial Engineering Associates

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

Option and security pricing functions for options on interest-rate based derivatives and assets.

@nalyst

Tech Hackers Inc.

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Based on systems resources

A special program is available

$295-
$2,500

N

@nalyst provides sophisticated analytics functions for bonds, options, mbs, business dates and amortization. Also available as c-subroutine libraries.

@Options XL

Montgomery Investment Technology Inc.

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

500 node levels of binomial tree

Limited time usage

$399-
$2,000

call

A series of models for pricing options on equities, indices, futures and other securities. Models include Black-Scholes, Binomial, Whaley, Garman-Kohlhagan, etc.

@Risk

Palisade Corporation

Y

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

Iterations: memory dep.; correlation: spreadsheet dep.

Same as commercial

$395

call

@Risk is the Risk Analysis add-in for Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. @Risk adds the power of Monte Carlo simulation to any spreadsheet model. Generates graphs and detailed statistical reports

AXA

Sunset Software Tech.

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Model size limited by available memory

500 rows by 1,000 columns

call

call

AXA solves linear and int../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.csser linear programming models. The AXA engine is a dynamic link library available for use by other programming languages like Visual Basic, C++ and Fortran.

BestFit

Palisade Corporation

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Up to 30,000 data points or pairs

Same as commercial

$299

call

BestFit&r../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.css; is distribution fitting solution for Windows. BestFit finds the statistical distribution that best fits any data set up to 30,000 points. Results can be used in @Risk.

Crystal Ball

Decisioneering

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

Y

N

Unlimited iterations

Same as commercial

$395

$129

Crystal Ball is a leading Monte Carlo simulation add-in for Excel and Lotus 1-2 that performs forecasting and risk analysis for spreadsheet-based modeling.

DataImport&r../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.css;

Spalding Software

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Maximum of 2,048 characters per line

Same as commercial

$189

$189

DataImport pulls data from even complex multi-level reports into the native formats of Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, Access, etc. The user selects the specific data, needed by defining inclusion/exclusion criteria.

DA.XLA

Cliff Ragsdale

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Ten groups, 1,000 observations

Three groups, 100 observations

call

call

DA.XLA performs discriminant analysis based on the minimum Mahalanobis distance measure.

DPL

Applied Decision Analysis

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

Y

N

No hard wired constraints

Speed reduced to limit models to around 2k endpoints

$495-
$995

$50-
$100

DPL is a complete decision analysis package that links influence diagrams decision trees to spreadsheet models. Extensive graphical outputs include decision policies, risk profiles and sensitivity analysis.

Evolver

Palisade Corporation

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

All components in optimization must be on single Excel sheet.

Same as commercial

$ 349

call

Evolver™ uses innovative genetic algorithm (GA) technology to quickly solve complex optimization problems in virtually any type of problem that can be modeled in an Excel spreadsheet.

Exotic Options Simulator

Montgomery Investment Technology Inc.

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Requires @Risk 3.5 for Excel.

Same as commercial

$795-$995

call

Pricing of exotic, path dependent options using Monte Carlo simulations techniques. Prices average, barrier and lookback exotics and plain vanilla options.

Exotics @nalyst

Tech Hackers Inc.

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Based on systems resources

A special program is available; contact company

$995-
$3,700

N

Exotics @nalyst is available in three modules: Asian/Lookback; Binary/Barrier and Basket/Chooser. Industry-accepted models are used for pricing, gap, best-of-two securities and exchange.

Fin Tools

Montgomery Investment Technology Inc.

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Limited time licensing

call

call

A suite of spread sheet add-ins and development tools for options analysis and simulation; bond analysis and pricing; and commodity price forecasting, especially electricity.

Insight

Duxbury Press

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

M.C. Simulation: 5,000 iterations, 5 output cells; Trees: Ltd. by spreadsheet size

N

$50

$25

A package of easy-to-use analytical tools designed for teaching and quick back of the spreadsheet modeling. Includes examples that display fundamental analytical concepts.

Inventory Analysis

User Solutions, Inc.

N

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

1,000 Part Numbers

None

$149

$99

Demand forecasting in any spreadsheet. Features ABC, "best-fit", seasonal indices, etc.

Large Scale LP Solver for Excel

Frontline Systems Inc.

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

16,000 decision variables in Excel '97

N

$1,495

N

Upgrade to standard, premium and Quadratic solvers for Excel. Adds sparse Simplex method with sophisticated matrix factorization and updating for large-scale LP problems. Version planned for Lotus 1-2-3 '97.

Operations Manager

User Solutions, Inc.

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

Y

Y

-

None

$149

$99

Operations Manager 35 decision support templates for: EOQ, forecasting, QC, planning, queueing and inventory.

Outlook™

Financial Engineering Associates

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

Value-at-Risk and VaRdelta calculation functions and templates.

Precision Tree

Palisade Corporation

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

N

N

$495-$795

call

Precision Tree™ is the decision analysis link to Excel. Use influence diagrams to see the relationships between components of a problem then add decision trees to see the sequence of events.

Premium Quadratic Solver for Excel

Frontline Systems Inc.

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

800 decision variables LP/QP/MIP;400 variables, 200 constraints for NLP

Same as commercial

$695

$50

Fully compatible upgrade to Excel's standard solver. Offers high performance quadratic programming method, plus higher capability, faster LP, MIP, NLP methods. Version planned for Lotus 1-2-3 '97

Premium Solver for Excel

Frontline Systems Inc.

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

800 decision variables LP/QP/MIP;400 variables, 200 constraints for NLP

N

$495

$50

Upgrade to Excel's standard solver, with greater capacity and speed. Fully compatible with Excel Solver's models. Visual basic programming interface and all Excel functions. Version planned for Lotus 1-2-3 '97.

Resource Manager for Excel

User Solutions, Inc.

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Excel Database

None

$1,850

$495

Resource Manager for Excel is designed to adapt to any operation. Key features include: manage labor, materials, machines, MRP, inventory, FCS, costed BOM's and priority scheduling.

RISKview

Palisade Corporation

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

$79-$149

call

RISKview™ is the distribution viewing companion to @RISK, @Risk for Project, @RISK for TopRank or BestFit. It is a powerful tool for viewing, assessing and creating probability distributions.

SmartForecasts for Windows

Smart Software Inc.

N

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

N

N

$895

$449

Smart Software Inc. PC-based sales and demand forecasting for Windows '95/NT. Automatic forecasting system used to project sales and product demand and reduce inventory multiple windows display; full cut, copy and paste capabilities.

SPAY™

Financial Engineering Associates

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

Up to 12 underlying assets

N

N

N

Option pricing and risk management functions for options on baskets and basket averages.

Spreadsheet QC

User Solutions, Inc.

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

-

-

$149

$99

Spreadsheet QC 15 models that make SPC/SQC achievable for everyone. Charts and analysis include Pareto, histogram, scatter, control (Xbar, R, CU, P), binomial, Poisson and r../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.cssression.

Spreadsheet Scheduler

User Solutions, Inc.

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

Y

-

-

$199

$99

Spreadsheet Scheduler contains 14 simple templates for a variety of common scheduling applications such as project management, Gantt charts, job scheduling and calendar generation.

SWING™

Financial Engineering Associates

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

N

Functions and templates for pricing and risk management of energy-related swing (load factor) contracts.

TopRank

Palisade Corporation

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

Pro: Unltd.; Stnd.: Ltd. Multi-way analysis, no @Risk function

Same as commercial

$249 -$395

call

TopRank&r../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.css; is the What-If add-in for Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. TopRank determines which values affects your bottom line the most and ranks them in order of importance.

Weighted Decision Object

InfoHarvest Inc.-

N

N

N

Y

N

N

Y

N

N

Limited to 100 criteria

N

$299

N

The WDO is an OLE object that allows the user, using VBA to submit tables of data to a Criterium DecisionPlus Multi-criteria model and obtain decision scores and pass/fail results.

What's Best!

LINDO Systems Inc.

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

Y

N

Various capacity versions available from 1,600 variables to unlimited.

Student ver. ltd. to 400 variables, larger capacity versions available at ed. discounts

from $695

from $25

What's Best! solves large-scale linear, nonlinear and int../../../orms/surveys/SSA/eg.csser models in Excel or 1-2-3. It's powerful enough to handle the toughest problems and ideal providing models to managers or clients.

Workcell Planner

User Solutions, Inc.

N

Y

N

N

N

N

Y

N

N

-

-

$79

-

Workcell Planner Cell capacity planning for machine shops and fabricators. Allows easy "what-if" analysis of interaction of setup times, lot sizes, efficiency, yields and work practices.


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