Excellent complementary analysis tool for Excel users.
Pros
- Without the program being "my favorite" it is necessary to recognize that handling in the Excel application environment provides it with a feature with a high added value, compared to other softwares that do not have those characteristics, which makes the handling of data from external sources is easier.
- In addition to its inherent quality of general data analysis, I can also highlight the areas in which I have used it (field of linear optimization, simplex method and non-linear optimization, network models) where it has allowed me to model, simulate and analyze different situations with great success.
- I could say that the limitations are not the program but mine as a user of it.
- Unlike other software that I have used (WinQsb and Lingo, for example), it presents an acceptable customer service.
Cons
- On the few occasions when I have used it to deal with problems of optimization of relatively large parameters (with a large number of restrictions and decision variables), the program has been slower, not substantially but slower, than programs such as the WinQsb, even when the latter runs on 32-bit machines and not 64. That has caught my attention, even though it is not a real problem for the uses I give to the program.
- Given my partial function as a university professor, it has been much more effective and practical to use other software, due to the limited options that the educational license associated with the software has.
Return on Investment
- - It has allowed finding ways to optimize (minimizing costs or times) the field processes involved in various projects.
- It has even allowed, in specific cases where it was used for that purpose, to optimize the allocation of resources (people) to work in different jobs that present weekly variations of the activity that these people must perform.
- It has allowed the sensitivity analysis of projects to changes in the decision variables related to them, which, and in very dynamic and changing environments, resulted in substantial decreases in money losses.
Alternatives Considered
JMP Statistical Discovery Software from SAS and MATLAB
Other Software Used
MATLAB, JMP Statistical Discovery Software from SAS, Alexa