INCLINE VILLAGE, NV -- November 5, 2014 -- Risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation is a critical tool in many industries, from oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing quality control to financial services and insurance. Until recently, this kind of analysis wasn't possible in web-based spreadsheets -- but now it's not only possible, it's easy and free.
Frontline Systems, developer of the Solver included in Microsoft Excel and more powerful Premium Solver and Risk Solver add-ins for Excel, recently released Risk Solver App for risk analysis using Monte Carlo simulation in Excel Online and Office 365. Now Frontline has released Risk Solver Add-on, free for users of Google Sheets, the popular web-based spreadsheet from Google, in the Chrome Web Store.
"We've made advanced analytics, including simulation and optimization, easy for everyone who uses Google Sheets and Excel Online," said Daniel Fylstra, Frontline’s President and CEO. Risk Solver Add-on follows on the heels of Frontline's Solver Add-on for Google Sheets, released October 15, which helps users find the best way to allocate scarce resources using linear and nonlinear optimization.
Users Can Explore a Thousand Scenarios in Seconds
Risk analysis goes beyond simple what-if analysis, to help users visualize and quantify the full range of possible outcomes in a business situation with significant uncertainty. Risk Solver Add-on makes it easy to model uncertain factors, such as exchange rates, commodity prices or equipment failure rates, with probability distributions. On request, Risk Solver evaluates a thousand what-if scenarios or 'Monte Carlo trials' using a backend server, statistically sampling all the possibilities from user-chosen distributions, then presents the results in easy-to-understand charts and graphs.
The simplicity of Risk Solver Add-on belies its power. It uses technology from Risk Solver Platform, Frontline's most powerful simulation and optimization tool. Users can choose from 30 continuous or 8 discrete probability distributions; samples are drawn using Latin Hypercube sampling; and Monte Carlo trials are executed in parallel on multiple processor cores. Results include not only frequency histograms, but sensitivity (Tornado) charts, scatterplots of outputs versus inputs, statistics and percentiles.
Easy Publishing from Desktop Excel to Google Sheets
Up to now, most users have performed risk analysis of spreadsheet models in desktop Microsoft Excel. But sharing their models and results with others -- especially users with mobile devices, and users of Google Sheets -- has been difficult to impossible. Now with Risk Solver Add-on and Risk Solver Pro or Risk Solver Platform V2015 for desktop Excel, sharing risk analysis models is as easy as clicking a Publish button. Frontline's software automatically bridges the differences between Excel and Google Sheets affecting simulation models.
Solver Add-on and Risk Solver Add-on for Google Sheets are both available now. Users can simply choose Add-ons – Get Add-ons from the Google Sheets menu, to install them for use, free of charge, in their own spreadsheets. Help is available on Frontline's website https://www.solver.com.
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).