|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Crystal Ball Goes to CollegeDecisioneering's risk analysis
tool is first choice
of top universities and academic publishers Denver, CO, July, 2, 2001 -- As management science grows increasingly complex, universities and MBA programs are turning from traditional algebraic models to more powerful and intuitive spreadsheet-based modeling tools such as Decisioneering's Crystal Ball® 2000. A Microsoft Excel add-in that uses Monte Carlo simulation to minimize uncertainties in spreadsheet modeling, Crystal Ball has become the decision management software of choice in the country's leading universities and MBA schools including Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, and MIT. In fact, Crystal Ball is used over 80% of the top 50 undergraduate schools, 85% of the top 50 graduate business schools, and all of the top ten MBA programs in the United States (rankings by US News, Colleges: September 11, 2000; Graduate Schools: April 9, 2001). One of the reasons Crystal Ball has attained such widespread use as a teaching tool is its ability to automate the cumbersome "what-if" process using Monte Carlo simulation and present the results in an easy-to-understand graphic display. "Crystal Ball is the most intuitive, easy-to-use Excel add-in for Monte Carlo simulation," says Cliff Ragsdale, PhD, Director of the Dominion Center for Energy Modeling and Optimization at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and author of "Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis" (South-Western College Publishing, 2001). "Crystal Ball makes it easy for students to see the effects of uncertainty on bottom-line performance measures. In my opinion, Crystal Ball is the most effective tool available for quantifying and analyzing the risks inherent in most spreadsheet models." Ragsdale is an innovator of the spreadsheet teaching method and is nationally recognized in the field of management science. Crystal Ball's ease of use and flexibility are particularly helpful to students, said John D. Martin, Carr P. Collins Chair in Finance at Baylor University. "Crystal Ball makes it easy for the novice analyst to pry open the 'black box' that characterizes risky investment opportunities so they can make better investment decisions." In addition, students like Crystal Ball's correlation and sensitivity analysis functions and full graphical interface, as well as the flexibility to export output into other programs for reports and presentations. Ragsdale noted that, "Other packages flood the analyst with numbers, making it difficult to locate the key facts and figures needed for decision-making. Crystal Ball provides outstanding graphic and numeric summaries of simulation results and lets the user drill down to whatever level of detail is desired." Crystal Ball's stability is another reason for its popularity in the classroom. Graham Davis of the Colorado School of Mines said that competing risk analysis software tended to lock, and Martin added that students who developed technical problems with competing products found that no support was available to academic users. In contrast, the fully functional academic version of Crystal Ball is eligible for technical support on installation and functionality questions. Decisioneering has partnered with authors and academic publishers to package copies of the trial version of Crystal Ball with specific scientific, management, and business textbooks. Nearly 20 titles published by John Wiley and Sons, Prentice Hall, South-Western, and others are currently in print covering: -- Spreadsheet risk analysis Many of these texts include a CD-ROM containing spreadsheet data and partially or fully constructed spreadsheet models for the cases presented, as well as a trial version of Crystal Ball 2000 Professional Edition simulation software. More information about the full list of books can be found on Decisioneering's Web site, http://www.crystalball.com/books.html. Charles Von Thun, CEO of Decisioneering, said "In almost every field of business, finance, and engineering, today's decision-makers -- and tomorrow's -- will find their options complicated by risks and uncertainties that could not have been imagined, much less managed, only a decade ago. That means the people who will make these complex analyses must have sophisticated, flexible, and powerful tools to inform their thinking and maximize their outcomes. We are proud that the top academic institutions that prepare these future risk managers have chosen Crystal Ball as the product best suited to help their students master these challenging concepts." CONTACTS: David Fredericks |