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Frontline Systems is the worldwide leader in spreadsheet Solvers -- advanced software used for optimization and simulation of business and engineering models in Excel.  Frontline developed the solvers/optimizers in Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro.  Over 500 million copies of Frontline's Solvers for optimization have been distributed to users, in every copy of Microsoft Office sold since 1990, and Frontline’s Excel Solver upgrade products, sold directly to advanced users, are by far the market leaders in their field.

Though relatively new to the simulation market, Frontline Systems has quickly become the technology leader in spreadsheet simulation -- first to deliver technology for ultra-fast Monte Carlo simulation, up to 100 times faster than Excel alone; first to deliver Interactive Simulation, where new simulation results appear instantly each time the user changes his/her model; and first to deliver support for the emerging discipline of Probability Management in large companies.

Frontline Systems has now moved far beyond competitors' offerings, to deliver the first and only commercial software that can solve the full range of optimization models with uncertainty, using the new methods of robust optimization, as well as classical stochastic programming and simulation optimization methods.  The company is also the technology leader in the emerging fields of convex, conic, and global optimization. To learn more, please click on Solver Technology.  For background on this technology, we highly recommend our Solver Tutorial.

Products

Frontline’s Premium Solver Platform is the leading software for spreadsheet optimization. It works with existing Excel Solver models, yet with plug-in Solver Engines it can solve problems a thousand times larger, at speeds up to hundreds of times faster than the standard Solver. It goes far beyond conventional optimization (linear, mixed-integer and non-linear programming) to support convex and conic optimization, global optimization, constraint programming, and genetic and evolutionary algorithms.  And its new Stochastic Edition supports the full gamut of robust optimization, stochastic programming, and simulation optimization methods for decision models with uncertainty.

Frontline's Risk Solver breaks new ground in speed, power, and ease of use in spreadsheet simulation.  Designed from the ground up for the power of modern PCs and Excel 2007, it's the first new "industrial strength" risk analysis tool for Excel to appear in 15 years.  Risk Solver is the only product to offer instant, interactive risk analysis, with new charts and statistics on each change to a user's model.  It's the first product with full support for the emerging practice of Probability Management in large companies.  It offers by far the highest performance simulation optimization in Excel, and it's the only product that includes a runtime package, Risk Solver Engine, that simplifies deployment of risk analysis applications to end users.

Frontline’s Solver Platform SDK makes the company's full suite of Solvers for optimization, plus a new Solver for Monte Carlo simulation, available to developers using today's most popular platforms and languages: Microsoft COM and .NET, Java and MATLAB, as well as C/C++, Visual Basic and other languages. Unlike other "callable library" optimizers, the SDK features easy-to-use Wizards to help developers get started quickly, IntelliSense and balloon Help, and a new object-oriented API that enables developers to work at a higher level.

Frontline's seven Solver Engines "plug in" to both the Premium Solver Platform and the Solver Platform SDK, to solve challenging problems with hundreds of thousands of variables and constraints. Unlike other software for optimization and simulation, Frontline's Solver Engines can be used with Excel, MATLAB, Java, all .NET and COM languages, and conventional procedural programming languages -- all for the price of one license.

Customers

Frontline Systems' modeling and optimization software and support services are used by thousands of the world's largest and most successful companies.  Its customers are global leaders in many industries including financial services, aerospace, automotive, telecommunications, utilities, transportation, and manufacturing, as well as commercial, government, and academic research centers. Frontline’s customers build simulation- and optimization-based decision models, faster and with less effort than with alternative software.  These models are used to analyze risk and decide how to best allocate scarce resources – money, equipment, and people– often yielding savings of millions of dollars.

History

Frontline Systems was founded by Dan Fylstra in 1987 in Palo Alto, California. By 1990, the company had begun working with Microsoft on early versions of Windows and Microsoft Excel. As Windows and Excel took over the spreadsheet market from Lotus 1-2-3, Frontline's market share in spreadsheet optimization exploded, in both the OEM and advanced end user markets.  On many occasions Frontline has been first to introduce new simulation technology and new optimization technology in an easy-to-use form, for a wide range of business decisions.  Frontline’s plans include new and dramatically better technology to deal with uncertainty and risk in critical business resource allocation decisions.

Further Information

Dan Fylstra, Frontline Systems Inc.
press@solver.com
Tel 775-831-0300 x120  Fax 775-831-0314