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To choose the best Frontline Systems product, you should first answer these two questions:

If your main goal is to solve an optimization problem, you should also consider these two questions:

We'll consider the first two questions on this page, and lead you to pages that consider the second two questions.  Just click on the link that seems most appropriate, as far as you know right now.  You can always back up later and take another path.

Many of our users work with both Excel and a language such as Visual Basic, C/C++ or MATLAB.  Many users also build both models that use simulation, and models that use optimization.  Frontline Systems offers Solver products that cover multiple types of problems, and we'll point this out as we go.

Which Platform: Spreadsheet or Custom Program?

You can define and solve any type, and almost any size, of optimization or simulation model in either Excel or in a custom program.  The choice should be determined primarily by what tool is most familiar and most productive for you, and how your model will be used by "end users" (if they are people other than you).

What's Most Familiar.  If you are familiar with Excel but not with programming, your choice is easy:  Click Select Best Excel Product below.  Similarly, if you're an experienced programmer but you've never used Excel, you'll probably want to click Select Best SDK Product below.

What's Most Productive.  For most users, it is faster to define, and later modify, a simulation or optimization model using cells and formulas in Excel than to write an equivalent program that uses variables and statements to compute the same values.  This is usually a major reason for choosing Select Best Excel Product below.

Where the Data Lives.  Both resource allocation and risk analysis problems often require numeric input data, sometimes in large amounts, drawn from other sources.  If your data is easily available in Excel, your best choice is probably Select Best Excel Product below.  If you can more easily access the data from a programming language, then Select Best SDK Product is probably your best choice.

What's Convenient for Your Users.  If you are building an application for end users other than yourself, an important consideration is whether they will have Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Office available on their computers.  If so, then our Excel Products may be your best choice.  If not -- if your end users are consumers, work for different companies, or will access your application using a Web browser -- then our SDK Products are likely your best choice.  In either case, we offer flexible runtime licenses, on similar terms for both our Excel and SDK Products.

Flexible Solver Engines.  Unlike most other optimization software, Frontline Systems' large-scale Solver Engines "plug in" to both our Premium Solver Platform for Excel and our Solver Platform SDK for COM, .NET, Java and MATLAB.  A single license for a Solver Engine entitles you to develop for any of these platforms and languages!  So you have maximum flexibility in developing and deploying your application.

Which Technology: Simulation, Optimization, or Both?

Simulation is most often applied to risk analysis problems:  You build a model that includes certain factors or parameters that are uncertain -- and you'll probably spend some time deciding how to model the uncertainty.  Your model calculates outcomes of interest, such as Net Profit, inventory levels, or delay times, that depend on both factors you can control, and the uncertain factors you can't control.  You use Monte Carlo simulation to "stress test" your model over thousands of trials, to see what can go right, and what can go wrong -- and by how much.  You can use either Risk Solver or the Solver Platform SDK to solve such problems.

Optimization is most often applied to resource allocation problems.  The resources may be raw materials, machine time or people time, money, or anything else in limited supply. The "best" or optimal solution may mean maximizing profits, minimizing costs, or achieving the best possible quality.  You build a model that includes decision variables for quantities of resources, and calculated results, called constraints, that are subject to limits -- such as a budget, capacity limit, or time constraint.  Your calculated objective is the result you'd like to maximize or minimize.  You can use either Premium Solver Platform or the Solver Platform SDK to solve such problems.

What if you need to allocate scarce resources under conditions of uncertainty and risk?  In a sense, most business problems have these characteristics -- it is just a matter of degree!  If both the allocation issues and the risk issues are significant, you can use simulation optimization to find the allocation of resources that best satisfies your objective and constraints, over a range of outcomes that reflect the uncertainties in your model.  You can use Risk Solver and Premium Solver Platform (or Premium Solver) together in Excel, or you can use the Solver Platform SDK and a programming language to solve such problems.

What Type and Size of Problem?

If you plan to solve an optimization problem of significant size -- more than a few hundred decision variables and constraints -- you should also consider -- and learn more about -- the type and size of your problem, since this will have a big impact on solution time, memory required, and even the solvability of your model.  To learn more about this issue in Excel, click Select Best Excel Product below.  To learn more about this issue in a custom program written in Visual Basic or C/C++, VB.NET or C#, or Java or MATLAB, click Select Best SDK Product below. 

Select Best Excel Product

Select Best SDK Product