Decisioneering's Crystal Ball 7.1, the latest release of a product for risk analysis and Monte Carlo simulation in Microsoft Excel, is up to 100 times faster than previous releases thanks to PSI Technology licensed from Frontline Systems, Inc. Frontline is the developer of the Solver shipped with Microsoft Excel.

In Crystal Ball 7.1 Professional and Premium Editions, users can select "Extreme Speed," which is powered by PSI Technology, or "Normal Speed," which uses Microsoft Excel to recalculate formulas. Extreme Speed — the new default choice in Crystal Ball 7.1 — yields the same simulation results as Normal Speed, but takes a tiny fraction of the time to perform thousands of spreadsheet recalculations.

"This is more than an impressive speed increase — it's a qualitative change that empowers our users to tackle risk analysis projects they couldn't seriously consider before," says Jim Franklin, CEO of Decisioneering. "We're happy to partner with Frontline Systems to bring the benefits of Extreme Speed to Crystal Ball users."

"We look forward to widespread use of PSI Technology by existing and new Crystal Ball users," says Daniel Fylstra, CEO of Frontline Systems. "We've leveraged the PSI Technology that powers our Premium Solver Platform optimization software for Excel to give users breakthrough performance in Monte Carlo simulation."

Monte Carlo simulation enables spreadsheet users to "stress-test" their models by performing thousands of "what-if" trials automatically, using random numbers drawn appropriately for their assumptions, and creating statistical analyses and graphs of the results. It can yield a much deeper understanding of the risks of an engineering project, financial move, marketing plan or business venture.



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