INCLINE VILLAGE, NV – August 30, 2011 – Frontline Systems, developers of the Excel Solver and a full line of advanced optimization and simulation software products for Excel, has entered the market for data mining and “predictive analytics” by acquiring all rights to XLMiner, the leading Excel-based add-in for data mining, from its prior owners and distributors, Cytel Software Inc. and Statistics.com LLC.
“Data mining and predictive analytics are very synergistic with our existing optimization and simulation software for prescriptive analytics and decision-making,” said Daniel Fylstra, Frontline's President and CEO. “We've already started and will continue to integrate XLMiner's capabilities with our Risk Solver Platform, to create one integrated platform for both predictive and prescriptive analytics.”
“We're very pleased with this new home for XLMiner,” said Peter Bruce, President and CEO of Statistics.com LLC and co-author of the leading textbook Data Mining for Business Intelligence (Wiley, 2010). “We believe Frontline can powerfully extend XLMiner's reach, and we’re supporting their efforts with our XLMiner-based data mining courses taught by expert instructors online.”
Data Mining Power for the Rest of Us
XLMiner goes far beyond other statistics and forecasting add-ins for Excel. It includes multiple regression, exponential smoothing, and ARIMA models for forecasting, but it also includes data mining tools such as regression tress, k-nearest neighbors, and neural networks for more complex prediction models. It offers discriminant analysis, logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors, classification trees, naïve Bayes and neural nets for classification, and association rules for affinity analysis.
XLMiner works with data in Excel, as well as data from relational databases (SAS, Oracle, etc.) with its built-in sampling and database scoring procedures. Users can work with datasets much larger than those handled by Excel, while retaining the familiarity and ease of use of Excel. For the “data cleaning” step that typically precedes analysis, XLMiner offers data sampling and partitioning, missing data handling, binning, and transformation of categorical data. Users can apply principal component analysis, k-means clustering, and hierarchical clustering to simplify and cluster their data.
An On-Ramp for Predictive Analytics Expertise
Unlike expensive and complicated “enterprise data mining” software, XLMiner is very easy to use. Users who know Excel can get results quickly. XLMiner’s built-in Help explains both data mining concepts and its dialogs and options. The popular textbook Data Mining for Business Intelligence – built around XLMiner – and online courses from Statistics.com can take users from beginning to advanced level in predictive analytics.
In university MBA programs teaching data mining, XLMiner is the leading software of its kind. For instructors, Frontline and its partners offer low-cost classroom licenses, example models and datasets, PowerPoint slides, solutions to exercises, and an online forum.
Low Cost, Low Risk Solution with a Free Trial
Compared to enterprise data mining products, XLMiner is roughly 1/20th the cost for a single-user license, and its learning curve is far lower, making XLMiner the lowest cost and risk “entry point” for companies wishing to explore data mining. A free 30-day trial of XLMiner is available for download at xlminer.
About Frontline Systems, Inc.
Frontline Systems, Inc. (www.solver.com) is a leading developer of optimization and simulation software, and the leader in spreadsheet-based software for both conventional and stochastic optimization, helping managers best allocate scarce resources today and in the future. Frontline developed the solvers/optimizers in Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro, distributed to more than 500 million spreadsheet users. Founded in 1987, Frontline is based in Incline Village, Nevada (775-831-0300).
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