Using Portals for SD models

[Tony Gill Tony.Gill phrontis.com]

Posted by ""Tony Gill"" <Tony.Gill@phrontis.com>
Curious to know if anyone has used portals eg, Microsoft Office SharePoint
Portal Server 2003, as a way for users (rather than modellers) to interact
with models and run scenarios or whatever. Thus all outputs are shown at the
portal with the SD software operating in support but in the background. If
so what SD software was used? What are the main hurdles to overcome? Any
other issues or limitations?

thanks

Tony Gill, Phrontis Limited, Beacon House, Horn Hill Road, Adderbury,
Banbury, OX17 3EU, UK
email: Tony.Gill@phrontis.com web http://www.phrontis.com tele:
+44 (0)1295 812262 fax: +44 (0)1295 812511
Posted by ""Tony Gill"" <Tony.Gill@phrontis.com>
posting date Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:07:13 -0000

[Jennifer Persico jpersico2122 ho]

Posted by ""Jennifer Persico"" <jpersico2122@hotmail.com>
At my company, Project Performance Corporation, we have deployed a system
dynamics model using a proprietary software called PRISM. It's not quite a
portal, but a database system which enables users to login in and run
scenarios based off of a Vensim model. There is a workflow process for
entering the parameter values for a scenario. Once the model runs, the
results are displayed in a series of reports through the interface. Each
person has their own login account and can save scenarios and share them
with other users as needed. This allows a broad base of users that are
geographically dispersed to use the model without having to install
software, since the system is web-based. There were connectivity problems
with Vensim that were eventually overcome using JAVA .ASP code. The system
uses three seperate servers -- model server, web-server, and database
server. We have started looking into how other modeling software would work
in a similar environment. The largest issue that we ran into is the fact
that we cannot dynamically array the model. Feedback from our users has been
very positive.

Regards,

*************************************************************
Jennifer Persico
Project Performance Corporation
Senior Associate

1760 Old Meadow Rd. 4th Floor, McLean VA 22102
ph: 703-748-8614 fax: 703-748-7001 web: www.ppc.com
email: jpersico@ppc.com
Posted by ""Jennifer Persico"" <jpersico2122@hotmail.com>
posting date Sat, 19 Feb 2005 21:46:40 -0500

[Colm Toolan subscriptions toolan]

Posted by ""Colm Toolan"" <subscriptions@toolan.de>
I would suggest www.forio.com as a suitable solution.

A description of the various options and features is to be found at
http://www.forio.com/broadcastoverview.htm

The ""how to"" documentation is at
http://broadcast.forio.com/broadcastdoc ... l/tutorial
_introduction.htm

Regards,

Colm Toolan, Business Architect
Isarweg 35, 24146 Kiel, Germany
T: +49 431 7859-737 F: -738
M: +49 171 6450 998
E: colm.toolan@toolan.de
W: www.toolan.de
Posted by ""Colm Toolan"" <subscriptions@toolan.de>
posting date Mon, 21 Feb 2005 08:23:43 +0100

[Imrana Umar imrana_u yahoo.com <]

Posted by Imrana Umar <imrana_u@yahoo.com>
Tony,

Powersim Solutions has ceated internet-based collaborative planning
and training tools called ExPlan® and ExTrain® respectively. These
were on display and also used in workshops at the last two
conferences in New York and Oxford.

The applications make use of a simulation model and simulation engine
on the server side to run simulations. Users interact with the simulation
through the applications' graphical user interface. They can create, save,
modify and share model objectives, scenarios and strategies through the
interface, as well as view reports. They can also use ExPlan's Analyzer
feature to compare scenarios against strategies and vice versa.

We have been using these applications in client engagements in the last
three years without any major shortcoming. The application however still
can only run a Powersim Studio model and engine on the server side.

Hope this helps.
Posted by Imrana Umar <imrana_u@yahoo.com>
posting date Tue, 22 Feb 2005 11:58:11 -0800 (PST)