Way back when both Excel and the World Wide Web where still taking their baby steps, our team was already quite busy developing and implementing supply chain design,  optimization and planning applications. In those days they were called decision support systems – a general term for any computer application that enhances its user’s ability to make better quality decisions.

Regardless of the industry, subject or geography, our applications are always suggesting or recommending something – a better network design, least-cost production/distribution plans, good quality schedules and efficient routes being just a few examples. To accomplish this they must collect large volumes of data, interpret, analyze and organize it and, finally, offer its users a variety of tools to view, analyze and adjust the output they generate.

To sum it up, for the past 25 years we have been heavily involved in all four categories used by Gartner to classify Analytics: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive.  In fact, our most critical work has focused on prescriptive analytics topics.