INFORMS Open Forum

Hello fellow INFORMS members!

A colleague of mine is looking for alternatives as potential replacements for Oracle's Crystal Ball software. What other software do y'all use instead of Crystal Ball? Standalone or other Excel plugins will likely support their userbase, coding things up in Python or another language likely won't meet their needs. Thanks for your help!

Kevin

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Kevin Raber
Data Scientist
Chevron
Houston TX
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Palisade's @Risk is essentially a twin to Crystal Ball in function.  Both are Excel add-ins, both run very similarly, both have the same analysis functions (tornado charts, spider diagrams, an optimizer, etc.).  It's easy to switch from one to the other.

Pat Leach

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Patrick Leach
Professor of Practice
Colorado School of Mines
Denver CO
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Thanks for the recommendation! My colleague has already reached out. 

Kevin

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Kevin Raber
Data Scientist
Chevron
Houston TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-11-2023 09:01
From: Patrick Leach
Subject: Crystal Ball alternatives

Palisade's @Risk is essentially a twin to Crystal Ball in function.  Both are Excel add-ins, both run very similarly, both have the same analysis functions (tornado charts, spider diagrams, an optimizer, etc.).  It's easy to switch from one to the other.

Pat Leach

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Patrick Leach
Professor of Practice
Colorado School of Mines
Denver CO
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Kevin -- SIPmath from Probability Management is a good alternative with some advantages over Crystal Ball.   There is a free version at ChanceCalc Monte Carlo - Probability Management.   Scroll down to the bottom of the page to download the free version.   Many of the models on my YouTube Channel can be done with this free version.   

Decisions considering Uncertainty on Brian Putt YouTube Channel

(578) Brian Putt - YouTube

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BRIAN PUTT
Decision Scientist Consultant
retired
Fremont CA
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Hi Kevin

Check out our Excel Add-In, DiscoverSim. It includes 53 continuous and 10 discrete distributions.  Stochastic global optimization utilizes MIDACO, which was developed in conjunction with the ESA for the optimization of interplanetary mission trajectories.  

John

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John Noguera
CTO & Co-founder
SigmaXL Inc.
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Kevin:

Due to the per-user cost of the major brand alternatives (e.g., @Risk and Risk Solver Pro were both in the $1000/user/year to $2000/user/year range, the last time I checked), for many years I was on a lookout for a reasonable alternative.

Also, I'm a Mac user, and most major brand risk analysis platforms do not support applications within Excel for Mac, without installing a MS Windows virtual machine OS. Not fun.

Recently, I ran across an open source Excel plugin called XLRisk, which works for MS Windows and Mac. I use it on my Mac to demonstrate toy examples to students. 

The XLRisk application is housed at the following link, which includes documentation, links to YouTube video tutorials, articles, and directions for installation: 

While the simulated output isn't as visually compelling as the Crystal Ball graphs, it gets the job done. I just used it for a demo in my class session today!

Greg

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Gregory Heim
Professor
Texas A&M University
College Station TX
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Kevin,

Depending on what you need to software for,  you may also consider YASAI, which is a free add-in to Excel developed by Prof. Jonathan Eckstein from Rutgers. It does not have all the bells and whistles of @Risk and Crystal Ball but it does have the main thing which is the engine to run Monte Carlo simulations in Excel. You can also record all the simulated data if you want to do some analysis yourself (graphs, statistical tests, etc.). It's free, easy to install and use, and it works both in PCs and Macs. I use it in my classes all the time.

Tito

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Tito Homem-de-Mello
Professor
Universidad Adolfo Ibañez
Santiago, Chile
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Original Message:
Sent: 09-11-2023 14:47
From: Gregory Heim
Subject: Crystal Ball alternatives

Kevin:

Due to the per-user cost of the major brand alternatives (e.g., @Risk and Risk Solver Pro were both in the $1000/user/year to $2000/user/year range, the last time I checked), for many years I was on a lookout for a reasonable alternative.

Also, I'm a Mac user, and most major brand risk analysis platforms do not support applications within Excel for Mac, without installing a MS Windows virtual machine OS. Not fun.

Recently, I ran across an open source Excel plugin called XLRisk, which works for MS Windows and Mac. I use it on my Mac to demonstrate toy examples to students. 

The XLRisk application is housed at the following link, which includes documentation, links to YouTube video tutorials, articles, and directions for installation: 

https://github.com/pyscripter/XLRisk

While the simulated output isn't as visually compelling as the Crystal Ball graphs, it gets the job done. I just used it for a demo in my class session today!

Greg

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Gregory Heim
Professor
Texas A&M University
College Station TX
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