Newsletter
April
2008
Resources
Analytica
4.1
We are pleased to announce
the release of Analytica 4.1. New features include time of day formats;
functions over multiple indexes, such as Sum(X, I, J, K); rapid display
of images in Diagrams; support for all common formats for pasting images
into diagrams and exporting Diagrams as image files; faster interaction
with Microsoft Vista.
For details on these and other
improvements, see What's
New in Analytica 4.1. If you have current support (e.g.
you purchased in the last 12 months), you should have received a free
upgrade to 4.1 as part of your support contract. We invite others to
renew their Support to receive the upgrade.
Case
Study of the Month
Estimating Methane Gas Emissions from Livestock
It turns out that cows, sheep, and pigs are responsible for more global warming than cars, trains and planes. The reason is that their, ummm... digestion and manure produces methane gas, which causes over 20 times the warming of carbon dioxide, molecule for molecule. The government of Canada is doing their part as a signatory to Kyoto Protocol using Analytica to estimate the Methane gas emissions from livestock. For more, see Methane
Analytica
in the Classroom now available freeMany professors find Analytica's influence diagrams a better tool than spreadsheets to help students learn the conceptual skills to become a good modeler. To support its role in teaching, we are now pleased to offer Analytica free for use in university classes.
For details, see Analytica in the Classroom.
Saeed Hamid joins the Lumina TeamLumina is glad to welcome Saeed Hamid as Director of Sales & Marketing. A Colorado native and graduate of the University of Colorado, Saeed brings over a decade of experience in selling business intelligence and decision analysis software. He has achieved outstanding success in building and managing a sales team. Saeed will help Lumina serve our customers, identify new opportunities and partnerships, and meet the needs of our growing client base.
Affiliate Spotlight: Simbon b.v.
Lumina has affiliate partners around the world who offer Analyica training
and consulting. Simbon b.v. is our key affiliate in Europe.
Simbon is a consultancy based in Eindhoven in the Netherlands that specializes
in helping technology companies across Europe manage innovation. It offers
training and coaching to help organizations select and implement the right
strategy, organization, and processes for adopting innovative technologies.
It assists its clients with strategic scenario planning, roadmapping,
and portfolio analyses for new ventures and R&D management. Its clients
include Philips Electronics, Océ Technologies, and NXP Semiconductors.
A common challenge is to help a team develop a shared vision of the future
and clear recognition of the uncertainties.
Simbon consultants view Analytica as a key ingredient of their success.
Simbon tailors models for specific decision support applications, and
uses generic template models for quick comparisons. Simbon guides model
development to enhance the decision-making team's insights, using Analytica's
graphical and incremental modeling capabilities. Simbon client Vanderlande
Industries, world market leader in airport baggage handling systems, says:
"The first project for which we built a business case like this [with
Simbon, using Analytica] has become very successful, because we have done
our preparations far more thoroughly".
Simbon and Lumina became partners 3 years ago, after managing consultant
Jac Goorden identified Analytica as an ideal tool to support their consulting
practice. Simbon was a beta tester for Analytica 4.0, which it sees as
unlocking the potential for even more growth.
Classroom
Analytica Training
Lumina is offering two-day
training classes throughout the year in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 2-3,
the San Francisco Bay Area
June 25-27, September 24-26, December 3-5,
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
June 10-11, 2008
For more or to register, please visit: Analytica
Training
Analytica User Group Webinars
User Group Webinars include
demonstrations and tutorials on key issues for Analytica users, sometimes
on how to use existing features more effectively, and sometimes on features
of new or upcoming releases.Free attendance at the Analytica User Group
technical webinar's is one of the valuable benefits of maintaining current
support for your Analytica license. You can check the Analytica
Wiki for
upcoming topics. Some of our past topics include:
Querying an OLAP server
- Querying an ODBC relational database
- Self-Indexes, Lists and Implicit Dimensions
- Flattening and Unflattening of Arrays
- Introduction to Arrays and Array Abstraction
- Local Indexes
- The Iterate Function
Analytica WikiThe new Analytica Wiki — or Anawiki — is a shared source of information created by and for Analytica users. Please visit it at Anawiki.
Live Analytica demosDo you have colleagues who could benefit from using Analytica? You might want to let them know about Lumina's weekly webinars. Seeing a live demo is the easiest way to understand what Analytica is about. The webinars include a Q&A session with an Analytica expert. We offer a webinar every Wednesday at 10:00am PST. For more info and to sign up, please visit: Analytica Web Demo
Analytica Web PublisherThe Analytica Web Publisher, AWP offers a way to make Analytica models easily accessible to anyone with a web browser. Users can open a model, view diagrams and objects, change input variables, and view results as tables and graphs. Users will also be able to save changed models, to revisit them in later sessions. Model builders can upload models into AWP directly from their desktop. Usually, AWP directories are password protected, so only authorized users can view and use models. But, we also plan to make a free AWP directory available for people who want to share their models openly.
AWP is nearing release for alpha testing. We will welcome your comments and hearing how you might envisage using AWP.
Career
OpportunityLumina is seeking a consulting analyst with extensive experience in modeling energy and environmental problems to join our green decisions consulting team. We are looking for someone with excellent analytic skills who enjoys working on important problems and wants to apply their talents to creating tools to help organizations reduce their environmental footprint and energy costs. PhD level or equivalent experience For more, please email us.
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