全傑科技 - Frontier Analyst

Frontier Analyst® version 4 can handle from 5 to an "unlimited" number of units (depending on the license purchased). It also allows you to specify weightings for particular variables.

• Unit and input/output variables can be individually enabled or disabled. Version 4 now allows you to hide disabled items from the data viewer for easier focus.
• Built-in data editor.
• Paste data direct from spreadsheet.
• Import from tab-delimited file, clipboard or SQL database such as SQL Server or Oracle.
• Copy tables and graphs to clipboard for including in reports.
• Copy full results data to clipboard for further analysis (new in version 3, further improved in version 4).
• Input minimization or output maximization modes.
• Variable returns or constant returns to scale modes.
• Advanced analysis options available: additive, allocative models, and super-efficiency calculation.
• Malmquist indices for seeing how units are changing over time.
• Data inversion for automatic "undesirable" handling.
• Friendly user interface acclaimed in independent reviews.
• High quality graphical displays of all the aspects of the analysis
• Licenses for from 75 to over 20,000 (see below) Decision Making Units (all capable of analyzing from as few as 5 DMUs).
• Over 32 input and output variables (there is no limit placed by the software, but the analysis may work best with fewer depending on your data).
• Input data filtering and individual unit inclusion/exclusion provide flexible input data management. Units can be filtered by value or text field (select only units in "North"). Categorical values can be used to segment the data for analysis. Filter options are stored in the project.
• Flexible import facilities from file, spreadsheet or database using a “wizard”.
• Input/output variable selection to allows quick comparison with various variables.
• Printed reports of common information, with export to Word for easy editing.
• Weighting facility to ensure that important factors are always considered.
• Tabular scores report (with a variety of sorting methods).
• Additional correlation displays.
• Report designer for report customisation*.
• Export tables and detailed data to Excel for post-analysis use.
• Publish to Web facility for distribution via intranet.
• Fully multi-processor capable to split an analysis into multiple parts, and to analyse multiple comparisons at the same time, for fastest possible operation*.
• Many other features.

* Some features are subject to the licence purchased. See the pricing page for details.

See also the What is new in version 4 page for more detail on some of these items.

What does "over 20,000" or "unlimited" units really mean?

Because the heart of data envelopment analysis is a "linear program", the actual maximum data size is not easily determined. Our top capability licence has no restrictions on the number of units, but no one can actually guarantee that a certain data set will analyse when it gets too big. A lot depends on the numbers and the variable arrangement. What we can say though is that we have two large data sets we use for testing. One is 50,000 units by 27 variables, and it works fine. The other is 100,000 units by 3 variables, and it too works okay. If you have a large data set that won't solve, please let us know and we can see what we can do.

If you are interested in the performance of your business, then you will be interested in Frontier Analyst. It provides you with detailed insights into how your business units are performing and how their performance can be improved. And what is more, because the measurement is based on peer-group comparisons, the improvement targets are realistic. Frontier Analyst is in use in many businesses today, ranging from SME’s through to multi-national corporations. Companies such as Whitbread plc, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bank of Scotland and Direct Line Insurance all use Frontier Analyst for evaluating efficiency.

The onus is on managers to achieve better results from the resources available to them. If all business units operated under identical conditions, it would be easier to compare their performance and determine what should be done to improve output. But in the real world each unit functions within a slightly different environment. This is where Frontier Analyst comes in.

Frontier Analyst uses a method known as “data envelopment analysis” (DEA), which sometimes referred to as comparative performance assessment or peer based analysis, to analyse the relative performance of business units performing similar functions. With an easy to use interface, it allows you to study, in detail, the efficiency of your organisation and shows you where improvements can be made. Building on the success of Frontier Analyst Standard, we have used our experience and feedback from managers to produce a new Professional edition, an even more powerful efficiency analysis tool. It provides numerical and graphical output for easy interpretation and communication of results.

To provide a complete service we can provide training and (through third parties) consultancy services, if you require them.

A recent review in the journal OR/MS Today stated that:
“One of the strongest features of Frontier Analyst is the variety of outputs it produces. It supports all standard output information provided by DEA plus some excellent graphic representations of the relationships among DMUs…
Public policy makers and business managers need improved analytic tools to enhance decision making. There is a continued, growing need to find ways to increase efficiency in both the public and private sectors. DEA represents a promising method of addressing this need. The availability of specific DEA software applications, like Frontier Analyst, will help to de-emphasise the mathematics of the analysis while hopefully increasing its conceptual understanding and usefulness as a decision making tool.” OR/MS Today.

Frontier Analyst Professional has the following key features, which we believe make it the best data envelopment analysis product available:

• The friendly user interface acclaimed in independent reviews has been further enhanced.
• Weighting facility to ensure that important factors are always considered.
• Versions supporting from 75 to ‘unlimited’ decision making units.
• Flexible import facilities from both file and spreadsheet using a unique “wizard”.
• Input data filtering and individual unit inclusion/exclusion provide flexible input data management. Filtering supports text and date fields as well as numbers.
• Input/output variable selection so powerful “what-if” evaluations are easy to perform.
• Tabular scores report (with a variety of sorting methods) and graphical summary.
• High quality ‘3D’ zoom-able graph displays of all the aspects of the analysis – “one of the strongest features is the variety of outputs produced, plus excellent graphic representations of the relationships between units”. New graphs include improvement summaries and score distribution summaries.
• Report generator for flexible printed reports, with an optional report designer for customisation.

These all combine to give you a very flexible and powerful efficiency analysis package with features that no other similar software provides.

To ensure that you get the best value out of Frontier Analyst, a full support service is available:

• A variety of support options are now available to give users added confidence.
• Training courses are run to help you get a fast start into using the software.
• Consultancy is available in conjunction with independent consultants.