Crystal Ball

Oracle Crystal Ball is the leading spreadsheet-based application suite for predictive modeling, forecasting, simulation, and optimization. It gives you unparalleled insight into the critical factors affecting risk. With Crystal Ball, you can make the right tactical decisions to reach your objectives and gain a competitive edge under even the most uncertain market conditions.

Oracle Crystal Ball solutions begin with Oracle Crystal Ball, the base package for predictive modeling, Monte Carlo simulation and forecasting. Oracle Crystal Ball Enterprise Performance Management builds on that set of tools by adding the power of Oracle Crystal Ball to your Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) applications.

Key Benefits

• Think in ranges - Get the full picture in the face of an uncertain future
• Gain valuable insight - Identify and mitigate the key inputs that drive risk
• Communicate your risks - Share your findings through graphs, charts, and reports that let you vividly present and communicate the results of your analyses
• Collaborate with others - Work as a team, sharing models and data to get your work done faster
• Get results quickly - Start using Oracle Crystal Ball in minutes
• Enhance your investment - Draw on the spreadsheet technology you already own

Decision Optimizer

Oracle Crystal Ball Decision Optimizer is an option for Oracle Crystal Ball that adds the advanced capabilities of optimization and calculation speed to Oracle Crystal Ball's powerful simulation and forecasting toolset. Oracle Crystal Ball Decision Optimizer is the easiest way to perform fast risk analysis and optimization in your own spreadsheets. With one integrated toolset, you can use your own historical data to build accurate models, automate "what if" analysis to understand the effect of underlying uncertainty, and search for the best solution or project mix. A license of Oracle Crystal Ball is required for this option to run.

Integration with MS Project

One of the many Crystal Ball resources that can be downloaded from oracle.com is the Crystal Ball Project Macro. With this example Crystal Ball model, you can create Crystal Ball assumptions and forecasts in Microsoft Project files. Then, you can run Crystal Ball simulations to dynamically change project elements according to your assumption and forecast definitions.

You can use the resulting forecast charts to estimate the certainty of each range of forecast values. You can also create sensitivity charts to show which tasks have the most influence on forecasted values. Displaying forecast results in Percentiles view presents the probability of being above or below different forecast values in one list. Finally, you can generate a report that summarizes simulation results in numeric and graphic form.

A video demonstrating the Crystal Ball Project Macro; the final project plan is then uploaded to Oracle Projects using the standard MSP Integration functionality.

 

Crystal Ball with Essbase and Project Analytics

Download the presentation below by Dave Hammal of Oracle at a recent Projects OUG SIG highlighting the Crystal Ball Optimiser with Essbase and Project Analytics.

Crystal Ball with Essbase and Project Analytics Presentation