ILOG Optimization Decision Manager (ODM) is a specialized application development tool that helps users build and deploy decision support applications, putting the power of optimization into the hands of business people. Create custom planning and scheduling applications that take full advantage of the power of ILOG CPLEX, the world's leading optimization engine. Modelers and IT collaborate to build decision support applications that planners, analysts and operations managers can trust and use quickly and comfortably.

Accessible optimization for business users: Create and compare scenarios Relax constraints with explanations based on business priorities Optimize plans and schedules while setting constraints for individual goals. Work easily with input data and solutions Participate in model refinement

Taking the mystery out of optimization

Optimal plans and schedules can be difficult to create and sometimes difficult to trust–especially when powerful mathematical models make complex recommendations. Business users want to understand why they get the recommendations they get, and they want to perform what-if analysis through scenario creation and comparison. ILOG ODM is an optimization application that gives users the power of the world’s most widely-used and powerful optimization engines with state-of-the-art ease of use.

Planning and scheduling applications built with ILOG ODM. An intuitive interface makes it easy for business users to explore alternatives. Images open in a new window for better viewing.

• Introduction to ILOG ODM (Flash, 09:39 minutes)
  Watch ILOG ODM in action with this demo. Get a product overview, and see how a workforce scheduling application is built with ODM.

Optimization applications for business users
With ILOG ODM, non-technical business users can:

• Participate in model refinement
  Test and refine optimization models via application prototypes that make it easy to understand all of the different model inputs and outputs, including:
  
  
  • Business goals
  • Production or service demand to be met
  • Cost assumptions
  • Resources available to meet the demand
  • Operating constraints
  • Employee or customer preferences
  • Decisions to be made
  • Solution metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs)


• Rapidly create and compare scenarios
  Quickly create business scenarios. Modify any input data or goal and compare results and solution metrics without optimization expertise.



• Understand the optimized plan or schedule
  Take advantage of ODM explanations, controlled relaxation of constraints and scenario comparison to fully understand what your optimization models are doing.



• Modify recommended plans and schedules
  Use recommendations as a starting point. Freeze part of a solution to resolve it, or manually modify a plan or schedule.



• Work with Excel
  Work with your favorite business tools. Import input data from Excel spreadsheets. Send recommendations, taking advantage of Excel charts and tools.



• Create a database of solutions over time
  Make better decisions and build an invaluable database of solutions using an optimization application. The solution metrics that come with each optimization scenario can help you track your operational efficiency and financial performance over time.