Comparing Analytica and DPL for financial modeling

Tom Tuduc02 September 2008

QUESTION: What is the main differentiating feature between Analytica and DPL for financial modeling?

ANSWER:

Analytica programming language seamlessly integrates with the influence diagrams with each nodeobject being a variable (scalar, stochastic variable, or an array). This facilitate a stage-by-stage approach toproblem solving making it ideal for communication & justification.. DPL 7.0 makes it easy to find policy trees, valuesof information and value of control for each or combination of CHANCE variables. For example, the image belowshows the best policy if the DEMAND is known - If DEMAND is high, choose San Francisco and if DEMAND is low,choose Fresno.The example in this blog shows a marketing location launch decision represented in both Analytica 4.0 and DPL7.0. The value to the firm depends on the DEMAND (low or high), ELDERLY RESPONSE (Low, Mixed, Unified) andthe CITY (San Francisco, Beverly Hills, or Fresno)

Input styles

.DPL enables a visual input of each leaf node value (see image below).Analytica uses tables (see image below) Anlytica enables the use of intelligent arrays similar to some features ofparrallel programming - a node can inherit dimensions of its input nodes.