Promax Launching This Week

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This week we will be launching version 3 of Promax – our multi-criteria software. It has lots of new features from version 2 that we hope our customers will find useful and exciting.

Multi-criteria software is used for aiding decisions where you have more than one factor (criterion) to consider. It is well recognised that most people struggle to assess multiple criteria fairly and often make decisions based on their overall gut-feel; a High, Medium, Low if you like. Whilst this may be adequate for decisions that are relatively small and only involve a few people it is not a good technique for larger decisions or where there are many people involved. These sorts of decisions need better transparency and visibility of how the different factors contribute to the decision.

Although people use spread sheets to carry out their calculations it should be remembered that many (most) have had no training or experience with decision science. This can and does lead to errors in calculations and incorrect methods for valuing and weighting criteria. Additionally it is difficult to carry out adequate sensitivity analysis and view the result in anything other than a simplistic manner.

Purposely designed multi-criteria software removes these drawbacks so you can be sure the result is, in fact, valid – which for important decisions is surely extremely important. The initial cost of the software will quickly be repaid in the speed of model build and subsequent analysis. It is certainly far cheaper than using spread sheets. Simply calculate the hours spent every time someone builds the spread sheet, someone checks the calculations the the graphs are developed. Multiply these hours by the persons rate and you'll probably be surprised at the eventual cost. A few decisions will be enough to fund the software purchase and that doesn’t even include the opportunity cost of the spread sheet person (i.e. they could/should be doing something else more valuable to the business).

Promax is unique in that it has embedded well-recognised multi-attribute utility calculations into a tool that is of practical use to people who aren’t decision-science experts. It is designed around a structured decision-making methodology taking the user through defining the problem, developing criteria, weighting the criteria, identifying options and then scoring the options. The results are presented in a myriad of ways which is important to assess the robustness of the decision – the biggest overall score may not necessarily be the best option.  

Some of the great features are:

• Problem Definition – state where you are now, where you want to be and what the barriers are using a prompt-based approach.
• Creating a value tree using drag and drop – just create criteria using a mind mapping approach and drag criteria around to fit under different topics.
• Multiple ways of weighting – direct weighting, pairwise comparison and swing weighting gives plenty of choices to ensure you can weight criteria accurately as to their importance.
• Options with notes – a drag and drop approach to creating options gives great flexibility. You can add notes, images, attachments and even rate the option right on the display.
• Creativity & Triz tools / database – this functionality for coming up with ideas is much more effective than using traditional brainstorming. These exciting tools can generate many more options than you thought possible.
• Scoring with sliders and add notes – a cool new slider for scoring plus the ability to add notes to explain the rationale behind the score.
• Results – there are many ways of viewing. From a bar chart and table through to looking at strengths and weaknesses of particular options. Also, looking at value for money is a fantastic display.

Additionally there are lots of behind the scenes enhancements such as the ability to change colours, undo, import/export to/from excel and address uncertainty with three point estimates.

The professional version adds resource allocation to the software. This allows you to have combinations of options and pick the best combination for a given budget (or other resource). This is used for value engineering and for prioritisation within funding constraints.

For more information see the Promax web page.