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What's New at AIMMS

Stay up to date with product updates, new features, and announcements.

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82 Topics
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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
It's here! Meet AIMMS Community EditionNews

The next big step in growing and empowering our community is here! We’re very proud to introduce AIMMS Community Edition, a free entry point for anyone interested in building mathematical optimization models and applications using our feature-rich IDE. The Community Edition includes access to open-source solvers like CBC (for linear and mixed-integer problems), IPOPT (for nonlinear problems), and AOA solver (for mixed-integer nonlinear problems). It’s available for anyone to use for personal, non-commercial projects.  Whether it’s crafting a plan to reduce your personal carbon footprint, creating a schedule for your kids’ school or simply to learn and experiment, AIMMS Community Edition is ideal for those who want to apply modeling to improve decision making. It’s also a great companion for recent graduates who previously used an AIMMS Academic License but want to continue playing with the software at no cost, or showcase their AIMMS skills to prospective employers.  Learning resources

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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Partner Spotlight: Oliver Nunn from Endgame Economics on Modeling Power Markets with AIMMSInterview

Not many people know that several electricity markets in Asia have been modeled and optimized using AIMMS. This includes some of the largest state grids in the region. When we heard that Oliver Nunn, a leading consultant in this area and an AIMMS power user, was starting his own business, we could sense the start of a great partnership. @LauraV recently spoke with Oliver about his journey with AIMMS and the services he provides for organizations in the industry.Oliver, can you tell us a little about your background?I’ve worked as a consultant and advisor in the Australian energy sector for the last 11 years. During that time, I have provided advice on a wide range of optimization projects, including modeling of outcomes in the Australian national electricity market, the Philippines power market, and the Vietnam power system. I hold a first-class honours degree in pure mathematics, and a commerce degree with majors in economics and finance.What brought you to this field and how did you

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Arthur
ArthurFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
New WebUI Advanced User Interaction Course on AcademyTraining Course

Hi Community ! We have a new WebUI course available on AIMMS Academy. This course provides an overview of the most important visual design elements in our WebUI, allowing you to create a great user experience for your AIMMS apps. The course was developed with our partners at UniSoma, Gabriela Servidone and Rodrigo Mendonça. In this course, you will learn to: Customize the UI in your web application to make it unique for your organization and customer.  Create workflows Use the Status Bar, Side Panels, List Widgets, and Dialog Pages Configure the layout of a WebUI page with Grid Pages and Page Layouts Trigger a procedure using Widget and Page ActionsWe hope you and your team enjoy the course! Sign up for the course Would you like to share an idea for a course to develop on AIMMS Academy ? Tell us more in the comments!A big thanks to Unisoma for their contribution to the community  

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mateusarakawa
AIMMS Champ
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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Partner Spotlight: baobab soluciones’ Dr. Álvaro García on How to Help the World Make Better DecisionsInterview

As part of our interview series with AIMMS partners, we spoke with Dr. Álvaro García, Co-Founder at baobab soluciones. baobab’s talented specialists combine the latest mathematical techniques to develop solutions for industrial-scale problems. They help top-tier companies and organizations improve their decision making.Can you tell us more about your role at baobab soluciones?I was one of the founders of baobab back in 2011, as a full-time professor at UPM ETSII. My role is so varied that we haven’t been able to find a title descriptive enough. I hold a PhD in Industrial Engineering and I teach several courses in Operations Research and Operations Management, so I oversee all activities related to the mathematical architecture of the solutions we develop for our customers, from pre-sales to delivery acceptance.As a professor, I also lead the internal development of our talent, which is our key differentiator. Every new hire goes through an ambitious learning process during their first

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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
New Error Handling Course Now Available on AIMMS AcademyNews

We are happy to announce that a new Error Handling course is now available on AIMMS AcademyIn software development, errors inevitably occur. Whether it’s typos during interaction, erroneous input, coding errors, or externally caused issues, such as a broken internet connection. Did you know AIMMS has built-in features that allow you to diagnose and handle errors? The course teaches you to use these features, so you can provide easy-to-use applications for end users. Sometimes, just knowing how to communicate the error can reduce a lot of friction in an app. Applications with extensive diagnostics and careful and consistent error handling make users feel in control.Sign up for the course and follow it at your convenience. If you have questions about the training, feel free to contact its creator, @Chris Kuip.

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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Our Community by The Numbers - 2020 in ReviewBlog

2020 went way off-script but a few things remained constant - our Community kept growing! We helped and inspired each other, exchanging feedback, ideas and insights. Check out some cool stats from last year, relook at our most popular articles and find more ways to get involved. Last year:                     What are people interested in?Most of our members are interested in AIMMS Developer, AIMMS WebUI and OR-related topics. Check out our most popular posts from last year.Product Questions  Ant-Colony Optimization  Modelling Question - if-then constraint  Releasing RAM memory after finishing with an execution  Reporting the contents of the Progress window  How many rows to read from an excel file (axll)?  Articles  Using Machine Learning and AIMMS for Better Decision-Making  Immediate Supply Chain Actions to Take Amid COVID-19  Product Discussions  How to Combine Bar Chart and Line Chart  CurrentRegularPage  Interviews  Supporting the Dutch Healthcare System with AIMMS-bas

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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Best Practices for Outsourcing Software DevelopmentInterview

Are you thinking of contracting a partner for your AIMMS development project or outsourcing a new IT initiative in your company? Many organizations contract external partners who often act as an extension of their team. We recently spoke with Madhu Krishnappa, Senior Test Specialist and Agile Practitioner at DevOn, to get his tips on what makes outsourcing and co-sourcing successful.Madhu has worked in agile software development for close to 15 years and has been working with AIMMS for 3 of those years, helping us accelerate the development of our GUI builder and WebUI features.Madhu, outsourcing generally involves a great deal of trust between both parties and building that trust is not always easy at the beginning. How do you do it?It all starts with creating a joint understanding. Your outsourcing partner should understand your vision – that is, why you need their help, what you are looking for and where you want to go. It’s key to explain your problem statement clearly. At DevOn, w

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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Get Certified with AIMMS AcademyNews

We’re excited to bring you a new learning center: AIMMS Academy. AIMMS Academy will offer courses and certifications for all AIMMS users, from beginners to expert modelers. These training resources will help you develop your modeling skills, improve team collaboration with AIMMS features, and advance your career through certifications. It allows you to start learning at your convenience and follow courses at your own pace.  Available courses Currently, we have the following courses open for enrollment:  My First App: learn the basics of AIMMS app development    Introduction to Linear Programming: learn to recognize a decision support problem and solve it in AIMMS   Units of Measurement: Learn to use units of measurement in your AIMMS model, improve unit consistency and scale properly against numerical instabilities (intermediate level)  Network Design: learn to design your supply chain network and use scenario modeling to test configurationsMore courses and learning paths to come Stay

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Aanand
AIMMSian
AanandAIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Network Design Training at University of Luxembourg

Students from the University of Luxembourg were trained last week in the use of AIMMS Network Design. The 3-hour training session hosted by university faculty members for a Logistics Management course, and conducted by myself and Paul van Nierop, helped students feel comfortable with using Network Design and Center of Gravity. They will be using these SC Navigator Apps to perform a case study project with the objective of designing an optimal Network for a fictional distribution company (“DistriLux”) and prescribing new, creative solutions to the business.A virtual hands-on zoom training was conducted with 21 Master students joining from all around the world. The feedback was very positive from both the professors and the students. Personally, it was a great experience for me to engage with students from the same Master's program I graduated from in 2019. I feel confident that they will begin to see the value of our apps as they get deeper into it over the next 10 days.Photo by Prof. A

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Aanand
AIMMSian
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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
AIMMS Success Series Episode 1 - Change Management Insights from HEINEKEN

Adequate change management is a crucial factor for the success of any analytics project. In most cases, an AIMMS implementation isn’t just about using a new tool. It’s part of a process. Often, organizations need to transform their business strategies and processes in order to become more innovative, improve flexibility and adapt to a constantly evolving marketplace. For the desired transformation to happen, aligning people, process and technology is essential. How do you effectively manage change?In this webinar, we get to talk to Xiaoyun Bing, Global Product Owner Analytics at The HEINEKEN Company, to discuss how they navigated change and the adoption of one of their AIMMS Applications.Watch the recording below. 

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LauraV
Jess Es
Jess EsGrand Master
published in What's New at AIMMS
Join our Academic User Group!

We’re happy to announce the new Academics user group! It’s a place for students and professors to connect with peers and find topics of special interest to academics.  Visit Academic group page Feel free to introduce yourself and let the community know what you’re working on.  

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Jess Es
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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
The journey to creating a more intuitive user experience in AIMMS SC NavigatorInterview

An interview with UX Designer Thomas Pleeging  AIMMS takes pride in providing a great user experience, both in SC Navigator applications and through our WebUI, which provides a toolkit for AIMMS developers to deliver a great-looking user interface in their Apps. Often, translating our supply chain expertise into a great UX does not come easy, especially in robust apps that have multiple types of functional users.  To ensure we have a user-centric approach, we work with user experience experts. We spoke with Thomas Pleeging, former UX and Senior Designer at Total Design, to get his take on this UX improvement journey and uncover some of the highlights.   Thomas, as an agency, how do you ease the collaboration between the business (supply chain) side, design and development?    Our standard way of working starts with a session. So, we organize a session with the product owner (who typically brings the business or supply chain expertise), the developers (who know about data modeling and t

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Jess Es
Jess EsGrand Master
published in What's New at AIMMS
Marcel Hunting on the AIMMS Scaling toolInside AIMMS

Automating a manual process: the new AIMMS Scaling tool We recently released a new Auto-scaling feature as part of the Math Program Inspector with AIMMS 4.74. This feature can improve the quality of your model with much less manual testing and guesswork when it comes to scaling factor determination.  Hear from @Marcel Hunting , who led development of this feature, about how Auto-scaling came about, when to use it, and how your model can benefit. Marcel is part of R&D as well as the Support Team at AIMMS. How can users identify scaling issues?Users are usually not aware about scaling issues in their model. Modelers raise their awareness when they suddenly encounter an issue with the post-solve, for example. Usual symptoms of a poorly scaled model are:  AIMMS post-solve warnings “solution not reliable”, or “could not find a solution"  A small infeasibility due to rounding errors in the constraint  Instability of the solution, that it would return slightly different solutions  In

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Jess Es
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Anonymous
published in What's New at AIMMS
AIMMS has a new website!

Go explore our new website! You may have noticed our re-designed website: www.aimms.com.We are super excited about this next step and would love to hear what you think. There are a few important changes you need to know about: Our Support and Developers sections are completely reorganized – we've pared it down to bare essentials, letting our Documentation and Community take over much of the content. We have a new Support Center, which you can access from the home page. This will be your new hub for AIMMS documentation, product downloads and resources. Watch this 1 minute video to learn more:  Please send us your feedback! Got questions, suggestions, bugs, comments? Please submit your first impression in the poll and leave a comment below this article.

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Gloria QuintanillaFormer AIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
Focus on UX to Drive App AdoptionInterview

Tips from Total Design’s Thomas Pleeging   As you know, AIMMS has been on a journey to improve user experience, both in our own products and through our WebUI, which provides a toolkit for AIMMS developers to deliver a great-looking user interface in their Apps. The importance of UX cannot be understated and it’s not just about cosmetics. As this article in our Project Success series explains, your app should look appealing, but it should also fit into your user’s workflow, reduce friction and present data in a seamless way. How can you achieve this? We spoke with Thomas Pleeging, a guru for all matters UX and former Senior Designer at Total Design, to get some practical tips. Thomas has worked in design for 10 years, six of them specifically devoted to UX. He has worked closely with our team for nearly three years now. Here’s what he had to share.  UX and UI, you often hear these terms in concert with one another. What do they actually mean?   Yes, that’s right. UX stands for User Exp

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Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Boost your AIMMS Know-how with our Remote Standard Workshops

Our Standard Workshops have gone virtual to accommodate the needs of our customers. They will take place over 4 half days. These hands-on workshops are led by a member of our support team and are geared to help you to make immediate use of the advanced productivity tools and features in AIMMS. We are pleased to announce new dates and session topics below:    June 22 – 25   4 mornings, CEST - exact time to be determined   Trainer: Arthur d’Herbemont     July 13 – 16   4 mornings or afternoons PDT - exact time to be determined   Trainer: Mohan Chiriki    Workshop fee    This training is free if you hold a subscription to a Developer’s License.  If you don’t have a license and you would like to join, please send an e-mail to support@aimms.com to request more information.    Topics covered    In this training we will tell you a bit about the history of AIMMS (the company). But this training will mostly be about learning you the basics of AIMMS: How to build your first AIM

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Jess Es
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Anonymous
published in What's New at AIMMS
Webinar (follow-up): Resilient Supply Chain Network Designevent

Q&A follow-up   Many thanks to everyone who joined today's webinar Resilient Supply Chain Network Design presented by @Bhomik Jain, @Paul and @Aanand. We didn't have enough time to go through all submitted questions live during the webinar. In this article you will find our answers to the questions asked. Please be invited to keep the conversation going, right here on the AIMMS Community.    Question Answer(s) How much time would it take to build a model and application like the one shown in the demo? I would expect it to take 25-30 days of building time for a not so experienced (AIMMS) model builder? Models can be constructed quite quickly using an Excel data template and easy to use browser interface.  The App is built and maintained by AIMMS, so you only need to worry about feeding it with meaningful data and running scenarios.  Data should also not be a barrier : use what you have got, make some assumptions, and then refine from there.  So within one week you shoul

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Jess Es
Jess EsGrand Master
published in What's New at AIMMS
Webinar: ETL-based Integration as a Service for AIMMSEvent

Monday, May 18, 2020   About the event Join our interactive webinar to learn about our new managed service for integrating different ERP systems and other data sources with AIMMS applications. We will introduce the service proposition and explain how it's different from more traditional approaches. The webinar will contain a demonstration of an end-to-end integration powered by the innovative SnapLogic integration platform. We will be joined in the webinar by our partner Rojo Consultancy. Rojo Consultancy specializes in cloud and on-premise integration, as well as business process orchestration.   Speakers   Jan Willem van CrevelLeader of Product Development and Operations at AIMMSLucas LaumansEnterprise Integration Architect at Rojo Consultancy   

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Jess Es
Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Set your project up for success: Part 6, Maintenance and support

Include maintenance and after care in your planning This article is part of the series “Set your project up for success.” Even after an app is accepted, know that there will be a life cycle. Along the way, your app will likely need to "mature" and be adapted. Making a plan for maintenance ahead of time will set expectations for everyone involved. Know that there will be a life cycle. Your app will need to "mature" and be adapted. Entering the maintenance and support phase After the application is delivered and accepted by users, the project is usually closed and a new phase starts in which users will find bugs, ask questions about usage, and request new functionality. We recommend entering into a maintenance and support contract with the customer for this. Do not forget to include the costs for testing in your contract. Be specific about how the users' needs will be met: Bug reports - How quickly will these be dealt with? How will they be prioritized?  Usage questions - How will they c

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Patrick
Administrator
Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Set your project up for success: Part 4, UI and UX

Thinking about User Experience is not optional This article is part of the series “Set your project up for success.” We all know that users’ expectations have changed about what an app should be. Not only should your app serve its primary functions, but also provide information in an attractive and easy-to-digest way. It should fit into the user's workflow and avoid friction. In my experience, good user experience (UX) is the basis for acceptance of the app and of the outcomes of the app. It doesn't mean just cosmetics, like adding a few graphs and matching the button colors to the company logo. It means really understanding how your user will use the tool, in what context, and structuring to facilitate that purpose.Good User Experience (UX) is the basis for acceptance of the app and of the outcomes of the app.  Know your possibilities, and your limitsIn the AIMMS platform, a model developer can build the whole User Interface (UI) – and we're doing our best to keep delivering WebUI too

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Patrick
Administrator
Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Set your project up for success: Part 3, Data management

Determine what data from which sources is needed   This article is part of the series “Set your project up for success.”   Start with the assumption that this aspect is going to be difficult – even in successful projects.  Companies have a lot of unstructured data. Acknowledge that it will be a big task to get the "right" data in the "right" format.  Prepare clear documentation of what data you need, and consider all sides of it. In what format should data be?  Where does it come from? How you will get it into AIMMS? In what order does it need to go in? How you will store it? In what type of database should it be stored? What will you do with the data after AIMMS has optimized it? Consider how often you will need fresh data – and whether you need a full set of new data, or just a delta containing the changes to previous data.   The more details you know up front, the easier it will be to track down the data and explain to the responsible parties what they need to provide

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Patrick
Administrator
Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Set your project up for success: Part 5, Change management

Managing organizational change as part of implementation This article is part of the series “Set your project up for success.”The implementation of a new software product actually always implies a change:An old tool is replaced New functionality is added, old, perhaps much-loved, functionality is removed Tricks and workarounds might no longer work A new UI, a different workflowBut often the change goes further than end-users who get a new app:A new process is implemented Data streams are merged Departments must collaborate or become dependent on each other Figures that were only known to a few are made explicitThese are all examples that we have encountered during AIMMS projects over the years. If properly handled, a project can be successful. When they're not, a project can be endlessly delayed or even fail.In this post, you will not find golden rules for Change Management. Instead, we'll share a simple advice: Realize, at all times, that a project with AIMMS brings about a change and

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Patrick
Administrator
Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Set your project up for success: Part 2, Time to value

Make “Time To Value” a priority   This article is part of the series “Set your project up for success.”   Customers often name "fast modeling" as a distinguishing factor of AIMMS compared to other modeling languages. As we know, time is money, and the longer a project takes to deliver, the higher the cost. Your customers will be happier when they can see things moving along quickly.  Make it official with KPI’s Adding Time to Value as a project KPI means evaluating items based on what has the highest value and can be delivered in the shortest time. It tells you what to prioritize as the project goes along.  That means that your first priorities should be on a Minimum Viable Product, focusing on those high-value features and functions that serve the primary user needs. Once that is delivered (or presented), you can tackle other user needs in following versions.  Your first priorities should be on a Minimum Viable Product, focusing on those high-value features and functions. De

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Patrick
Administrator
Patrick
Administrator
PatrickAdministrator
published in What's New at AIMMS
Set your project up for success: Part 1, Know the key areas

Devote time to key areas in your plan for success One of the very first posts on our Community is "How to create a reliable and successful AIMMS application" which provides tips for developers and project managers. This topic is crucial for many of our customers, and is well worth revisiting from an even higher level for all stakeholders.  As Director of User Support & Customer Success, I have evaluated many AIMMS projects. Evaluation shows that "just" making a good model with AIMMS is no longer sufficient for a successful project and a happy customer. An AIMMS implementation is increasingly a software implementation, including everything that comes with it.   The developer is increasingly becoming part of a team of specialists, including IT specialists, data connection experts, and UI or interaction designers.  An AIMMS implementation is increasingly a software implementation, including everything that comes with it.    The main reasons for this:  Applications developed w

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Patrick
Administrator
Jan-Willem
AIMMSian
Jan-WillemAIMMSian
published in What's New at AIMMS
AIMMS Information Security: What and HowBlog

In recent years, information security awareness has increased greatly in the industry, and so have the threat levels. We frequently receive questions from customers about our security policies and what we do to look after their data. In this article, I will try to provide you with an overview of our approach and activities in the realm of IT security.   Information security touches almost every part of our business and our customers expect us to act securely in all our activities and to deliver secure products and services.   We have been investing in information security for a long time, especially since we started developing the AIMMS Cloud Platform. The move to the cloud brings great benefits to our customers, but also increases our responsibility. At least a third of our development efforts for our cloud platform were and are devoted to security. In the following section I will outline what this has led to so far.  AIMMS Cloud Platform Security    We worked hard to meet our custome

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Jan-Willem
AIMMSian
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