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What's New at AIMMS

What's New at AIMMS

General announcements & discussions about the company and products.

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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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3 years ago

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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3 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

KimAIMMSian

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

KimAIMMSian

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

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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4 years ago

GertjanChief AIMMSian

posted in What's New at AIMMS

What makes you want to use AIMMS?

Dear community members, users of AIMMS, We are always curious to know why our users use AIMMS. So a simple question for you that I hope you can answer and let us and other community members know: What makes you want to use AIMMS (and not other tools)? Understandably this is a very open question, any answer is good (long, short). Of course, it always help to give context.

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4 years ago

KimAIMMSian

published in What's New at AIMMS

You're invited to join us at AIMMSFEST 2020!Event

!! UPDATE !! We are saddened to inform you that AIMMSFEST will no longer take place on April 3, 2020, due to the uncertain expansion of the coronavirus. The wellbeing of our community always comes first, and unfortunately this means steering away from our original plan to connect in person next month. To decide whether or not to join AIMMSFEST, under these circumstances, is a decision we don’t want to ask from our community. In the meantime, we are looking into activities that do not require travel which we could potentially host on April 3. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to meeting you in the near future. If you have any questions, please contact me. Sending you our best wishes, Kim Meijer AIMMS Marketing EMEA ORIGINAL MESSAGE Experience the power of the AIMMS Community live and in person APRIL 3, 2020 | 10 AM - 6 PM | AMSTERDAM, NL It's my pleasure to invite you to AIMMSFEST, a new speed networking event for the AIMMS community taking pl

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4 years ago

Jan-WillemAIMMSian

published in What's New at AIMMS

AIMMS acquires ISO 27001 Certification

When you work with AIMMS, you get upgraded to exceptional care. Customers are our focal point and fundamental to everything we do. That is why we are pleased to announce that we were awarded our ISO 27001 Certification on January 17. This international certification demonstrates that we manage information security in a way that safeguards the integrity, confidentiality and availability of our customers’ information. We have been investing heavily in information security for a long time, especially since we started offering the AIMMS Cloud Platform four years ago. As cyber security risks were rising across all industries, we decided to further 'up our game' and adopt the ISO 27001 standard. This would offer us a ready-to-use, proven and widely recognized framework for risk management and continuous improvement in information security. In the course of a year, we created our ISO 27001 compliant Information Security Management System - essentially a collection of documents and forms -

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4 years ago

ArthurFormer AIMMSian

published in What's New at AIMMS

Take your model documentation to the next level with our new, open-source Sphinx theme

Our User Support team has been working on very exciting changes that will make AIMMS documentation a lot easier to find and navigate through. One of those changes has been the transformation of the AIMMS Function Reference from a PDF into an HTML site. This is a pretty big deal for us. Not just because the Function Reference is now more seamless to use, but because we achieved this using a template that you can use to build your own AIMMS documentation site too! We have open-sourced the theme files in GitLab. Read on to find out what got us here and why we’re so thrilled to share this with you. First, a word about the AIMMS Function Reference The AIMMS Function Reference is the go-to guide for all the functions, sets, and procedures in the AIMMS core. They are the pre-declared building blocks of the AIMMS language. When we first started out, these got documented in a PDF. That PDF grew over the years and, as you can imagine, it became quite long and difficult to maintain. So

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4 years ago

Jess EsGrand Master

published in What's New at AIMMS

What's going on in the AIMMS CommunityNews

We want to make sure the time you spend here is worthwhile - getting help with a specific problem, learning about upcoming AIMMS features, exchanging tips with other users. Maybe you’re also curious about how we’re going about it? Check out some cool stats from 2019, preview some plans for 2020, and share your input (really!) Who are our users? Our users are representative of the AIMMS ecosystem - Academics concerned with modeling, Partners who create AIMMS-based solutions for their customers, Customer companies whose teams use AIMMS, and AIMMSians who work on the product and experience. Community Users 2019 What do people do here? For one thing, people engage with one another on problems and solutions, product ideas, and more... Community Engagement 2019 ...and from all those discussions come help and answers that everyone can benefit from. Community Helpfulness 2019What are people interested in? We do our best to find interesting topics and write about them. We’ve shared a list

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4 years ago

Jess EsGrand Master

published in What's New at AIMMS

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