Forecasting the Rate of Technical Breakthroughs

For a major energy company, Ventana consultants built a dynamic simulation model to forecast the rate of technical progress for a $100+ million/year development program and support proactive program management. The model supplemented traditional program management tools and forecasting methods, which were funded at much higher levels. The goal of the development program was to

Software Licensing Policy

For a major computer company, Ventana developed a model to evaluate software licensing policies. The specific project objectives were to predict the financial results and side effects of alternative licensing policies, provide policy insights, optimize strategies, quantify risk and identify the best ways to reduce it. Through the use of policy simulation, Ventana discovered a

True Costs of Outsourcing

When the new CFO of a manufacturing company took his position in early 1996, fellow executives bombarded him with complaints about the cost estimating and accounting departments. Among them was confusion over how much the company saved by outsourcing parts and services. The CFO asked Ventana to join an ad hoc advisory team he was

Debunking Misleading Cost Data

A leading electronics company hired Ventana to examine in-house business modeling activities and the company’s data for supporting them. The purpose of the Ventana work was to recommend ways to strengthen in-house analytical efforts and to help improve the performance of a failing sector in the company’s corporate portfolio. Within days of starting work, Ventana

Project Management Learning Sim

For NASA, Ventana developed the Project Manager Learning Sim: a training tool containing a simple project-dynamics model, giving users access to the model via a game-like user interface. The Sim was developed in order to enable users to discover for themselves several fundamental insights into managing real world projects, the most fundamental of which is

California GHG Reduction Policy Collaboratives

Ventana facilitates the California GHG reduction (AB32) Policy Collaboratives, sponsored by industry and supported by the Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, and otheragencies, with active environmental NGO participation. These analytically-driven workshops have to date produced key policy insights on AB32 policy, Crude Flows under the Low Carbon Fuels Standard, Combined Heat and Power,

Quantifying the Impact of Science on the Economy and Environment

Ventana is applying its models to help the US Department of Energy understand and increase the impact of its investments in basic science and science infrastructure. Both the outcome of scientific research and its future value are highly uncertain. On the one hand, the discovery process and the context that lends value to its outputs

Enabling the Residential Property Index

Ventana and Radar Logic have developed a methodology for examining the vast amount of data that exists in the real estate market. Our patent-pending1,2 technology harnesses powerful methods of analysis from fundamental nuclear physics and innovations in statistical analysis in order to translate this data into the Radar Logic Daily™Prices, an accurate reflection of the values

Economic Analysis Collaborative

Ventana Systems proposes to form a collaborative among leading Fortune 50 corporations, US financial institutions, and federal agencies to work with Ventana to develop advanced models of the economic system. The project aims to create a better understanding and deeper insight into the drivers of economic crises and the sources for improved economic stability. The

Electricity Production in Rapidly Growing Economies

For the US Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Ventana created a National Strategic Electric Power Sector model. This model enables the evaluation of economic policies and portfolios of energy source technologies to evaluate pollution output, production cost, and electrical availability of electric power on a national scale.The model includes not only an