A Software Survey of Analytics and Spatial Information Technology

Abstract

This chapter echos the discussion in Chapter 7, in which we laid out the landscape of analytics and its supporting software, with a special focus on spatial information technology. While the purpose of Chapter 7 is to provide the general picture, the current chapter will review solution methodologies and specific software packages. We start with a general-purpose applied mathematics software, such as MATLAB, and progress toward more specialized tools, ending with vehicle-routing software. Many commercial software packages are multi-purpose; they perform more than one function. Oracle Crystal Ball is a good example, being a key spreadsheet-based application suite for predictive modeling, forecasting, simulation, and optimization. The various packages by Vanguard Software are another example. Instead of listing a general purpose software several times, sometimes we chose to list it only once under what we judge to be the most appropriate use.