The French developer of optimization and visualization software Ilog SA has launched OPL Studio, a modeling environment with which it hopes to enhance its offerings in the optimization market.
The new product is written in the Optimization Programming Language (OPL) developed by Pascal Van Hentenrynk, the source code for which Ilog acquired in December. It seeks to address various requirements on the part of Ilog, one of which arose from the companyÆs August 1997 acquisition of US company, CPLEX Optimization Inc.
Ilog is the dominant player in the constraint programming side of optimization, which in turn has primarily been developed in Europe, while CPLEX enjoyed a similar position on the mathematical programming side, which is mainly a US discipline. The two approaches are largely complementary, with only a few areas in which they overlap, so that it makes sense to try to extend each into the otherÆs customer base. One of the prime functions of OPL Studio is to do just that.
Ilog currently offers a constraint programming component library called Ilog Solver, another for mathematical programming called Ilog Planner (with some underlying CPLEX technology), and a library specifically for scheduling, which runs on Solver and is called Ilog Scheduler.
With OPL Studio, customers with one of these libraries can now model the applications they want to build. A code generation facility within Studio will also enable them to proceed automatically to the actual construction of the application, by going into the library and pulling out the relevant components. Should part of their application require a component from one of the other libraries, however, they will be informed that their license does not extend to that product, which they will hopefully then seek to acquire as they see the advantages to their business process. At that point, said product manager Irving Lustig, the other library would be made available at a discount, in view of the fact that they have already bought Studio.
OPL StudioÆs strategic mission also comprises making optimization available to a broader market, enabling less technical, more business-oriented professionals to carry it out. Hence the code generation facility, reducing the technical requirements of end users.
The product is also aimed at IlogÆs other optimization market, however, namely independent software vendors such as i2 and Manugistics, who incorporate its libraries into their business applications. Though they are not lacking technical staff to generate their own code, OPL Studio should enable these customers (who currently comprise just over half IlogÆs total optimization market) both to model their applications and take them to market more quickly.
There is also an entry-level version of the new product called OPL Studio Pro. This is aimed both at customers who own no Ilog library, and at ones who own one but would like a taste of the other discipline. The former will hopefully be convinced of the merits of optimization and acquire their first library, while the second will pluck up the courage to expand into a second type of optimization programming, buying the relevant library as a result.
