Vanguard Software Presents at ACMI's Inaugural Event

Commercial Mediators Learn How Decision Tree Analysis is an Asset in the Mediation and Dispute Resolution Process

Philadelphia, PA – October 25, 2006 – Vanguard Software's VP of Professional Services, Brian Lewis, who has a doctorate in Operational Research, was chosen to deliver an introductory course in Decision Tree Analysis to Commercial Mediators attending the Advanced Commercial Mediation Institute’s (ACMI) inaugural event which occurred during the 2006 Annual Conference of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). The ACMI, born out of collaboration between the Commercial Section of ACR, Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative, and the American Arbitration Association, is an educational forum designed to further develop advanced skills of professionals who are experienced in mediating complex commercial and business disputes.

Throughout the ACMI event, leading practitioners and educators in the dispute resolution and related fields facilitated an interactive environment which focused on current techniques and technologies, such as Decision Tree Analysis, that can help mediators solve complex problems more efficiently. “Our goal for the introductory course was to present sophisticated analytical tools that are useful to advanced Commercial Mediators in resolving complex business disputes. Dr. Lewis’s presentation on the use of the Vanguard System™ Decision Tree Analysis capabilities not only provided mediators with information about a new, useful tool, but also demonstrated that it is easily adaptable to our practices without extensive training,” said Richard DeWitt, co-chair of the ACMI and the Commercial Section of the ACR.

DeWitt found that Vanguard Software’s tool was the easiest to use after comparing several Decision Tree Analysis products. Using the Vanguard System to build his own models and conferring with Lewis about Decision Trees and dispute resolution led DeWitt to invite Lewis to speak at the conference. “It was an honor to be invited to participate in the ACMI’s first event along with such presenters as former FBI Director William Sessions and William Slate, President and CEO of the American Arbitration Association,” said Lewis. “The ACMI provides a great opportunity to introduce Commercial Mediators to new quantitative evaluation techniques that they can immediately put into practice in resolving disputes and giving more value to clients.”

Decision Tree Analysis is supported by Vanguard Software’s new Vanguard System™, an enterprise decision analysis and collaborative modeling application. The Vanguard System enables easy application of proven decision support techniques to complex problems in order to make confident, informed decisions. It combines knowledge capture, collaborative modeling, and key quantitative methods in management, such as Decision Tree Analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, Advanced Forecasting, Optimization, and others, to give users unprecedented power and flexibility for making better decisions and clearly communicating ideas.

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About Vanguard Software

Vanguard Software is a privately held corporation founded in 1995 to develop business Decision Support software. Customers in over 60 countries and in every major industry use Vanguard’s software for forecasting, resource optimization, Web-based expert systems, and financial modeling. For more information about Vanguard, visit http://www.vanguardsw.com/.