Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, November/December 2014 | Page 62

Software S u r ve y Decision analysis Decision tools continue to evolve, providing analysts with more horsepower to transform increasingly vast amounts of information into decision advantage. By William M. Patchak s the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team’s dreams for World Cup victory ended this summer in a close loss to Belgium, pundits debated what areas of improvement were most needed for the team’s future success. “They need more possession time with the ball,” one stated. “Yes, but it has to be possession with purpose,” another countered. In fact, this statement probably rings true for many of today’s decision prof \