iThink

by isee systems

Businesses must change to survive and grow. Why?

• Businesses must change to survive and grow. Why?
• Once productive processes bow to new competition
• New markets challenge current methods
• Government regulation compliance adds work and costs
• Labor market shifts inspire new employee recruitment and retention programs

Change implies risk. What if the change doesn’t work? What if things get worse? If the pilot project fails, what do we try next?

Improving Business with iThink
iThink offers a risk-free way to make decisions that drive business improvement. iThink guides you and your business team through the creation of models that simulate business processes and scenarios; pointing out the impacts of a new procedure or policy, and offering opportunity to fix undesirable outcomes. Based on Systems Thinking, iThink models serve as "practice fields", showing you outcomes that could be painful, costly, or embarrassing if discovered in reality.

See the Big Picture
What if you radically increased sales and marketing efforts without adding network bandwidth? Website hits and download demands would go up (good), networks would go down (bad). iThink helps you identify key leverage points for improving business performance without losing sight of unintended consequences.

Going beyond spreadsheets and other linear approaches to business planning, iThink provides a whole system or big picture view of your entire operations. These views are based on dynamic modeling and Systems Thinking; all points of a system are included and can be examined or changed in any order. You avoid making decisions that have negative impacts on seemingly unrelated processes.

Create Shared Insight
iThink is a powerful tool for communicating interdependencies between processes and problems. Your entire business team will understand the variables that impact your business. Shared insight enables teams to work together, further ensuring that decisions are fully implemented and mitigating risk.

Use iThink to:

• Reduce the risk of policy or process change 
• Identify key leverage points for improving business performance 
• Build models that simulate your business
• Create what-if scenarios for decision support 
• Develop shared understanding across functional teams

Key Features

Mapping and Modeling

• Intuitive icon-based graphical interface simplifies model building
• Stock and Flow diagrams support the common language of Systems Thinking and provide insight into modeled business processes 
• Enhanced stock types enable discreet and continuous processes with support for queues, ovens, and enhanced conveyors 
• Model equations are automatically generated and made accessible beneath the model layer 
• Built-in functions facilitate mathematical, statistical, and logical operations 
• Arrays simply represent repeated model structure 
• Sub-models support hierarchical model structures

Simulation and Analysis 

• Simulations "run" processes represented in models 
• Sensitivity analysis reveals key leverage points and optimal conditions 
• Partial model simulations focus analysis on specific sectors of the model 
• Results presented as graphs, tables, animations, QuickTime movies, and files

Communication 

• Flight simulators and dashboards describe model components and facilitate manipulation 
• Input devices include knobs, sliders, switches, and buttons 
• Output devices highlight outcomes with warning flashers, text, graphs, tables, and reports 
• Storytelling supports step-by-step model unveiling
• Sketchable graphs allow easy comparison of expected results with actual simulations
• Save as Runtime option creates full-screen, runtime models
• Multimedia support triggers graphics, movies, sounds, and text messages based on model conditions
• Model security features allow locking or password protection

System Requirements

Windows Minimum:

• Pentium-class processor
• Microsoft Windows™ 95/98/NT/2000/XP (English Version)
• 32 MB RAM
• 35 MB hard disk space
• VGA display of at least 256 colors
• QuickTime (optional)

Macintosh Minimum:

• PowerPC
• Mac OS 8.6 or better (English Version)
• 64 MB RAM (16 MB available to the program)
• 35 MB hard disk space
• 256 colors
• QuickTime (optional)