Hello Everyone-

In a past post, we talked about a cloud computing based business simulation we're rolling out. We've received a few questions about cloud computing. Today, the Wall Street Journal talks about cloud computing and its a pretty good article. Very basic, but interesting.

Click here:
Cloud Computing- What is it exactly

Happy reading!
- SimDevGroup
.

Hello SimDev Community-

For those customers that have been working with us for a long time, you know that we are obsessed with finding ways to drive down costs. For those that may not have worked with Simulation Development Group, we are dirt cheap. Cheap to a fault at times. We can create a custom business simulation for surprising low costs (often for less than canned business training solutions). The fault comes in that we'll sometimes put this as the highest priority and our customers need to adjust this sometimes (yes, we know, there are worse problems).

"Where is this going?" you're probably asking. Its going here:

We have good news: We've figured out a way using cloud computing to create significant savings without impacting quality. WooHoo!

A custom business simulation for training or business acumen almost always requires a facilitator to be effective. A sim on its own is pretty ineffective. Sometimes we fly out to facilitate, sometimes you may want to facilitate, but we still need to be there for support. Either way, there are still travel costs incurred.

So we asked ourselves, "Is there a way for us to be there without us being there?" The answer is yes... Cloud Computing! Cool. To simplify the idea:

- You facilitate, we support you, but from our offices instead of yours. Why pay for travel when technology can let this happen remotely?

This isn't something we want to explain how (our competitors watch us closely enough as it is) within this posting. If you have questions, give us a call.

Our research shows that this creates costs savings of anywhere from $2000+ on average per delivery. This won't help if you want us to facilitate, but hey, if you want the glory, we'll give it to you.

All the best,
- SimDev Team
.

Hello- SimDev community.

A quick note to say that we had to switch over blog comments provider. We’re sorry to say this erased the comments on the previous blog posts. We apologize for this. Unfortunately, this was a surprise to us as well. The good news is that this should complete the transition from the old blog engine. Thus, we’re good to go for the foreseeable future (in tech, that means the next 6 months :) ).

Thanks-
The Sim Dev Team

This is a relatively technical post that mainly focuses on concepts. Here, we’ll talk about the possibility (and experimentation) of a training simulation’s ability to take real time market/team data and apply it to a program in real time.

Lets start with a few questions:

• What if participants could not only interact with the Sim’s artificial market, but the real market of the company they work for at the same time? How would that effect a participants behavior and learning?
• Is there a way participants could immediately see their marketplace results intra-program in order to dynamically see results?
• How would this work and would it cost a bloody fortune?

Let us take a look at this:
First of all, this is all possible. The trick lies in its applicability. In this case, we’re taking an purposefully created artificial environment and mixing it with dynamic market conditions that have their own dials, levers, and news feeds. This is where the challenge comes in. From a crude visual stand point, this is what it might look like:

By utilizing some simple internet feeds, this is easily accomplished. Again, the challenge is how to effectively accomplish this without bursting the learning bubble.

Now more interestingly, what about dynamic market competition with real-time competition (instead of traditional rounds). This might set people’s hair on fire (is this good?). Picture this: An individual makes a decision which effects the entire marketplace (say a lower price). This causes another team to react (does this start a price war?). Another team is watching this and decides to optimize their product and adjust their forecasted units. At the same time, another team emphasizes marketing which starts a frenzy in marketing initiatives. This is all done in real time. What would traditionally take 2 hours is now thrown into 5 minutes.

This is certainly possible but would require some exceptionally gifted facilitators. Could you imagine facilitating 25 people in what equals 20 hours of facilitation per “round” (wow!).

How about the cost. Suffice it to say its coming down but at the moment, all of this is pretty labor intensive to pull off. Definitely worth exploring. Especially the dynamic decision modeling.
That’s great stuff!