Excel Basics to Blackbelt is intended to serve as an accelerated guide to decision support designs. Its structure is designed to enhance the skills in Excel of those who have never used it for anything but possibly storing phone numbers, enabling them to reach a level of mastery that will allow them to develop user interfaces and automated applications. To accomplish this, the major theme of the text is 'the integration of the basic'; as a result readers will be able to develop decision support tools that are at once highly intuitive from a working-components perspective but also highly significant from the perspective of practical use and distribution. Applications integration discussed includes the use of MS MapPoint, XLStat and RISKOptimizer, as well as how to leverage Excel's iteration mode, web queries, visual basic code, and interface development. There are ample examples throughout the text.

‘There's nothing else out there that covers the full potential of Excel in the way that this text does. It's easy to read even if you're a novice to graphical decision support tool development, but it has gems that I doubt even some of the most advanced developers are even aware of. The presentation of various approaches to leveraging Excel with other applications such as MS MapPoint, XLStat and RISKOptimizer is particularly valuable. Similarly eye-opening are the unique tactics Bendoly presents for capitalizing on many of the built-in but underutilized capabilities of Excel. The application examples provided serve as the building blocks for a whole universe of DSS development now made accessible to readers at all levels. This book should become a standard reference for analysts and consultants regardless of industry.’

Daniel Bachrach - University of Alabama

‘This is a must-read book for people seeking to get the best out of the wonderful tool of Excel. It fits in the sweet spot between the ‘Excel made simple’ and the math- and statistics-based Excel technical manuals. The practical feel of the book is conveyed through such evocative section headings as Harvesting Intelligence and Leveraging Dynamic Analysis. Though each of the chapters is worthy of comment, I think that Chapter 9, Scenario Generation and Optimization is of particular interest to managers wanting to put some real muscle behind their search for the best decision in the face of uncertainty. All together, this book is a major contribution to the business literature.’

Richard B. Chase - University of Southern California

‘Excel is the duct tape of decision support – handy, pervasive, and surprisingly effective. Bendoly's book helps users unlock its considerable power while avoiding costly errors. You'll be amazed at all you can do with a spreadsheet.’

Thomas H. Davenport - Babson College

'This should be on every manager's bookshelf as a reference, but Bendoly's excellent exercises also make this a strong self-study guide and classroom text.'

Source: SciTech Book News