Building a First Model - Step by Step

In this guide you will learn how to create a simple Model that uses external data (from Excel), forecasts values into the future and how to create Simulations. We assume that you have read about the basic concepts of Valsight.

In this example, we will create the revenue of a company as a function of price and volume. The sales price will be influenced by inflation, whereas the sales volume will be driven by a market model and the company's market share. We assume, that we have the following data points available: Price and volume data as Actuals for the last complete year, or forecasted year-end values for the current year. For the market volume and the inflation, we have predicted values for the next 5 years. In our Model, we want to define the relationship between our current revenue and future revenue through the assumed market growth and inflation.

This guide assumes that you have access to an empty Valsight instance, and will guide you through all steps necessary to create a Simulation.

The main parts of the guide are modelling, data upload and simulation. In Valsight, each Simulation is the result of a Model and the connected data.

The guide is structured in several steps:

Step	Summary
Create a Project	Create the basic project for this tutorial.
Creating and Configuring Models	Learn how to create a Model and setup the basic settings of it, such as default units, scale etc.
Create First Nodes in the Model and Define Driver Logic	In this part you will create the first Nodes in the Model and learn how to enter formulas
Basic Data Upload & Model Definition	Integrate your data into Valsight and use it in your model
Adding a Custom Dimension	Change the data to use a custom product dimension.
Defining Simulation Nodes	Enable parts of the Model for simulation by allowing some Nodes to be overwritten in Simulation Scenarios
Summary & Next Steps	Recap & Further readings