Business modelling has traditionally been done by operations research (OR), decision science and management science professionals. It involves the use of quantitative and computer methods for forecasting revenues, planning the efficient allocation of resources in business, by using modelling techniques such as simulations, optimisation and sensitivity analysis. It overlaps epidemiology, mathematics, economics, logic and software programming as a discipline but it

• can predict and forecast future
  • Revenue /sales / demand
  • Cash flow
    
    
• primarily focuses on the internal operations of organisations
  
  
• emphasises planning rather than market mechanisms for allocating resources
  
  
• makes more extensive use of quantitative methods
  
  
• can help with investment decision

An early success story for OR occurred in the oil industry. Here a quantitative method called linear programming was found to be particularly helpful in planning the complex production and distribution systems involved in getting oil and its offshoots from the well-head to the market place.

Methods, with a wider impact for business and industry in general, resulted from the application of quantitative techniques to the area of inventory control to financial modelling.