STEM’s icon-based interface and simple concepts make it a
powerful tool for achieving clarity and understanding between engineering, marketing
and financial planners. It provides a common foundation of robust, reliable
and consistent analysis for costs, revenues, markets and investments. The
focus on strategic inputs and decisions, rather than on the creation of
formulae and charts, makes STEM a must-have application for telecoms business
modellers.
The value of STEM is reflected in the pricing structure for
licences, and the cost associated with a STEM licence necessitates copy
protection for the software in the form of hardware security keys (dongles).
One unfortunate corollary of this scheme is that it is not straightforward to
share STEM model results with non-licensees; and indeed, the conventional STEM
licence agreement specifically prohibits the copying of STEM software to third
parties.