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IBM Planning Analytics pros and cons

Vendor: IBM

4.2 out of 5

25 reviews
90% willing to recommend

4,841 followers

Pros & Cons summary

IBM Planning Analytics offers flexibility in data rule design and calculations, with strong forecasting and predictive analytics. Users benefit from Excel integration for detailed data analysis and scenario modeling for informed decisions. However, it's not user-friendly with Excel, data extraction is slow, and frequent updates affect quality. Though expensive and behind in visualization against Tableau and Power BI, its stability supports crucial planning, despite difficult TM1 implementation.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM Planning Analytics excels in slicing and dicing data, enabling quick data navigation and analysis.

The in-memory architecture allows for fast calculations, enhancing performance efficiency.

Design flexibility with data rules and defining calculations increases adaptability and utility.

Seamless Excel integration enhances ease of use and offers additional functionalities beyond standard spreadsheets.

Stability and robustness help streamline planning processes with a unified database for centralized data management.

CONS

Scalability is challenging to implement on IBM Planning Analytics, and it requires significant improvements.

Transport layer improvements are needed for better promotion of development between environments in IBM Planning Analytics.

IBM Planning Analytics would benefit from including features for prediction and feature engineering regarding predictive models.

IBM Planning Analytics tends to release new versions frequently, impacting quality, and the tool is also considered expensive.

Automation features could improve IBM Planning Analytics, making it more efficient for users.

IBM Planning Analytics Pros review quotes

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani

Junior Consultant at CMA CGM

Mar 22, 2024

The product's stability is good.

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Arnold Steffens

Managing Director at Steffens PANTA RHEI GmbH

Jul 3, 2024

The scenario modeling capabilities are frequently used to create different scenarios, compare them, and see which action leads to which result.

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Senior Business Executive at Sophia

Apr 22, 2024

The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized.

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IBM Planning Analytics

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Learn what your peers think about IBM Planning Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.

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reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Feb 10, 2025

This level of stability is crucial for a product like Cognos TM1, as using an unstable platform would result in loss of time.

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Systems Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 5, 2021

A lot of the platform is in-memory, so Planning Analytics can run calculations quite fast. It also offers several user interfaces. And in the newest version of Planning Analytics, there is a new one called the Planning Analytics Workspace. Maybe it could be useful for the business side.

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AA

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Apr 24, 2025

IBM Planning Analytics can help us build scenarios through a sandbox environment, allowing us to test multiple variables and assess their impact on our budget and planning.

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Executive Partner at Beat2Lead GmbH

Feb 2, 2022

The flexibility of IBM Planning Analytics is a great feature of this solution. The design flexibility with data rules and defining calculations The ability to combine online and offline calculations are a benefit. Additionally, the forecasting features and predictive analytics is very good.

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reviewer1484589

Expert EPM (TM1 Cognos BI) at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Jan 25, 2021

Navigating through the data to make analysis is really quick.

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SO

Sylvie Ouellette

President & Co-Founder at VERSATIL BPI INC

Feb 8, 2022

The ease of use is valuable. The fact that it's plugged into Excel spreadsheets is also valuable. It provides additional functionality where you can slice and dice the information in a way that you can't do with spreadsheets

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reviewer1375443

FP&A Manager at a leisure / travel company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 12, 2020

The most valuable feature is that it is able to slice and dice the data.

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IBM Planning Analytics Cons review quotes

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani

Junior Consultant at CMA CGM

Mar 22, 2024

The local authentication part is difficult to manage in the product, making it an area where improvements are required.

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Arnold Steffens

Managing Director at Steffens PANTA RHEI GmbH

Jul 3, 2024

The workspace API should be improved and documented so we know better which objects are used.

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Senior Business Executive at Sophia

Apr 22, 2024

Adding predefined templates could be beneficial.

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IBM Planning Analytics

Free Report: IBM Planning Analytics Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IBM Planning Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer1517922

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Feb 10, 2025

If we talk only about the TM1 engine, it's quite rich and possibly too rich, making it complex to perform simple tasks.

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Systems Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 5, 2021

It's highly competitive right now, and all the vendors are in a race to put out new versions with additional features. IBM comes out with new versions too often, and it has an impact on quality.

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AA

Ayman Alshabani

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Apr 24, 2025

IBM is behind competitors like Tableau and Power BI in terms of visualization. Their visuals are less innovative and practical with fewer varieties.

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Executive Partner at Beat2Lead GmbH

Feb 2, 2022

The new frontend Planning Analytics Workspace is not very good, it could be improved. I like the Planning Analytics functionality but it would be helpful if it could be more customizable. You can create a prediction and receive information but you cannot do feature engineering regarding the predictive models. If this was added it would be helpful.

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reviewer1484589

Expert EPM (TM1 Cognos BI) at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Jan 25, 2021

It would have been better if the solution was not just a tool kit.

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SO

Sylvie Ouellette

President & Co-Founder at VERSATIL BPI INC

Feb 8, 2022

It is a bit expensive, but it does the job.

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reviewer1375443

FP&A Manager at a leisure / travel company with 501-1,000 employees

Jul 12, 2020

It's wonky, and not super user-friendly with Excel.

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Show 5 more reviews (out of 15)

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Popular Comparisons

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