IBM Planning Analytics Reviews

We're a business partner of IBM. We resell Planning Analytics, and we have clients utilizing Planning Analytics.

Our clients really like it because they're able to do their budgeting, planning, and forecasting using it. It connects to their Cognos dashboard. We do the integration between different technologies with Cognos and TM1. We also do predictions with SPSS.

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.

We really like the flexibility of it. 

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

It is a stable solution.

It can scale big.

They've been very good with us and our clients. It has been fine.

It is easy to set it up. It has a familiar interface. It is like using the Excel interface.

It is a bit expensive, but you get what you are paying for.

It is a great tool. It is quite advanced. There is not really any other equivalent on the market right now. To implement this type of tool, you need to be surrounded by a good partner to make sure that you can benefit from it. 

Implementing TM1 is not just about financials. It is also about understanding the data structure and making sure that you have a good design in the backend to take full advantage of TM1.

I've been in this industry for about 30 years, and I really like Planning Analytics. I would rate it a 10 out of 10. It is absolutely one of the best.

It varies from client to client, but IBM Planning Analytics is used for budgeting processes in every case. In addition, some clients use it for reporting as a data source.

Some of our customers previously used Excel spreadsheets for budget planning, and the process took more than two months. However, after switching to Planning Analytics, they could do it in a week. And they were able to do multiple projections, like optimistic, pessimistic, realistic, etc.

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.

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.

I've been using IBM Planning Analytics for 10 years or more. Before, it was named TM1.

I think Planning Analytics is quite a stable solution.

IBM uses Planning Analytics. So if this huge company has a vast quantity of users working on it simultaneously, it must be scalable.

If we face some issues, we raise escalate tickets for IBM, and usually, they can find some temporary solution. We are the first-line support for our customers, but if we face some issue, we escalate tickets. But it's true for any comparable platform, like SAP BPC or Oracle Hyperion. So if we can face some tricky issues, we have to escalate tickets to the vendor.

All of the solutions have some complications when it comes to installation. In our company, we installed SAP BPC, Oracle Hyperion, and Planning Analytics. All of them can be tricky. Sometimes you can face some issues. And it also depends on what you're doing. For example, if you're installing everything on one PC, it will be fast and easy. But when you want to create a real, stable infrastructure with a distributed installation across multiple machines, it is a little more complex. We provide solutions for our customers, so we install everything for them.

If we look at the budgeting processes of companies that have implemented this solution, then I think you'll see ROI. This service lets customers finish their budgeting process faster, so they don't waste any time. It's capable of analyzing large amounts of data, so it's they can work more productively. At the same time, budget planning is used to motivate employees and help them achieve some goals. 

I rate IBM Planning Analytics eight out of 10.

The primary use case of this solution is our budgeting tool, and actuals reporting.

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

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

The use case is only by fiance, but It should be able to be used by the end-user of the business. 

I have been using an older version of IBM Planning Analytics in our company for a year and three months.

This solution is stable and we have not experienced any issues.

It's scalable to the finance team and with the growth of the team, but not for the entire company.

There are two users. This includes myself, and I am an FP&A manager, and I have an analyst on my team.

We have a support agreement with a third party. We have not worked directly with technical support through IBM.

I wasn't a part of the initial setup, but I know that it is complex.

It takes months to deploy.

Our licensing cost is approximately $50,000.00 per year.

My advice is that if you are going to be using IBM Planning Analytics, make sure that you get your data structure correct ahead of time. You will need to add a separate reporting tool.

In the next release, I would like to see reporting joined in with the tool.

I would rate this solution a four out of ten.

Navigating through the data to make analysis is really quick.

It would have been better if the solution was not just a tool kit. They did not embed some functionalities already developed, we are having to develop them ourselves. It would be helpful to have pre-packaged data functionality already developed and the only thing you need to do is configure and use it. 

When I worked with IBM it was with a consulting company, I have made projects for many customers and we always developed starting from nothing. They have already begun to integrate AI into the prediction forecast for the future. This will give the possibility to have a predictive data based on AI. I would like to see more AI in future releases.

I have been using the solution for 11 years.

It is a stable product. We have customers that encounter issues, but we always fixed it. There are many projects that we have made, some of the companies have a lot of customers. They are in production in many sectors, such as bank sectors. The main problem is when the server shuts down without warning. It is our big nightmare.

It is a scalable solution.

I have contacted the support, they successfully resolved my issues. It took some time, but it was resolved. They could be faster on resolving issues.

It is complicated to install the solution. You need to consultant with special skills and experienced technical team. 

I would advise using consultants, it can be difficult to implement.

Basic level users cannot develop the application. However, you might manage to develop it, but you make a big risk that you will develop not following best practice. The cube population might be voluminous, and the calculation could be too slow if you do not respect some best practices.

I rate IBM Planning Analytics a seven out of ten.

I'm an accountant services finance manager and we are customers of IBM.

I like that the solution brings together a lot of data from different platforms and it's all integrated.

I'd like to see an increase in speed on extracting the data. That would be an improvement. 

It's a very stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. 

I think the price is okay, of course it's always good to have a discount. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

The most valuable features are the TM1 Perspective client and the storage of data with write-back ability. Since most businesses are familiar with Excel, they are easily able to use this tool. Also, calculations are faster compared to any other tool for quick forecasting and budgeting.

This tool is able to promptly consolidate all business unit data for enterprise-view and understand the area of improvement, instead of a traditional Excel-based disparate solution.

Data visualization and development interface are areas which need to be worked on.

Improvement in data visualization
Currently in TM1, web and perspective data is visualized with limited dashboarding capability and also for creating fancy reports for top management. There is a need for incorporation of functionalities similar to QlikView or Tableau solutions.

Improvement in development interface
In TM1, the conventional development interface of process and rules are not development friendly, thus reducing productivity. I would suggest to have functionalities similar to that of Java development with Eclipse, auto population of functions and validations, etc.

We have used this solution for around more than 10 years.

It is one of the stable tools available for forecasting and budgeting.

I have not encountered any scalability issues. Since this tool is in-memory based, it also vastly depends on the hardware infrastructure capability, especially the RAM.

Moderate level of support is required for this tool. Business individuals can perform some of the activity themselves, provided they are equipped with necessary access and appropriate solutions during initial training.

Previously, multiple Excel sheets were used by us. We not only found it difficult to consolidate but also calculations were not centralized and had no security around the data. However, TM1 provides centralized data in a secured manner and calculations are done on the fly without any delay.

The initial setup was straightforward. IBM provides a license based on the requirement and infrastructure, which need to be provisioned as per estimated size of the model.

The pricing policy depends on your requirement and IBM provides an entire range of options as per the need.

Tool evaluation has been done based on the requirement and capability of the tool. TM1 is the best capable tool to satisfy most of our requirements.

For forecast, budgeting and reporting financial data, TM1 is the best tool in the market. So, I would say that it would be wise to proceed with this tool in any organization for improvised end results.

• Flexible: You can do almost anything you want
• Can be combined with other software
• Calculates values
• Decides who can write and read the values
• Can be used to design your reports, almost exactly as you want
• Can be used to plan/analyze/report anything. If you miss some stuff, you can program it and combine it with TM1.

I don't think there are many tools out there that are as flexible as this solution.

The surface design needs to be improved. The disadvantage is the old-fashioned surface of IBM Cognos TM1.

I would like to see a more modern design for IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives/Architect. It is not as modern as some of the other products with which you can do your analysis and planning.

I have used this solution for several years.

The last version,10.1, was not really stable at the beginning. However, the latest version is fine.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

The technical support is okay. You can also find lots of answers in different forums on the internet.

We were not using any other solution previously.

The initial setup was not complex.

I personally have not evaluated other options. However, my company has looked at other solutions.

It is the best solution you can have. However, you have to know what you need for sure and what you want to do with the tool.

Every product is established for some special needs. It depends on what you need. You can choose the right tool accordingly.

It provides all the required functionalities for Financial Performance Management, such as planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and dimensional reporting and analysis.

TM1 is actually a modeling tool that allows us create our own customized budgeting, planning and reporting solutions.

We have been using this software to implement solutions in many different areas of business.

For example, in budget applications, it helps a lot in running the budgeting process properly. All budget inputs, calculations, submissions, reporting and analysis during the budgeting process are handled with TM1 properly.

The CAFE Excel plug-in needs to be improved to handle all the features of older TM1 Perspectives plug-in for Excel.

CAFE is an Excel add-in that allows interacting with TM1 data from within Excel, especially for generating Excel-based reports out of TM1 data. It is actually called IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel, but usually referred to as IBM Cognos CAFE. It comes with TM1. For the same purpose, we have been using IBM Cognos Perspectives for Excel for many years. CAFE is a newer tool than Perspectives, and it needs to be improved to cover some of the functionalities that already exist in Perspectives.

We know that IBM is already working on improving CAFE. In the upcoming release, probably, we will see a lot better functionality in CAFE.

We have been using it for the last seven years, since version 9.4.

It is a very stable software product; no major stability issues.

Scalability is the best feature of TM1; it is highly scalable. As the data and model grow, all we need to do is to keep the HW aligned with the increasing size of the model.

All technical support information is available by Google search, but for new issues, IBM provides a good level of remote support.

Prior to TM1, we had been using IBM Cognos Planning.

TM1 is a lot more scalable than IBM Cognos Planning. IBM Cognos Planning is only an Enterprise Planning tool. However, TM1 is also an OLAP reporting and analysis tool, in addition to being an enterprise planning tool. TM1 provides more capabilities for customization.

TM1 is not a packaged application. It is an application development platform and toolset for performance management. Hence, you need to do a good implementation project to get an application built based on your requirements. Therefore, it is important to work with people with the proper technical skills and business knowledge. Technical installation of the platform was relatively straightforward.

For companies that require less than 50 users in TM1, it might be better to get IBM Cognos Express PM licenses. If you require more users, then you might need to get IBM Cognos PM licenses. There is also an unlimited user licensing model, which is based on server PVUs.

I recommend making a proper requirement analysis and model design before start developing models with TM1.

In your first implementation of TM1, it is very important to work with experienced TM1 developers.

It is better to choose TM1 consultants with both technical and financial skills and knowledge.