Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Apr 24, 2025
IBM is behind competitors like Tableau ( /products/tableau-reviews ) and Power BI in terms of visualization. Their visuals are less innovative and practical with fewer varieties. IBM's visualization needs significant improvement.
Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
Feb 10, 2025
Since I'm using TM1 as an old version of Planning Analytics, it wouldn't be fair to specify what needs improvement because it's possible these issues have already been addressed in newer versions. If we talk only about the TM1 engine, it's quite rich and possibly too rich, making it complex to perform simple tasks. The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to. This complexity makes it hard to maintain and evolve developments.
To improve IBM Planning Analytics, adding predefined templates could be beneficial. These templates could cover various business areas like volume planning, service levels, and more. Specific templates for functions such as sourcing based on criteria like minimum order quantity and stock levels would also be helpful. Additionally, having templates for P&Ls and cash flow could enhance usability.
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. The new frontends could improve, the older ones were better. They come with a lot of weight; IBM Cognos Analytics is inbuilt, has a lot to install and maintain. A flexible, lightweight frontend, with high adaptability, is more important than a large heavy solution. In these heavy solutions, you have to maintain the installation, do a lot of configuration, and have to pay a lot of attention to the size of the installation.
Systems Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
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.
Expert EPM (TM1 Cognos BI) at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Jan 25, 2021
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.
IBM Planning Analytics is an integrated planning solution that uses AI to automate planning, budgeting, and forecasting and drive more intelligent workflows.
Built on TM1, IBM’s powerful calculation engine, this enterprise performance management tool allows you to transcend the limits of manual planning and become the Analytics Hero your business needs. Quickly and easily drive faster, more accurate plans for FP&A, sales, supply chain and beyond.
IBM is behind competitors like Tableau ( /products/tableau-reviews ) and Power BI in terms of visualization. Their visuals are less innovative and practical with fewer varieties. IBM's visualization needs significant improvement.
Since I'm using TM1 as an old version of Planning Analytics, it wouldn't be fair to specify what needs improvement because it's possible these issues have already been addressed in newer versions. If we talk only about the TM1 engine, it's quite rich and possibly too rich, making it complex to perform simple tasks. The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to. This complexity makes it hard to maintain and evolve developments.
The workspace API should be improved and documented so we know better which objects and tier-one objects are used.
To improve IBM Planning Analytics, adding predefined templates could be beneficial. These templates could cover various business areas like volume planning, service levels, and more. Specific templates for functions such as sourcing based on criteria like minimum order quantity and stock levels would also be helpful. Additionally, having templates for P&Ls and cash flow could enhance usability.
The local authentication part is difficult to manage in the product, making it an area where improvements are required.
The tool's transport layer could be improved when promoting development between environments.
The tool should include features for prediction. It can also improve the scalability.
The dashboard is very poor and needs a lot of improvement.
Planning Analytics could be improved by adding automation features.
It is a bit expensive, but it does the job.
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. The new frontends could improve, the older ones were better. They come with a lot of weight; IBM Cognos Analytics is inbuilt, has a lot to install and maintain. A flexible, lightweight frontend, with high adaptability, is more important than a large heavy solution. In these heavy solutions, you have to maintain the installation, do a lot of configuration, and have to pay a lot of attention to the size of the installation.
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.
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'd like to see an increase in speed on extracting the data. That would be an improvement.
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.