Brixx vs. IBM Planning Analytics

Brixx works exceptionally well in young, growing businesses where detailed finance expertise might not be available at the Board. It's structure also works well in fast-paced environments where there is the need to quickly determine the financial viability of a business venture, new product/service or programme. I have no scenarios where it is less well suited. The only "push-back" Ive ever had has been from spreadsheet obsessed "old school" finance officers, but in most cases, once they are fully exposed to the Brixx platform, their level of scepticism decreases sharply - but there are always those out there wedded to MS Excel...

Incentivized

Very powerful modeling capabilities. It has a really good OLAP engine memory. Strong scenario planning for what if analysis. Flexibility of integration with ERPs or WM systems for both cloud and on premises. Centralized planning and alignment of governance is also a plus. Having one single system for many different functions.

Incentivized

• Dashboards - simply excellent, highly visual
• Configurable overview - permits management to understand the financial impact of any decision
• Highly collaborative - multiple user access and administration permits multi-workstream sharing
• Highly reliable - in all of the iterations we have used, we've never had any downtime

Incentivized

• Handle very large data volumes.
• Scale to a large number of users.
• Not having to compromise on business complexity.
• It can be run by business users.
• Availability of highly qualified consultants to support businesses.
• REST API allows for an open eco system and a variety of solutions to extend the product.
• Vast integration possibilities.
• AI-infused engine with IBM Watson.

Incentivized

• Continue to add more options for the dashboards
• Optimise dashboards for mobile view
• Integration with a broader range of accounting packages

Incentivized

• sometimes it is hard to produce pixel perfect reports from the Web UI. I know it is not made for this, but still, it'll be great
• getting in e.g. an Excel file just by drag and drop, and the AI should "understand" what the data is all around

Incentivized

Since IBM Cognos Express is suitable only for medium data warehouse environment, we are not sure if this tool solves the long term need as the business keeps growing rapidly. So its a 50/50 ratio to renew Express license. But having said that, the components of IBM Cognos Express are also available in other Cognos BI suites like Cognos 10.x version. So we will probably upgrade our environment to IBM Cognos 10.x which comes with more new features.

IBM Planning Analytics is generally good in terms of functionalities. It can be used reduce time for budget planning, resource planning, demand forecasting, etc. The performance of IBM Planning Analytics is acceptable, but user interface can be improved. It would be good to see new features that allow users to customise the dashboard.

Incentivized

IBM support has been very quick to respond and handle the very few issues we've had. We've had a third-party who partners with IBM to be our consulting team which has helped greatly reduce the need for us to contact IBM directly. I highly recommend researching and selecting a well-respected partner to help with an implementation as well as ongoing support as needed.

Incentivized

Brixx presents non-finance business leaders with its dashboards, which translate complex financial models into user-friendly, highly intuitive and impactful visual data. No other package I have used does so in such a powerful manner. At the same time, the back-end data capture and analytics is suitable for even the most stringent due diligence

Incentivized

As it is related to MS Excel, IBM Planning Analytics is a much more robust and complete solution for the CFO or COO in mind. Oracle Hyperion stacks up nicely against IBM Planning Analytics. However, IBM's investment in AI allows Planning Analytics users more options and speed.

• Making finance tangible to non-finance leaders
• Direct influence on pricing strategy, new product / service viability, influence on go-to-market
• Enhanced control over the critical KPIs
• Direct and tangible impact on ROI

Incentivized

• Automate direct data connections to multiple data sources
• One secured version of the the truth (for data and formulas)
• Ability to scale to much more detailed planning with option to create predictive forecasts at detail
• Business user friendly with powerful Excel integration
• Very flexible and powerful modeling, can handle custom modeling needs at scale
• Can make the same data available across finance and ops, but at the level of details and timeline that makes sense for them

Incentivized