IBM Planning Analytics vs. Limelight Software

Overall, I rate IBM Planning Analytics 8/10 because it provides substantial value for complex, repeatable enterprise Finance planning and analysis. I would rate it even higher with a simpler business-user experience, easier model maintenance and troubleshooting, stronger data integration, and more AI-driven capabilities to automatically identify and explain financial variances.

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Limelight is well suited for reporting, especially if you're GL is integrated with it. I've been able to create many different types of reports for a wide user base. It's easy to copy reports and change them based on different scenarios. Limelight has been great as a replacement for Excel for forecasting and budgeting. We have many users updating their individual forecasts, which then get consolidated. Previously, we would have to manually consolidated many Excel workbooks. Now this is done automatically by Limelight. Limelight struggles with processing speed if you create more complex reports/templates. I've asked how to speed up reports and most of the response is to make them less complex or have less people using the templates, neither of which work well for us as a solution. The help desk response use to be much better in the past. They have struggled in this area recently.

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• Certain accounts (Sales (incl. Sales Reductions), SG&A) are loaded centrally based on ERP data, reducing manual input and potential errors
• While some accounts (mainly resources, PCOS, variances and OOIE) will continue to be filled manually into IBM Planning Analytics. This shift will allow for a more integrated approach to data management
• The central sales tool for all scenarios (ACT, CF, CFM, and BP), offering both a consolidated overview as well as detailed data for non‑consolidated entities or total entity sales (including internal sales). The system provides all key sales KPIs, including growth rates
• Web-based workflow to support controllers with the MBR (Monthly Business Report) creation and submission

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• Agile reporting
• Collaborative forecasting and budgeting
• Up to date reporting with GL integration

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Independently Invited by TrustRadius

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• 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

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Invited by TrustRadius (TR) on Vendor's Behalf

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• Complex template speed
• Customer service response - was good initially, but has become worse recently
• Formatting options in charts

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A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info

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.

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A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info

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.

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A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info

For strong technical teams and flexibility IBM Planning Analytics is the way to go. For quicker adoption and less technical teams Anaplan is the best option. If consolidation, financials, and moving from legacy tools are main focus than OneStream will be a really good choice. If deeply invested into SAP already than the SAP BPC will be the best fit to maintain the investment.

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Felt modern. Liked how it was similar to Excel. Liked the flexibility.

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it's built for large enterprise rollouts to many users, with on-premises, cloud and hybrid options. The query service is mature and uses caching, and governance and security hold up at scale.

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• 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

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• Limelight has helped us increase the speed of our forecasting, budgeting, and reporting
• Limelight has helped us create models to look at many years in the future.

Incentivized

Independently Invited by TrustRadius

A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info