Likelihood to Recommend I would be likely to recommend IBM Planning Analytics, particularly in scenarios where comprehensive financial and operational planning is essential. For instance, in our construction company, it is awesome for optimizing resource allocation across multiple projects, creating detailed project budgets, and conducting risk analysis to mitigate project uncertainties.
Read full review OnPlan is well suited for finance teams looking to maintain control of their corporate/financial models. Every model can be exported to Excel. In particular, for early-stage to mid-stage companies, OnPlan provides a powerful and inexpensive solution that allows for automation and customization. Another strong argument for OnPlan is their experienced CSM/IM team that helps to build the first model and acts as a sounding board with insights to improve the models. OnPlan might be less powerful for large organizations operating across multiple divisions, countries, and entities as this requires sophisticated consolidation processes and standardization, which might be difficult to maintain with OnPlan. Implementations depending on complexity can take longer due to the customization options and plethora of options to make models more accurate.
Read full review Pros Forecasting after taking into account seasonal trends and exceptional transactions Unlike spreadsheets, there is no fear of an user making changes to the mastercopy accidentally. Each user gets his or her own workspace to analyze. For entities operating in multiple countries, connects seamlessly with IBM Cognos Controller for taking into account variation in currencies Read full review Integration with QBO and SFDC Integration with Google sheets and presentations User friendly and polished UE Easy Excel like syntax for modelling Flexibility to create custom formulas User roles and permissions Handling of fiscal year vs. calendar as well as switching between monthly/quarterly views Read full review Cons IBM Planning Analytics was an upgrade from an older version of TM1 that is experiencing some growing pains, some functionality is harder to reach than it has been in the past It is easy to learn as a surface user with created reports, but it does require some technical skills to make advanced calculations and reports if there is no reliable consultant available, much like Excel Read full review Chart library or templates to quickly create polished Google charts More collaboration features for comments and questions to team members Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review Usability For developers, admins and end users looking for flexibility, IBM Planning Analytics would rate very highly on usability. For example, a developer has access to a highly performant built-in ETL (Extract Translate Load) tool and scripting language called Turbo Integrator that can (among other things) bring in data via flat file or direct connection from many data sources, move data around Planning Analytics, perform batch calculations, export to files or other data stores. In the rare situation where limitations are encountered there is a well documented REST API. Admins and end users benefit from the intuitive PAW (Workspace) interface as well as the rich Excel integration through Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE). Since flexibility inherently comes with a little more complexity, so an organization with simple and "cookie-cutter" requirements may rate Planning Analytics a little lower.
Read full review Support Rating Although I find the IBM Planning analytics documentation quite time consuming, their support with email and call is something i can term as very considerate and patient, I have had few calls about the features and how i would want to implement them within my projects, and the teams have been super helpful to resolve my issues
Read full review Alternatives Considered Anaplan does not handle sparsity; this is very problematic for large volume data sets (many 0's). There also are limitations to the number of dimensions that can be used in a module. If more dimensions are required, then separate modules need to be built and intertwined. IBM PA does not have these limitations.
Read full review OnPlan provided the best tradeoff for customization, integrations, affordability, user controls, and maintenance/control of the financial model.
Read full review Return on Investment One of the advantage is on its ability to ease budget and planning Secondly,the fact that it allows for forecasting means based on such insights means that organisations are able to prepare for future eventualities Thirdly, since it can accommodate data from multiple sources means that one is able to carry out best business practices like planning. Read full review More cost control More accurate forecasts / reducing of forecasting errors More accurate accounting close / detection of erroneous GL entries Time savings to update financial model / forecasts Time savings to create BvA reports Read full review ScreenShots IBM Planning Analytics Screenshots