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 [PowerPlan is well suited for] Any Utility who handles their own Fixed Asset Accounting and Reporting. There are very few specialized solutions in this space that can handle this out of the box. Core functionality and support with PowerPlan are excellent. If you have a firm or service that handles a portion or the majority of your Fixed Asset Accounting and Reporting than this solution is overkill and costly for what you need. There may be other options also if you have a robust internal technology team that is comfortable developing another major fixed asset solution into what you need. Cloud Hosting is also not available at this time and will likely be several releases out and be a major redesign (unstable) at first.
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 Allow the use of retirement units for unitization out of the box. Align with Ferc Account and Reporting Standards Provide Dashboards that can be configured for different users or groups Functions well in a Project Centric Accounting Environment. 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 The backend technology is dated and requires specialized skills or PowerPlan assistance to develop on. UI is also outdated and not as visually appealing as users are now accustomed to. Reporting is basic in functionality and appearance. 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 Oracle Financials (E-Business Suite) is a very Robust ERP solution that has better integration, reporting and functionality than PowerPlan. It also operates on a more Robust Technology Stack. The Fixed Assets Module is a great solution but lacks support for Utility Specific features and functionality, so much so that we chose PowerPlan to take over this specific functionality while still utilizing Oracle for the Majority of our Project and other Accounting Functions.
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 Better Fixed Asset Reporting to Provide to Rate Commissions. Allowed us to embark on a major Unitization initiative and re-design of our retirement catalog. Focus the Support team on other technologies due to the stable nature and good vendor support. Read full review ScreenShots IBM Planning Analytics Screenshots