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 It is excellent if set up well, and users are well trained on how to use it as it is not very user-friendly. But to achieve that, you have to go through the hell of a setup. Support is not knowledgeable in some areas of the software, it is tough to set up and install, and when presented by salespeople, it is all great, but you need to invest a lot to pay it off.
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 Easy report building interface with an query interface that allows financial users the ability to conduct complex queries without difficulty. The ability to create reporting that allows us to review in-depth financial review by drilling down into accounts to find transnational data easily. Easily maintained and monitored with simple upgrade installations and end point installation. Great knowledge base for review and trouble-shooting. Highly knowledgeable and easy to work with staff. 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 It has a poor install procedure which is not standard. It almost requires copying folders from an existing computer to the new install. The update process is less than desirable. It seems like Compusoft needs to do a better job of testing before releasing updates. The interface is a bit archaic. It looks more like a program from 20 years ago than one used today. 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 Support does not know much about software solutions. As an example, I have struggled for weeks just to set up LDAP that should be fairly simple.
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 Prior to Synoptix we were using the reporting tool that comes with our ERP system. It lacked the drilldown and comparability functions that make Synoptix the top pick. Further, designing reports and maintaining reports was very labor intensive
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 As a reporting tool it has allowed us to make fact based decisions. We have a significant annual cost with relation to our legacy system and Synoptix provides us with the best tool to mine the data that resides in our legacy system. Read full review ScreenShots IBM Planning Analytics Screenshots