IBM Planning Analytics Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 8.3 out of 10

Score

8.3 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for IBM Planning Analytics are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Flexibility and Customization: Users have appreciated the product's flexibility, noting that it can easily be customized to suit various business needs. They find this adaptability beneficial for tailoring the software to specific requirements and processes within their organizations.

Integration with Excel: Many reviewers have highlighted the integration with Excel as a key feature, especially for Finance organizations. This seamless connection is seen as vital as it serves as a foundation for numerous financial operations and data management tasks.

Efficient Automation: The automation of manual planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes has been praised by users for saving time and increasing efficiency. By automating these tasks, businesses can streamline their workflows and allocate resources more effectively.

Reviews

131 Reviews

IBM Planning Analytics Review

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

October 23, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use IBM Planning Analytics for creating clear budget for our organisation so that we can reach our future goals without much casualities. The software also help us in doing financial forecasts for our business and also it gives a platform to collaborate with different departments by taking their inputs in our upcoming projects so that best utilisation of resources can happen.

Pros

The platform help us and doing proactive plannings and forecasting for our business according to the current market dynamics
The software provides us consolidation of financial data from different sources to our finance team
The software also help us in doing the sales planning and understand the operational challenge that our team face on a daily basis

Cons

The main challenge with IBM Planning Analytics is its installation which takes multiple complex configuration challenge and training
Sometimes the software shows performance lagging issue whenever a large and variety of data inputs are given
Also I have faced from challenges during software integration with Microsoft and Google sheets which was very important for us

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Planning Analytics is definitely made for understanding our business better and give it the best possible resources and for doing detailed discussions regarding the challenges of all departments of our business like sales, operations, finances etc and it helps in making appropriate decisions so that the growth of business can happen properly and this is only done with the help of IBM Planning Analytics.

Swati Sapna

Design Engineer at Dorto Design Studio (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile

Forecasting made easy with IBM Planning Analytics

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it mainly for forecasting and creating financial reports. It saves a lot of time and also removes human error. While doing it manually, we have observed many times there is data inconsistency but after using the tool, it has improved accuracy and reduced human efforts. Also, due to its forecasting , it helps us in better decision making.

Pros

It can easily run multi-scenario forecasting very fast which takes large amount of time while doing manually.
It's drill down feature is very useful that we can use to find variance, which in results helps us to understand performance at granular level.
There are a lot of built in workflows that helps the team to integrate and stay aligned.

Cons

As compared to other BI tools, the inbuilt dashboards can be improved.
While dealing with large data, we have faced some performance issues.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is very useful in the scenarios where we have multiple stakeholders, and they need to access to see all the forecasting and financial planning. Also for bigger teams, where there is a chance in data inconsistency, IBM Planning Analytics can be useful. But in the case where teams are small, such a setup is not required and can be easily managed manually.

Verified User

Consultant in Customer Service (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

IBM Planning Analytics - Forecasting and Planning to a New Level

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using IBM Planning Analytics today to build out our short term and long term forecasts and manage our Sales, Inventory, Operations and Planning process. IBM Planning Analytics supplements our normal forecasting with enhanced modeling and more predictive/proactive estimates on stockouts as well as optimization for inventory placement to avoid suboptimal storage costs and less than ideal inventory turns and carrying costs.

Pros

Advanced Forecasting Models
Predictive Alerts and Modeling
Wholistic Inventory Optimization

Cons

Long Onboarding Process
Cumbersome UI
Better Reporting and Export functionality

Likelihood to Recommend

It is great for businesses looking to develop a strong base for their forecasting and planning capabilities that allows for rapid remodeling of forecasts and ideal for brands looking for some additional input or oversight from AI that can generate new models or different scenarios for scenario planning.

Verified User

Director in Manufacturing (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

IBM Planning Analytics

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The interface is good, it speeds my work. I also like the supply-chain integration. We are using for several project tracking. My company is migrating many tools, software and the budget resource, time invested, tools and support cost, training, etc all is tracked and planned through this. It provide higher management clear view of the progress made in turned of achievement v/s money invested so far.

Pros

Demand forecasting and pricing optimization
Multi dimensional data
Give better picture

Cons

Step learning curve
Complex initial setup
Time consuming maintenance

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Planning Analytics is a real-time, accurate financial and operational analysis, scalability to handle large datasets and enterprise-wide growth, flexibility and ease of use through familiar interfaces like Excel and a web-based workspace which is makes life easy for project manager and VPs.

It make decision making simpler. It also offers comprehensive data integration from various sources.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

IBM Planning Analytics Review

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use IBM Planning Analytics for our budget planning ,budget forecasting real time analysis and reporting of data across organization.

The Pax Excel add in helps us to directly interact with the data in the excel without the need of switching different tools.

We also use the TM1 for resources allocation planning and asset management to align with our IT spending and future forecasts.

Pros

Budget planning and budget forecasting
Resource planning for a team with Budget allocations and Asset lifecycle management
Manual reconciliation efforts are not needed

Cons

Requires a lot of time to learn and master it
Advance features are a little complex to understand
If the data set is very big it takes a lot of time to process it hence the performance is slower
Initial upfront cost is high including the license cost
When compared with Power BI the IBM analytics lags behind

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Planning Analytics is well suited for an IT organization during Budget planning exercise as the tool can easily forecast the data which helps in budget planning easy, The planning efficiency is vey quick and real time data processing can be done. The support add-in for Excel is a game gamechanger because we can seamlessly integrate all of the data in excel and use the TM1 Add in functionality.

Mukhtiyar Ahmed

Assistant Manager- IT in Information Technology at Eurofins IT Solutions India Pvt. Ltd (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

A software that helped us in understanding our finances better

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Planning Analytics is completely a AI based tool for our business which works like an advance Excel software mainly focuses on business plannings and future forecasting. This software also help us in doing budget planning for future investments. IBM Planning Analytics takes lot of data inputs from different departments of our business and help them in taking will inform decisions.

Pros

The software helps us in creating quick budgets for different projects in our organisation
Financial data and sales data is easily managed through this software and it also shows the detailed numbers of these data
As the interface of this software is like MS Excel so learning the initial and basics of this tool becomes much easier

Cons

The software is little expensive it not be the best option for small businesses and startups
The iOS version of this tool is not available at all you can just use it from web browsers not as an iOS application

Likelihood to Recommend

As we have different types of branches and franchise all over the country so we need to collect all the data from them and plan accordingly. We need to assign different type of projects to different branches and allocate funds to them with a proper budgeting and all of these financial management is only possible due to IBM Planning Analytics.

Rakesh Rana

Design Executive Head in Professional Services at Dorto Design Studio (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

IBM Planning Analytics Tool On Top of the Game and unlimited Potential

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Planning is an integral part of manufacturing business. Planning derives other processes like buying raw material, production acitivities, finishing processes and budgeting. With help of proper planning tool, the activies can be planned and cost involved can be predicted near to accuracy. The tool also helps to analyse the data and represent the information in form of dashboard.

Pros

Budgeting
Anaylsis
Supply chain planning
Forecasting

Cons

Workflow management
Sandboxing
Ease of understand and use Modeling

Likelihood to Recommend

The enterprises where planning demands state of art expertise since it directly leads to make-up costing of the product.

Profitability can also be planned as per business margins.

The businesses where the business runs mainly as-in service industry which involves delivery by human professionals may not need the planning tools that dearly.

Varun Kohli

Senior Executive in Information Technology at Vardhman textiles ltd. (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Verified on LinkedIn

IBM Planning Analytics

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

October 15, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to build dimensions for our product SKUs, locations within our warehouse, customer, shipping lanes etc. We can track inventory turns, cost by SKUs and inbound vs outbound costs. It helps to feed data into our ERP, as shock levels change and shipments go out. We can also create scenarios to hand 3PL fluctuations in demand and shipping volumes.

Pros

Driver based and rolling forecasts.
Near real time data updates.
Multidimensional modeling.
Planning scenarios.

Cons

Steep learning curve, so making it more user friendly.
Degraded performance for large or complex models.
Cost for licensing, integration and ongoing maintenance.
Limited reporting and integration flexibilities.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Verified User

Consultant in Information Technology (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

14 years of experience

A great value product

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

October 9, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have used IBM Planning Analytics in my organization to help organize data sets. Trying to plan future events, this allows my organization to have a greater understanding on what it is likely to occur. The scope is not very large, roughly 30-50 people working together. People from three continents and 7 time zones.

Pros

Expected data for the outcome
Potential variables to the outcome
Gives company a better understanding of what our company can achieve.

Cons

Implementation
More training
Allow learning through application easier

Likelihood to Recommend

One specific scenario based on my own personal experience where IBM Planning Analytics is well suited is when our company needed to present expectations for the upcoming quarterly and year. I feel as though some company's prefer to use their own system compared to listening to a third party organization word on important topics.

Verified User

Consultant (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

IBM Planning Analytics speeds up analysis and reporting

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

October 9, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Planning Analytics serves all aspects around Planning, Forecasting and Analysis as well. We use it to collect data from various sources, including input from ERP systems and manually captured by our users. Then, the data got harmonized and aggregated to be visualized in dashboards first. As a second step we use IBM Planning Analytics to forecast future numbers and to break this down on units.

Pros

single source instead of separate excel spreadsheets
repeatable results
calculations like aggregating, spreading
not necessarily IT involved, but business users driven
open to AI functionality as well

Cons

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

Likelihood to Recommend

it is really made for planning, analysis and forecasting. It is no good as a Data Warehouse or taking unstructured data (and not made for)

Verified User

Partner in Professional Services (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

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