Skip to main content
TrustRadius
IBM Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics

Overview

What is IBM Planning Analytics?

IBM Planning Analytics, powered by IBM TM1®, is an integrated planning solution designed to promote collaboration across the organization and help keep pace with the speed of modern business. With its calculation engine, this enterprise performance management solution is designed…

Read more
Recent Reviews
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 49 features
  • Financial budgeting (91)
    9.5
    95%
  • Forecasting (91)
    9.5
    95%
  • Scenario modeling (90)
    9.4
    94%
  • Management reporting (90)
    8.7
    87%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Essentials

$825

Cloud
per month 5 users

Standard

$1,650

Cloud
per month 10 users

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
    Optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.ibm.com/products/planning…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $825 per month 5 users
Return to navigation

Product Demos

Headcount and Staffing Planning with IBM Planning Analytics

mediacenter.ibm.com

Sales and Operations Planning with IBM Planning Analytics

mediacenter.ibm.com

Demand Planning with IBM Planning Analytics

mediacenter.ibm.com

Integrated Financials with IBM Planning Analytics

mediacenter.ibm.com
Return to navigation

Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

8.8
Avg 8.0

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

8.8
Avg 8.3

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

8.3
Avg 8.2

Data Discovery and Visualization

Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.

7.9
Avg 7.6

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

9.1
Avg 8.7

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

7.4
Avg 8.0

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting

These activities are designed to assist with both data-driven operational, short-term planning and strategic long term planning

9.3
Avg 8.3

Consolidation and Close

Consolidation of data from multiple entities with currency management, reporting and audit trails.

8.5
Avg 8.0

Financial Reporting and Compliance

Financial statements and regulatory filings

8.7
Avg 8.2

Analytics and Reporting

Dashboards and scorecards for KPI monitoring and benchmarking

9.1
Avg 8.0

Integration

Ability to integrate with external applications.

8.8
Avg 8.3
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is IBM Planning Analytics?

IBM Planning Analytics is an integrated business planning solution that blends spreadsheet flexibility with database control and governance. It helps users to deliver faster, more accurate plans, forecasts, and budgets that can pivot to address changing market demands for FP&A, Sales, Supply chain, HR, marketing, IT and Sustainability.

It includes:

  • Built-in reporting -> Supports scorecards and metrics including ad-hoc reports and compelling visualizations.
  • User Interfaces -> A web interface, with spreadsheets.

  • Predictive forecasting ->Predictive and AI capabilities for faster, more accurate forecasts

  • Simple integration -> Integrates with an existing tech stack, including spreadsheet-based planning, ERP, CRM and any APIs.

  • Real time insights with TM1 -> Built on TM1 technology to give users faster, flexible analysis with the high-performance at scale

  • Flexible Deployment Options ->On-premise, cloud-based, or as a Service on AWS



IBM Planning Analytics Features

Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting Features

  • Supported: Long-term financial planning
  • Supported: Financial budgeting
  • Supported: Forecasting
  • Supported: Scenario modeling
  • Supported: Management reporting

Consolidation and Close Features

  • Supported: Financial data consolidation
  • Supported: Journal entries and reports
  • Supported: Multi-currency management
  • Supported: Intercompany Eliminations
  • Supported: Minority Ownership
  • Supported: Local and consolidated reporting
  • Supported: Detailed Audit Trails

Financial Reporting and Compliance Features

  • Supported: Financial Statement Reporting
  • Supported: Management Reporting
  • Supported: Excel-based Reporting
  • Supported: Automated board and financial reporting
  • Supported: XBRL support for regulatory filing

Analytics and Reporting Features

  • Supported: Personalized dashboards
  • Supported: Color-coded scorecards
  • Supported: KPIs
  • Supported: Cost and profitability analysis
  • Supported: Key Performance Indicator setting
  • Supported: Benchmarking with external data

Integration Features

  • Supported: Flat file integration
  • Supported: Excel data integration
  • Supported: Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

BI Standard Reporting Features

  • Supported: Pixel Perfect reports
  • Supported: Customizable dashboards
  • Supported: Report Formatting Templates

Ad-hoc Reporting Features

  • Supported: Drill-down analysis
  • Supported: Formatting capabilities
  • Supported: Predictive modeling
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
  • Supported: Report sharing and collaboration

Report Output and Scheduling Features

  • Supported: Publish to Web
  • Supported: Publish to PDF
  • Supported: Report Versioning
  • Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling

Data Discovery and Visualization Features

  • Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
  • Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
  • Supported: Predictive Analytics
  • Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
  • Supported: Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
  • Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages

Access Control and Security Features

  • Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
  • Supported: Role-Based Security Model
  • Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
  • Supported: Report-Level Access Control
  • Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)

Mobile Capabilities Features

  • Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
  • Supported: Mobile Application
  • Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

Additional Features

  • Supported: AI forecasting

IBM Planning Analytics Screenshots

Screenshot of Workflow managementScreenshot of Income statementScreenshot of Margin analysisScreenshot of Metrics managementScreenshot of Income statementScreenshot of Expense analysis

IBM Planning Analytics Videos

IBM Planning Analytics Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mobile Web

IBM Planning Analytics Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

IBM Planning Analytics, powered by IBM TM1®, is an integrated planning solution designed to promote collaboration across the organization and help keep pace with the speed of modern business. With its calculation engine, this enterprise performance management solution is designed to help users move beyond the limits of spreadsheets, automating the planning process to drive faster, more accurate results. Use it to unify data sources into one single repository, enabling users to build sophisticated, multidimensional models that drive forecasts.

IBM Planning Analytics starts at $825.

Anaplan, SAP Analytics Cloud, and Workday Adaptive Planning are common alternatives for IBM Planning Analytics.

Reviewers rate Multi-User Support (named login) and Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete) highest, with a score of 9.6.

The most common users of IBM Planning Analytics are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(236)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-14 of 14)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It has been a couple years since we deployed IBM Planning analytics in our organization. We use it to optimize how we allocate our resources, including labor, equipment and materials according to availability and demand and to help manage our budget. It allows us to create detailed budget plans, track expenses and forecast future spending accurately.
  • Automation of manual planning, budgeting and forecasting.
  • The visualization and dashboards are customizable and valuable.
  • Integration with excel
  • In the construction field we are on site most of the time and we need to have a native mobile app. IBM Planning analytics has no mobile app.
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.
Rajeev Bagra | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
While IBM's Cognos Analytics is great for data visualization and forecasting, IBMS Planning Analytics is geared towards financial aspect. So even though Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics are two different subscriptions, there are many similarities as well. Such as AI Chatbot that answers queries after doing computation. And for that no SQL coding needed. Interesting point to note is that IBM Planning Analytics is not just meant for accounts department. It can be tailored for almost any kind of business category such as human resource where HR manager will be interested in analyzing cost of each staff. Similarly marketing department can benefit from getting a view of how each marketing executive contributing to the firm's target sales/revenue.
  • 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
  • They might consider merging Cognos Analytics, Planning Analytics, Cognos Controller into single subscription. The same will reduce confusion.
  • There is initially a steep learning curve despite no coding knowledge needed. Try to make the learning process easier.
IBM Planning Analytics is an enterprise software and might not be feasible for freelancers/small business owners with price starting @150$ per user/per month.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I've used IBM Planning Analytics at Fortune 50 companies as well as relatively small startups. IBM Planning Analytics was able to provide solutions across functions including finance, supply chain planning, and customer service support. We were able to automate tasks that took multiple man hours and reduce the workload to a matter of minutes. With the system providing great value across so many different parts of the business, the ROI showed IBM Planning Analytics was almost a no-brainer to implement.
  • Consolidation of data into a single source of truth and record keeping
  • Easily show variance analysis across actuals to multiple different what-if scenarios
  • Give the ability to slice-and-dice data in ways that weren't easily accessible before, pivot-table on steroids in simple terms
  • 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
IBM Planning Analytics has huge potential in almost any organization to streamline processes and pull multiple different data sources into a meaningful connection that can help tell the story of why, not just what. It's very good at consolidations; be that accounts on an P&L, months into a year, subsidiaries into a company structure, etc. It is not meant to be a standalone database of flat-data, it isn't necessarily a replacement for data warehouses. It's not an ERP. But it is very, very good at what it can do, and very flexible at how far it can be pushed. If you are an FP&A guru wanting to empower your team to bring your value to the next level, this is the program to do it with.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My organization is both a customer of IBM Planning Analytics, and an implementation Services provider. Internally we use it for financial planning and analysis (revenue & expense planning including workforce and capacity planning), management reporting, sales forecasting, cash forecasting and bonus & commissions calculations.
  • Loads large volumes of data very quickly from external sources
  • Scales to support very detailed models - e.g. SKU level products or many years of history
  • Has very powerful and feature-rich Excel integration
  • Powerful calculation engine that can be used for complex allocations (for example)
  • It's very flexible, so it is possible to use it incorrectly
  • Even though PA can be owned by the business, it requires a little investment to learn
  • The new Workspace-based modeling UI does not (yet) have all the features needed
In our experience IBM Planning Analytics with Watson is the most functionally complete, powerful and scalable planning platform on the market, and can handle anything from financial and management reporting use-cases, to large-scale integrated revenue and expense planning, and AI-infused predictive forecasting. Any company with a large integrated business planning vision that is pursuing an xP&A strategy that brings together all kinds of planning across the business including financial, supply chain and sales will find that IBM Planning Analytics is the only tool that can easily and efficiently (1) connect directly to large data sets and pull in data (2) perform complex calculations including allocations and predictive forecasts, and (3) be expanded (if needed) using it's well-engineered and well-documented REST API. The only situation where it may appear to be less appropriate is at organizations with very simple standard financial planning requirements, with (perhaps) just one or two data sources. While IBM Planning Analytics can certainly serve such needs and is surprisingly affordable from a software pricing point of view, its flexibility and power do add more complexity to the user experience.
Aria Smith | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IBM Planning Analytics helps my entire department with its artificial intelligence, allowing good analysis, planning, forecasting, decision making, and reporting. We have large processing capacities that cannot be achieved with a manual system. It is a robust system that provides confidence, is scalable, has robust cognitive processing features, and robust NLP functions. In addition, it greatly increases the efficiency in the department with the integration of Excel and with a good processing speed and instant calculations. IBM Planning Analytics adapts to the capabilities of the company with respect to the volume of processing. We are constantly growing and we always have IBM.
  • Robust NLP and cognitive processing capabilities
  • It is capable of processing a high volume of information without affecting performance
  • It is scalable and robust thanks to its artificial intelligence functions allowing good analysis, planning, forecasting, decision making, and reports
  • By evaluating the capabilities of IBM Planning Analytics, we have determined that it is an ideal software for all industries with a wide variety of tools such as cognitive processing and NLP functions
  • Implementation is complex in almost every stage, from start to finish
  • The technical support is not the most attentive, and the solutions they offer us to improve the implementation are not the fastest
  • The usability of IBM Planning Analytics is not the best; we must have experience to be able to run the functions without help
IBM Planning Analytics is a robust and scalable tool with a very good track record, my experience is three years and I consider it appropriate for this complex and changing industrial world, it must be considered that with IBM Planning Analytics it will take a long time to be able to see the fruits of your labor. If you are looking for a quick solution, I don't think IBM Planning Analytics is the most appropriate, but if you are willing to go through the difficult and slow implementation process, I think you are in the right place.
November 29, 2022

It's PAWtastic!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am an a PAW/PAfE/TM1 administrator, a TM1 modeler, an IBM Planning Analytics with Watson (IBM PAW) Dashboard creator and provide support for all PAW questions and troubleshooting. I love how user friendly the PAW interface is - a big improvement from modeling in Architect!
  • Auto-complete (CTRL+spacebar) functionality in Rules and Process writing
  • Workbench is a MUCH improved user interface than Architect
  • Increased options for creating useful Visualizations on-the-fly
  • Bring back Architect's ability for SYSTEM-recommended "Reorder Dimension" cube optimization
  • Empower Admins to "turn off/hide" Applications & Plans tile from appearing on the home page and within the pop-out menu bar if the organization doesn't want to use it
  • Ability to make an dashboard object's borders thicker (currently only have very thin border options that you can barely see)
  • Lots of improvement needed for the Applications and Plan section to be "useful"
  • Lots of confusion around the 2 save buttons. Users unclear on which one is for book and view. Add wording for clarification. For example, on the left save button add words "Save BOOK" -- "Save BOOK As" and "Save BOOK as template" --- then on right save button do the same adding "Save VIEW to server"
  • Ability for Admins to hide the Forecasting and Sandboxing buttons or disable the functionality
I would recommend TM1 admins, modelers and end-users to start using IBM Planning Analytics with Watson. It's a great improvement from Architect and TM1web! There is a slight learning curve, but I've found new hires to even the most advanced TM1 users are able to pick it up quickly.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
IBM Planning Analytics I believe is quite versatile and enables us to build streamlined yet elaborate solutions. It has enabled us to support clients in visualising their dates on a more day-to-day basis certainly. I was impressed by how much data can be digested within the tool without issue.
  • Assists in consolidating data
  • Able to work faster thanks to its processing power
  • Quite user friendly for such an app
  • Modularity for some elements
  • Ability to respond to needs of small clients
  • Price point
The tool is well suited when interacting with technically driven clients who appreciate the value of data and its insights. However, for some clients, stakeholders who are more narrative-driven and less number focused it seems there might be a case to enhance visualisation from this perspective (presentation not just reduced to graphs, etc).
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We’ve seen many small to medium organizations still relying on spreadsheets and other manual processes for their business planning needs. They must understand that the businesses need to stay up to date on their planning and analysis strategies to overcome market challenges. IBM Planning Analytics with Watson is an all-inclusive, integrated planning solution that allows users to go beyond the limits of manual planning. With [the] IBM Planning toolkit, we can quickly do more accurate planning and forecasting for different departments of the organization to accelerate decision making and increase performances and stay up to speed with the modern business culture.
  • [I appreciate the] ability to work with the same Excel functionality we’re familiar with while having the power of an enterprise planning solution.
  • We can change the number of users of the system or increase data volumes and planning models anytime without reducing the overall performance of the system.
  • We can test our assumptions and see the impact of our decisions by creating personal sandboxes before releasing them to the system.
  • [The] initial setup could be simplified and customer support could be improved.
  • [There is a] pretty wide learning curve for the newcomers and official documentation is hard to understand for them.
  • Programming knowledge is important to work with the system and the user community support is very limited.
Most importantly, IBM Planning Analytics with Watson helps your business to grow in many ways. It increases the overall efficiency of the departments and improves the decision-making process. Even if the user doesn’t come from a BI background or doesn’t have data science skills, they still can make use of the system to get [the] most accurate and consistent forecasts.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used IBM PAW for the planning and analysis of Sales ROI, Financial Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting. It helped us to make better business decisions regarding our current and future investments. We also used PAW for inventory planning and forecasting, which helped us to reduce a lot of inventory costs and improve our ROI.
  • Natural language processing.
  • Predictive analytics.
  • Financial planning.
  • Documentation and tutorials.
  • Pricing.
  • Speed of implementation.
It is best suited for budgeting and forecasting process because of strong predictive and analytical capabilities. It also integrates well with other tools and hence provide great flexibility. You should definitely consider IBM PAW if you want to make data-driven decisions in your organization. It is less suited for SMEs and startups because of higher pricing.
Gabrielle Conley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The platform has been very helpful across our entire organization. Our teams have been able to implement tasks from a central location, running our programs smoothly. The user interface is easily customizable, enabling my team to design new models that fit our operations. Reporting and planning based on the data we get have been effective since we deployed this tool.
  • Collaboration and planning
  • Management of all workflows across our organization
Coordination of workflows across our company has been very effective. The budgeting of our resources has been very effective. We are able to predict and take solutions to future challenges that may arise from our programs. Our data can easily be integrated and sorted effectively for better planning and decision-making.
Lacie Baumgartner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have implemented this solution across multiple industries such as manufacturing, education, energy, and retail. I have seen this solution be used by the Finance department for budgeting and forecasting but then integrated into other departments throughout the company, such as Sales or Operations for analytics and other uses. Highly customizable for the client's needs.
  • Customizable to your needs.
  • Ability to deploy to many users and one version of truth instead of multiple files.
  • Integrates with Excel.
  • Automates tasks and calculations to allow users to focus on results rather than data integrity.
  • Small learning curve with tool.
  • So many options with the tool that could be confusing where to begin.
  • Integration with certain source systems.
Highly customizable so Planning Analytics can be suited for not just planning and budgeting but any use cases where analytics are needed. Integrates with Cognos Analytics well and can be used for inputs for reports. Dashboarding and books within Workspace take analytics to a new level. Similar to compiling books in Excel, but easier to share with other users. Scenario planning is top-notch within this tool.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use it to teach my MBA and undergrad students. I showcase to them how they can use its data analytics and visualization power to solve business problems and facilitate the decision-making processes.
  • Intuitive interface
  • Strong analytics
  • Slow learning curve.
  • Needs more educational materials such as video training.
When there is enough data it can be a good tool.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used for reporting and finance modeling purposes across the whole organization. Currently, we are upgrading from TM1 10.2.2 to Planning Analytics. With new front end tools, I believe they can provide more capabilities for allowing users or developers to have better experiences with the product.
  • TM1/PA could help to produce finance budgeting models fast, which helps better the decision-making processes for the company.
  • TM1/PA could provide reporting from cubes fast and easily, which helps to solve user queries regarding day to day business.
  • Hierarchy awareness for DBSW functions in Excel.
  • Performance of transferring huge data via REST API.
IBM Planning Analytics is well suited for:
  • Finance budgeting, planning, and forecasting with different financial models.
  • User daily or monthly department reporting in TM1 web.
  • Multidimensional reporting over huge data sets
It is less appropriate for:
  • Detailed transactional reporting.
  • Statistical and mathematical calculation.
  • Machine or deep learning.
David Chen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Performance is amazing because of it's in-memory OLAP engine.
  • With a little experience, it's a great rapid deployment platform that can model just about any business process.
  • It is actually quite scalable considering the amount of RAM that can be installed on servers nowadays.
  • Easy to setup and migrate to a new environment.
  • It lacks a pretty user interface.
  • Learning curve can be high for non-technical person.
  • Getting data out of the system could be easier.
Software may not be cheap but a cheaper version (IBM Cognos Express) is out there if you don't have that many users.
Return to navigation