Item: IBM Planning Analytics
Rating: 9
Author: Jared Koepp

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We currently use IBM Planning Analytics for financial and sales budgeting and forecasting. We use it to calculate our complex allocation methodology to see a budgeted and forecasted P&L during our budget season. We also load actual results to have comparability during the budget season as well as after. We're currently working on building consolidations within IBM Planning Analytics to broaden our analytics capability as well as streamline our business. Some of our sales groups within our organization use IBM Planning Analytics for sales reporting since it has robust security and customized reports which can be accessed from the web. We also incorporate the detailed sales budget which is constructed within IBM Planning Analytics.

Pros and Cons

Security: IBM PA has a robust security model which allows for very detailed security.
Speed: IBM PA can calculate complex formulas quickly to allow for faster analysis.

Dashboarding: IBM PA dashboarding is minimal compared to other products on the market.
Bursting: Allowing reports or dashboards to be automatically sent out via email.

Return on Investment

Sped up our annual budgeting and forecasting.
Made our budgeting process more accurate.

Alternatives Considered

OneStream XF

We considered OneStream when evaluating consolidation tools. We decided to use IBM Planning Analytics because our consolidation needs aren't very complex. We already have licensing. It'd streamline our budget process, and we have a majority of the consolidation elements already built into IBM PA today.

Support Rating

Having IBM Planning Analytics on the cloud has been a great improvement from our on-prem environment. We had little to no assistance from our local IT team when it was on-prem. Now on the cloud, I can submit a case and get a quick response and resolution. IBM PA takes care of all of the server maintenance and updates.

Key Insights

Do you think IBM Planning Analytics delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Planning Analytics's feature set?

Yes

Did IBM Planning Analytics live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of IBM Planning Analytics go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Planning Analytics again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Suited for:

Need for customization
Complex formulas
Large amount of data
Security is a priority
Cloud-based
Data entry
Budgeting/Forecasting

Less Appropriate:

Basic sales reporting
Dashboarding
Non-complex business which can be done via Excel

Benefits of IBM Planning Analytics on the Cloud for Budgeting and Consolidations

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Planning Analytics