Powerful fast engine that provides solid planning and reporting solutions

IBM provides a solid support base. This includes direct interaction with IBM personnel (via the IBM site), a shared knowledge base (sometimes found using Google), a large customer base (which includes many chat boards), and a large consulting base (which includes many blogs ... both technical and business oriented). Sometimes the support is slower than expected, but it's generally solid.

Planning Analytics is a powerful tool that is easy for end users. The engine is extremely fast and can be customized to perform any type of calculations: financial or metric, detailed or consolidated, live or on demand, etc. We have used the system for basic calculations such as revenue (units * price), moderate calculations such as compensation (spread a salary across months based on the number of working days in the month), and complex calculations such as allocations (spread the administrative costs to IT and then do a secondary spread of the IT costs based on the number of employees in each department). All of the interfaces are easy for the end users to navigate and use due to simple buttons, icons and right-click options.

Well suited - if you are looking for a fast and solid engine, if you have complex requirements, if you don't want to change your business process to fit into a box, if you need a tool that can provide fast calculations and fast answers. Not well suited - if you are looking for a "quick-hit" tool or if you are looking for a cheap "fit into the box" approach.