IBM Planning Analytics best budgeting and forecasting tool
October 19, 2020

IBM Planning Analytics best budgeting and forecasting tool

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics is used across multiple departments including financial budgeting and forecasting (finance and accounting), sales planning (sales divisions), headcount planning (HR), demand planning (operations).

It allows data integrity and centralization across departments. Flexible options for end users to access data via excel client, and web.

Pros

  • Consolidations.
  • Alternate hierarchies.
  • Data load options from multiple sources.
  • Flexible end user accessibility.
  • Departmental integration. such as all plans flowing into financial P&L.
  • Drill through to the transaction level data.

Cons

  • Web interface can be improved to be made aligned with latest web technologies.
  • Dashboarding and reporting capabilities could be improved.
  • Email bursting of reports.
  • Email notifications to admin related to maintenance of the application such as database errors, etc.
  • Integration with other products such as Microsoft BI, Salesforce, etc.
  • Planning Analytics workspace setup could be improved.
  • Data integrity with one version of the truth.
  • Allows department heads to make better business decisions, because the product saves them from manually verifying data accuracy.
Scenario planning is very important and is one of the key factor we selected Planning Analytics over other products.
IBM Planning analytics allows unlimited numbers of scenarios to be created and compare them against each other.

  • Microsoft BI (MSBI)
Microsoft BI's strength is in dashboarding, whereas IBM Planning Analytics outshines it with its capabilities in budgeting, forecasting, consolidations, scenario modeling and performance.

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

IBM Support is very responsive and address any concerns or problems we have very promptly. They also actively take feedback from users in deciding the future features of the product.
From an end user's perspective, IBM planning analytics allows us to stay in the familiar Excel environment while taking advantage of centralized data.
Best for:
Financial planning (budgeting and forecasting).
Sales planning (product P&L).
Production planning.

IBM Planning Analytics Feature Ratings

9.4
Long-term financial planning
10
Financial budgeting
10
Forecasting
10
Scenario modeling
10
Management reporting
7
10.0
Financial data consolidation
10
Journal entries and reports
10
Multi-currency management
10
Intercompany Eliminations
10
Minority Ownership
10
Local and consolidated reporting
10
Detailed Audit Trails
10
8.0
Financial Statement Reporting
10
Management Reporting
10
Excel-based Reporting
10
Automated board and financial reporting
5
XBRL support for regulatory filing
5
9.2
Personalized dashboards
7
Color-coded scorecards
8
KPIs
10
Cost and profitability analysis
10
Key Performance Indicator setting
10
Benchmarking with external data
10
10.0
Flat file integration
10
Excel data integration
10
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
10
7.7
Pixel Perfect reports
7
Customizable dashboards
8
Report Formatting Templates
8
8.3
Drill-down analysis
10
Formatting capabilities
10
Integration with R or other statistical packages
5
Report sharing and collaboration
8
10.0
Publish to Web
10
Publish to PDF
10
Report Versioning
10
7.7
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
8
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
7
Predictive Analytics
8
10.0
Multi-User Support (named login)
10
Role-Based Security Model
10
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
10
Single Sign-On (SSO)
10
5.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
5

IBM Planning Analytics Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No - Support is provided as part of the subscription.
Yes - Yes the issue was resolved to our satisfaction.
We had an issue with user onboarding and IBM support worked along with our internal IT team to pinpoint the issue and resolve it in timely manner.

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