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Advanced financial planning features including AI chatbot and multicurrency support
August 24, 2023

Advanced financial planning features including AI chatbot and multicurrency support

Rajeev Bagra | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Planning Analytics

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.
  • Our clients benefit from the business planning capabilities of IBM Planning Analytics. Financial reporting with interactive dashboards, checking easily if targets met or not.
  • Granular reporting digging into a particular head or category
  • Scenario based planning
  • AI capabilities ensures that seasonal trends are taken into account
Without writing a single piece of SQL, queries can be raised. Each reply also points to the source or basis by which reply generated.AI capabilities is like a magic and given yearly sets of data, its power to generate reports only enhances.
While for freelancers/small business owners we still recommend LivePlan given higher subscription cost of IBM Planning Analytics. But for a large business, nothing compares to IBM Planning Analytics.

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

As Business Partner of IBM, we are blessed with a large IBM community of users who share knowledge about their own experience working with IBM Planning Analytics. Whenever faced with a problem, we raise a thread on the community forum and almost always get resolution.
Interactive dashboards Separate workspace for each user Forecasting with AI capabilities No computer programming knowledge needed. No need to write a single piece of code. Multicurrency support.
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.

IBM Planning Analytics Feature Ratings

10.0
Long-term financial planning
10
Financial budgeting
10
Forecasting
10
Scenario modeling
10
Management reporting
10
8.3
Financial data consolidation
10
Journal entries and reports
5
Multi-currency management
10
Intercompany Eliminations
10
Minority Ownership
4
Local and consolidated reporting
10
Detailed Audit Trails
9
10.0
Financial Statement Reporting
10
Management Reporting
10
Excel-based Reporting
10
Automated board and financial reporting
10
XBRL support for regulatory filing
10
10.0
Personalized dashboards
10
Color-coded scorecards
10
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
10.0
Pixel Perfect reports
10
Customizable dashboards
10
Report Formatting Templates
10
10.0
Drill-down analysis
10
Formatting capabilities
10
Integration with R or other statistical packages
10
Report sharing and collaboration
10
10.0
Publish to Web
10
Publish to PDF
10
Report Versioning
10
Report Delivery Scheduling
10
10.0
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
10
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
10
Predictive Analytics
10
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
10
8.2
Multi-User Support (named login)
10
Role-Based Security Model
10
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
10
Report-Level Access Control
10
Single Sign-On (SSO)
1
10.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
10
Mobile Application
10
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
10