Accelerating Business Planning Cycles with IBM Planning Analytics
August 19, 2025

Accelerating Business Planning Cycles with IBM Planning Analytics

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Planning Analytics

I mainly use the IBM Planning Analytics tool for various activities like analysing data to make decisions, planning tasks, collaborating with dependent teams, etc.

Before IBM Planning Analytics, we were using the Workday Adaptive Planning tool, but we had always faced difficulties in setting it up and using. So later we moved to the IBM tool, which we mainly use to handle the data analysis use case. My work involves creating dashboards from the existing business data and presenting them during our daily scrum meetings with various stakeholders, and making the right decisions based on the data analysis. With the IBM Planning Analytics tool, dashboard creation and other exporting options come in handy.

Pros

  • Meaningful dashboard creation from existing data
  • AI integrated data analysis on the existing business data
  • Real time possible scenarios outcome visualization

Cons

  • They should avoid frequent upgrades and should plan few limited upgrades throughtout the year so that bugs that are introduced during new upgrades can be reduced.
  • The inbuilt dashboard visualization tools are not that great like Tableau or other such tools. They should work on it to make it more visually rich.
  • Licensing cost can be reduced a little or there should be more plans based on the feature usage levels because I mainly use only the dashboard visualization tools mainly compared to other features but still end up paying huge.
  • Before I spend more time to come up with the data analysis and then create dashboards involving multiple tools but with IBM Planning Analytics, now since everything is done within the same tool, I'm saving huge time.
  • Since I'm spending less time compared to before, I'm able to do right decisions for my organization and help them save cost at right places.
  • The accuracy is great now since everything is automated.
Since I mainly use the dashboard visualization tool on a regular basis, I find it more useful for me. Some improvements can be made on the visualization part, but other than that, everything looks great with this tool. Even the external data source integrations are done easily without any bugs. That I have missed in many other tools which I used before.
Before I use multiple tools to do various activities, like one for data analysis and then another tool for data visualization, but with IBM Planning Analytics, I can now do everything in the same tool. That is really something I missed before.
Workday Adaptive Planning is really tough to set up and use as a fresher. So I have always faced difficulties helping new joinees to set up and use it. But with IBM Planning Analytics, it is more straightforward and easier to use with a good interface.

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?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of IBM Planning Analytics go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Planning Analytics again?

Yes

As already mentioned in previous questions, I mainly use the IBM Planning Analytics tool to visualize existing data to generate meaningful report dashboards and use it during the stakeholders' meeting to arrive at the right decision. For my use case, this is well-suited. Since my work involves only working on the existing data, that too from the office, this is more suitable for me. But I guess it will be tough for the sales team who are mostly working outside, meeting various clients, and for them, this might be less appropriate since there is no dedicated mobile support.

IBM Planning Analytics Feature Ratings

9.3
Forecasting
8
Scenario modeling
10
Management reporting
10
6.7
Journal entries and reports
6
Local and consolidated reporting
5
Detailed Audit Trails
9
9.3
Management Reporting
10
Excel-based Reporting
10
Automated board and financial reporting
8
8.8
Personalized dashboards
10
Color-coded scorecards
10
KPIs
9
Cost and profitability analysis
9
Key Performance Indicator setting
8
Benchmarking with external data
7
8.7
Flat file integration
8
Excel data integration
9
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
9
7.7
Pixel Perfect reports
7
Customizable dashboards
7
Report Formatting Templates
9
8.3
Drill-down analysis
9
Formatting capabilities
8
Report sharing and collaboration
8
7.7
Publish to Web
8
Publish to PDF
8
Report Versioning
7
7.0
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
7
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
6
Predictive Analytics
8
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
7
7.8
Multi-User Support (named login)
7
Role-Based Security Model
8
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
8
Report-Level Access Control
8
4.7
Responsive Design for Web Access
5
Mobile Application
4
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
5

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