Item: IBM Planning Analytics
Rating: 9
Author: Diego Santos

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Today we use the platform to ensure our budget and forecast projections. The platform helps us, with its robust engine, and what if scenarious capacity, to maintain a constant level end detailed level of data, that is followed by all the team leaders of the company, throwout the year.
We have increased our results and governance on the budget from many consecutive years now.
Our main application calculate the HR budget, revenew and costs.

Pros and Cons

Simulate various scenarios
Work with a enormous amount of data
great interface for users and API conections

In some cases, such as security applications, I prefer to use Architect. I think that PA Workspace still have some room to enable security for users.

Return on Investment

Reduce the budget overall time from 8 to just 3 weeks
improved forecast accuracy
improved collaboration or planning at a more detailed level

Scenario Planning and What-If Analysis

I think that the what if scenario capacity of IBM Planning Analytics is one of the biggest features of the platform. With just a few clicks we can create a new scenario, make our adjustments, and confront the results with other scenarios to find out with one is more suitable for our day by day routine.

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management

I worked with Hyperion a long time ago. It was not a Oracle product yet. One great feature of this solution that was really great at the time, was the modeling process of ir, with a very robust engine for sparse cubes. the performance was excellent at the time. But today I can sai that the PA engine is as good as Hyperion for me.

Key Insights

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

Not sure

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

Support Rating

IBM Planning Analytics, and the previous version of it, TM1, have a great community with many years of experience. It helps a lot when we have questions or issues that we need to resolve.
The materials and help that IBM provides is very good as well.
the support offered is good in my opinion.

Usability

Particularly, I prefer to use Architect and IBM Planning Analytics workspace for my developments. But the platform have other interfaces and connections that the user can have access, like Excel os even performance modeler. It will depend on the user needs and skills to operate the solution. But the commands and functionalities are very intuitive.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Azure AI (Cortana)

Likelihood to Recommend

For me, IBM Planning Analytics is very well suited for applications that demand a great volume of data, needs various scenarios and simulations results. It is well placed for mid and big companies, that have a decentralysed operation, because every consolidation will remain in just one repository, avoiding multiple sources for the same data.
But I think it is not a solutions that should be placed for clients with just BI needs.

Great for planning and simulation

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Planning Analytics with Watson