IBM Planning Analytics Reviews

My main use case for IBM Planning Analytics is for various activities such as analysis, analyzing data to make decisions, planning tasks, and collaborating with dependent teams. Before IBM Planning Analytics, we were using the Workday Adaptive Planning tool, but we always faced difficulties in setting it up and using it. It was particularly difficult to use, especially for the latest tech service. Later, we moved to IBM Planning Analytics, which we mainly used 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, as well as making the right decisions based on data analysis and insights. With IBM Planning Analytics, dashboard creation and other exporting options come in handy.

In addition to my main use case, I also use IBM Planning Analytics for financial planning, forecasting, and reporting, and it has been very useful across different departments, especially when we need real-time insights. We also integrated time series forecasting with Watson Studio, which helps with better predictions.

IBM Planning Analytics helps with collaboration between teams by allowing us to gather data from various departments, analyze it, and collaborate on the data to make data-driven decisions between different departments easily. As I mentioned previously, I mainly use IBM Planning Analytics to visualize the existing data to generate meaningful report dashboards and use it during stakeholder meetings to arrive at the right decision.

The best features IBM Planning Analytics offers include budgeting, forecasting, and what-if scenario analysis. The scenario modeling feature in IBM Planning Analytics is probably the most robust planning and forecasting solution we use, especially for what-if scenarios, where we are able to forecast using Watson Studio, which helps in better prediction. I really appreciate the Excel integration in IBM Planning Analytics because it keeps things familiar and adds more power.

IBM Planning Analytics does not work offline, which makes it difficult for me and my team to work or gather required data when we do not have an internet connection.

The mobile version of IBM Planning Analytics has fewer features compared to the PC version, which is a problem when an executive has to analyze a complicated situation on the go or while working remotely.

I have been using IBM Planning Analytics for the past seven years.

IBM Planning Analytics is very stable, and I have not noticed any downtime or lagging. The performance of IBM Planning Analytics has always been fast and reliable for my needs, even when dealing with huge volumes of data.

The scalability of IBM Planning Analytics is very high, and we are able to work with huge amounts of data with flexibility.

The customer support for IBM Planning Analytics is very responsive and supportive 24/7, and they provide feedback in less time.

Positive

I previously used Microsoft Access. The reason I switched from Microsoft Access to IBM Planning Analytics is because when dealing with large data and wanting speed and flexibility, IBM Planning Analytics offers that capability. Microsoft Access has limitations when dealing with huge volumes of data.

I also switched from Microsoft Access to IBM Planning Analytics because it has helped us reduce manual work and make better decisions quickly. IBM also listens to feedback and improves the products, which I appreciate.

The learning curve for my team was smooth, and it took a few days to one week to learn every feature of IBM Planning Analytics. It was easy to learn.

IBM Planning Analytics has been quick regarding technical implementation and onboarding with the cloud version. We experienced smooth onboarding for any tech service and have been able to save a lot of time, especially because it is very easy to use. We cut down on manual budgeting and forecasting work, which saved us between 50 to 70% of our time. Our decision-making improved significantly because the real-time data and automation saved a considerable amount of time. It only took us about three months to create custom models that really fit our needs, which represented quick implementation and quicker return on investments.

Over the past few years that I have been using IBM Planning Analytics, I have made big improvements in how I plan and analyze finances. Since using this tool, I can now make decisions faster, even when there is just a small change in the data. It helps a lot with creating reports straight from raw data, which saves me so much time.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the price is relatively competitive, and the setup was straightforward and easy.

Before choosing IBM Planning Analytics, I evaluated other options, such as AD Logic.

Regarding the user interface of IBM Planning Analytics, it is very user-friendly, which makes the experience very smooth. The integration capabilities of IBM Planning Analytics with other business systems or data sources are strong, especially with Simulus.

We are able to integrate IBM Planning Analytics with Watson Studio, and it helps with better prediction and forecasting, allowing us to make data-driven decisions. We have also been able to integrate it with Excel, which keeps things familiar and adds more power.

I would describe the security features of IBM Planning Analytics as very robust, and they keep all our data secure.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Planning Analytics is that if you are dealing with large data and want speed and flexibility, then IBM Planning Analytics is for you, because it has helped us reduce manual work and make better decisions quickly. IBM also listens to feedback and improves the product, which I really appreciate. I would rate this product a 9 out of 10.

IBM Planning Analytics serves all aspects around planning, forecasting, and analysis. I use it to collect data from various sources, including input from the ERP system and manually captured data by users. The data gets harmonized and aggregated to be visualized in dashboards quickly, where it is easy to read and understand, enabling data-driven decisions.

A second application involves using IBM Planning Analytics to forecast future numbers and break this down into units.

In my day-to-day work, I use IBM Planning Analytics while planning future events. This allows my organization to have a great understanding of what is likely to occur.

When planning those future events, IBM Planning Analytics helps my team by creating different scenarios to compare outcomes. It also helps warn us about risks that could occur in the future, which enables us to avoid those risks and make future-driven decisions easily.

Additionally, my main use case encompasses consolidating and aggregating forecasts for future planning.

IBM Planning Analytics offers excellent features including data management, data governance, data security, and a great visual UI.

Out of data management, governance, security, and the visual UI, I find myself relying on the UI the most, as it makes my work easier. The interface is very intuitive and user-friendly, helping me navigate through the system with ease. Additionally, data security is very important in my organization, providing peace of mind through protecting our data. Data governance is also excellent, with data reporting and analysis that helps us make data-driven decisions.

I would add that meaningful dashboard creation from existing data is very useful, with AI integrated data analysis on existing business data providing great assistance in making data-driven decisions easily. Real-time scenario outcome visualization is also excellent.

IBM Planning Analytics has positively impacted my organization since we started using this tool. Before, I could spend a lot of time coming up with data analysis and then creating a dashboard involving multiple tools. However, since everything is done within the same tool, I am saving a huge amount of time. Since I am spending less time compared to before, I am able to make the right decisions for my organization and help them save costs in the right places. The accuracy is great now since everything has been automated, and human error has greatly reduced. I estimate that I save around fifty hours per month compared to before.

IBM Planning Analytics could be improved by avoiding frequent upgrades and planning a few limited upgrades throughout the year, so that bugs are not introduced and can be reduced. Additionally, the licensing cost could be reduced a little, and there should be more plans based on feature usage level, as some small organizations or small teams may not afford the current pricing.

Besides upgrade frequency and licensing cost, another improvement that IBM Planning Analytics needs is to enhance the inbuilt dashboard visualization tools, as they are not as impressive compared to other alternatives like Tableau.

Regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I believe the licensing cost could be reduced somewhat, and there should be more plans based on future usage level. In my case, I mainly use only the dashboard and sometimes visualization tools, but still end up paying a substantial amount. Therefore, the licensing cost could be reduced.

I have been using IBM Planning Analytics for the past five years.

IBM Planning Analytics is very stable.

IBM Planning Analytics' scalability is impressive, as it is able to gather data from multiple sources and handle huge amounts of data without any lagging or downtime, making it very scalable and stable.

The customer support is really helpful, especially when we are going well.

Negative

I previously used Workday Adaptive Planning, which was really difficult to set up and use as a new user. We faced a lot of difficulties helping new team members to set up and use it. However, with IBM Planning Analytics, it is more straightforward and easier to use with a good and intuitive interface.

The setup is very easy, and I do not see any technical challenges. The technical team from IBM has been excellent, providing quick guidance where needed.

I have seen a return on investment, as the accuracy has really improved in my organization since everything is automated. We have been able to save a lot of time and costs since automation works very effectively, and we have been able to make the right decisions through data analytics and planning.

Before choosing IBM Planning Analytics, I evaluated other options, including Tableau.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Planning Analytics is that it is a great budgeting and planning platform, very easy to use, straightforward, and offers unparalleled customer support. It is a game changer that everyone should look into and use, especially for future planning. IBM Planning Analytics makes forecasting easy and fast. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

My main use case for IBM Planning Analytics is as an IT software engineer, and I typically use it day-to-day for planning analytics over the past two years. It is probably the most robust planning and forecasting solution in the market. IBM Planning Analytics is essential for creating a clear budget for our organization so that we can reach our future goals without significant loss. In financial forecasting for our business, it also gives us a platform to collaborate with different departments by taking their inputs in our upcoming projects.

A specific example of how I have used IBM Planning Analytics for financial forecasting or collaboration between departments is that we use TM1 for resources allocation planning and asset management to align with our IT spending and future forecast. IBM Planning Analytics helps us to collaborate across departments where we can collect their feedback and make data-driven decisions easily. We use IBM Planning Analytics for our budget planning, budget forecasting, real-time analysis, and reporting of data across the organization. We are able to make data-driven decisions.

The planning efficiency with IBM Planning Analytics is very quick, and data processing can be done efficiently. I also appreciate that it is an AI-based tool for our business, which software mainly focuses on business planning and future forecasting.

The best features of IBM Planning Analytics include that the software helps us in doing budget planning.

Some of the valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics are its intuitive and user-friendly interface, reporting output and scheduling, access control and security, and mobile capabilities.

IBM Planning Analytics has positively impacted my organization as we have noticed specific improvements since we started using it. We are able to forecast the budget for the entire year with significant time savings. All the complex data is easily processed, and with Excel add functionality, it is easier to have all the data in one place, which can be read by pivot or data visualization. The data protection protocols are well set up. Planning efficiency is very good as we can seamlessly plan and work on all budgets on time.

By using IBM Planning Analytics, we have been able to automate manual processes, where we have saved time, especially through automating dashboards. It has also increased the activity of the planning team and provided us with ad hoc reporting capabilities.

IBM Planning Analytics could be improved by simplifying the learning curve, as it requires a lot of time to learn and master it. The advanced features are somewhat complex to understand, and if the data set is very large, it takes a lot of time to process, which causes performance to become slower. The initial upfront cost, including the license cost, is somewhat high.

IBM Planning Analytics lags behind a little in performance compared to our BI tools.

I have been using IBM Planning Analytics for two years.

IBM Planning Analytics is stable because the reason we switched from IBM Cognos is that IBM Planning Analytics capability allows us to connect to multiple tools, which we could not do before.

IBM Planning Analytics has handled my organization's growth appropriately in terms of scalability.

The customer support for IBM Planning Analytics is very responsive. The few times that I have reached them, they have been very dedicated and provided top-notch solutions.

Negative

Before, we were using IBM Cognos Analytics.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for IBM Planning Analytics is that the pricing and licensing cost can be somewhat on the higher side, especially for small organizations. However, the setup was straightforward and easy with no significant difficulties.

Before choosing IBM Planning Analytics, I evaluated Anaplan as another option.

When I mention significant time saving with IBM Planning Analytics, we have been able to save approximately 50 to 60 percent of our time compared to the previous tool that we were using to forecast and analyze our budgets in my organization.

My advice to others looking into using IBM Planning Analytics is that I highly recommend it because I think it is well-suited for fast financial modeling of offline processes, though it may not be great for huge data volumes.

IBM Planning Analytics is a powerful tool because it has real-time calculations and can aggregate data to the top of the house. I give this product a rating of 8 out of 10.

I make sure that developments inside are matching our end user needs. I check monitoring and assist newcomers in developments. TM1 is not used as a reporting database. We elaborate the budget inside, extract data, and make it available through different tools. 

We use it for planning all the costs and budgets for production parts in our company. TM1 is mainly used by the financial controlling department, and they use Excel directly connected to TM1 to make their dashboards.

TM1 is primarily used for planning functions. We use it to manage and plan costs and budgets for production parts within the manufacturing department. TM1 is used for calculating and elaborating our budget, which is time-consuming. Its stability helps controllers win time in their planning processes. This level of stability is crucial for a product like Cognos TM1, as using an unstable platform would result in loss of time.

Since I'm using TM1 as an old version of Planning Analytics, it wouldn't be fair to specify what needs improvement because it's possible these issues have already been addressed in newer versions. If we talk only about the TM1 engine, it's quite rich and possibly too rich, making it complex to perform simple tasks. 

The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to. This complexity makes it hard to maintain and evolve developments.

I have been using TM1 since 2012 and have overall experience since 2007 for Cognos Analytics.

TM1 is quite stable and I would rate its stability as an eight out of ten. This stability is really important as we use it for budget calculation, which is time-consuming. A stable platform prevents loss of time during this process.

Scalability is quite hard to implement in TM1, largely since the on-premise installation chosen back in 2014. On a scale, I'd rate scalability at four, out of ten. It's difficult.

Support is generally good. We have a multi-level support system, with the initial level handled by the company we bought the license from and subsequent support from IBM. I rate this support at a seven out of ten.

Neutral

TM1 is not easy to implement. Based on my observations, I'd rate the initial setup between a five or six out of ten.

TM1 is quite expensive, and I'd rate the pricing as an eight out of ten. While we do get what we want in terms of functionalities and compatibility with other IBM tools, given the product's old architecture and interface, they need to make it more affordable.

Comparing it to newer solutions like SAP Analytics Cloud, TM1 is more expensive and harder to implement. Overall, I rate TM1 as a six out of ten.

Neutral

I use the solution in my company for our company's budgeting process; IBM Planning Analytics is used every year to manage different scenarios based on the needs of the users. The finance managers in our company use the product to change 90 percent of the budget processes and cash flows, along with some forecasting purposes.

The local authentication part is difficult to manage in the product, making it an area where improvements are required.

I have been using IBM Planning Analytics for six years. My company has a partnership with IBM.

The product's stability is good.

The scalability is very useful. Previously, in my company, we used IBM Cognos and IBM Accelerator, but presently, we use IBM Planning Analytics, which is a very useful tool compared with the past products we used.

I am satisfied with IBM's support. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

The product is easy to deploy. The configuration of the authentication part with the tool is difficult. When I tried to integrate IBM Planning Analytics with LDAP, the configuration changed, so the config file changed. The integrations and certain syncs are sometimes difficult to match and authenticate.

The licensing part of the product is good. Every year, there is a need to renew the license. My company also uses multiple functionalities offered under IBM Cognos Analytics for ETL-related purposes. Compared to the regular licenses offered, the licensing model of IBM Planning Analytics is good. Compared with the other tools in the market, IBM Planning Analytics is a bit expensive.

The product has improved our company's forecasting accuracy since it serves as a very useful tool for our sales and controller teams as they easily get to enter the inputs using views in TM1, which gets loaded into our main database. If there are sales team members in different parts of the world, like in Hong Kong and Singapore, they may prefer to use IBM Planning Analytics, which is easy to use when compared to the Excel tool.

Speaking about planning analytics and data analysis, I would say that our company used to use IBM Cognos Analytics for reporting, where we used to use Cognos Dynamic Cubes so that users can easily use its drag and drop features while getting to see the data for which the users had to wait for two to three minutes prior to its use. In our company, tons of data are loaded into the memory, and users can use Cognos Dynamic Cubes to analyze data and understand it.

The AI capabilities of IBM have benefited our planning strategy as they are very useful for business. The tool allows the easy creation of dashboard reports using AI capabilities. No technical knowledge is required for business use cases.

It is possible to integrate the product in scenarios where some new integrations are available. I remember that my company used Azure Data Factory to connect Azure, Oracle, and IBM WebSphere Application Server.

When it comes to IBM Planning Analytics, it is complex to integrate it with LDAP and or any other authentication tool offered by Microsoft. In our company, some users like to integrate IBM Planning Analytics with the common LDAP or Microsoft AD, which we currently use for all our applications. The authentication part is difficult to configure with IBM Planning Analytics.

The maintenance of the product is easy. My company has scheduled maintenance on the product every week, especially during forecast times, so that memories automatically lapse and users can freely access their servers.

The use of the tool has had an impact on collaboration within our company's planning team since everyone knows how to easily access the data and publish the results.

I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.

I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

I mostly use it for planning, reporting, and forecasting systems.

The customers make use of it to improve their budgeting and forecasting activities. They can make it more rapid and can forecast more frequently.

The scenario modeling capabilities in IBM Planning Analytics have impacted the customer's planning processes. It's frequently used to create different scenarios, compare them, and see which action leads to which result.

The speed of calculation, the ability to build complex models, integration with different data sources, and the flexibility to use Planning Analytics Workspace or create other front ends with REST API and JavaScript React.

The workspace API should be improved and documented so we know better which objects and tier-one objects are used.

We have been working with IBM Planning Analytics for 30 years now. We always work with the latest version. 

I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

The stability of IBM Planning Analytics has been beneficial. Otherwise, they wouldn't use it anymore. 

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. You can have a solution for a single user and a single task, or you can have a solution for thousands of users with ten thousand tasks.

Most of our customers are medium to enterprise businesses. 

Smaller customers cannot afford a long development time.  

The customer service and support could be improved. They could sometimes go more directly to the real problem and not provide obvious things that we have already tested. So we lose time during this process.

Positive

It's easy to set up. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy to set up.

We had a bug in computation a long time ago, but that was solved. Normally, we can rely on the computations being correct.

It is mostly deployed on-premises. 

Deployment time:

The initial setup is quite fast, but the system grows and gets more complex over time. Planning Analytics is not a ready-made product; you develop it with the customers based on their specific needs. So from the beginning to the first use, it takes four to six months. If you start from scratch, it can take longer. But if the customer buys pre-designed modules, it's faster.

So the most time it can take is up to six months, if you start from scratch. If the customer buys already designed modules, you're faster.

Deployment process:

We always have a development, test, and quality assurance system, and then a production system. 

We have continuous development and deployment for projects that run for two to three years because the customer develops a huge, complex planning and reporting solution. So it doesn't stop after installation. It's not like an app that is ready to use after installation.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

My recommendation:

Check for a solution that is similar to your needs because it's not easy to understand how it works sometimes. If you see a similar solution, you can easily compare. Every year, there's a big conference where customer solutions are shown to other customers.

So it's really important to have resources who have knowledge of the product.

The main customers and use cases for Planning Analytics are large companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, typically with more than 2,000 employees.

The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized, similar to Microsoft Excel but with the advantage of centralized data storage. Another essential feature is sandboxing, allowing extensive analysis and testing without affecting core data. Additionally, the workflow functionality enables locking and approval processes for calculations and formulas, providing enhanced management control and collaboration compared to Microsoft Azure.

To improve IBM Planning Analytics, adding predefined templates could be beneficial. These templates could cover various business areas like volume planning, service levels, and more. Specific templates for functions such as sourcing based on criteria like minimum order quantity and stock levels would also be helpful. Additionally, having templates for P&Ls and cash flow could enhance usability.

I have been using Planning Analytics for about a year.

I would rate the stability of IBM Planning Analytics as a nine out of ten.

The product is highly scalable. Our customers for IBM Planning Analytics are mainly large enterprise businesses, typically with two thousand employees or more.

I would rate IBM's technical support as a seven out of ten. They could be a little faster.

Neutral

Setting up IBM Planning Analytics can vary depending on client expectations and needs. For someone covering just one area, it might be relatively easy. I would rate the setup at around a six out of ten in terms of ease.

The deployment duration for IBM Planning Analytics varies greatly depending on each client's needs and complexity. It can range from a minimum of one month to a maximum of one year.

Customers see ROI with IBM Planning Analytics. It improves internal processes, reducing the need for extensive control departments and resulting in operational cost savings. More importantly, it enhances predictability in business and provides better insights into the potential impacts and implications of decisions.

The cost of IBM Planning Analytics is not cheap, considering the amount of money involved. However, it offers good ROI for customers.

IBM Planning Analytics is used for cross-departmental planning and forecasting by our customers. Different versions of the planning can be used, such as budgets and projections based on monthly results. The system keeps all historical data and tracks the development from projected numbers.

IBM Planning Analytics supports compliance and risk management within financial operations. It enables the calculation of impacts, such as increased interest rates, across various business areas. The effectiveness of risk management depends on the system setup and how risks are defined by the company.

In financial planning, IBM Planning Analytics aligns with current trends, including the use of AI and leveraging unstructured data. It is capable of handling large amounts of diverse data types. While it is unclear if IBM fully incorporates AI, it likely follows the trend as many companies do.

Before using Planning Analytics by IBM, consider your planning process and how it can be simplified. Understand that the system won't solve all issues on its own. 

Overall, I would rate IBM Planning Analytics as a nine out of ten.

We use the solution for testing and budgeting. 

The tool is flexible. 

The tool should include features for prediction. It can also improve the scalability. 

I have been working with the product for ten years. 

I would rate the product's scalability an eight out of ten.

I would rate the product's scalability a seven out of ten. 

The solution's setup takes six to eight months to complete. I would rate the product's setup an eight out of ten. 

I would rate  the tool's pricing a nine out of ten since it's expensive. 

We have enterprise customers for the solution. You can use the solution if you are looking for a flexible product. It's flexible to adapt to any business model or industry. 

I use Planning Analytics for sales and commercial planning schemes and monthly and quarterly forecasts for cash and budgets.

Planning Analytics' best features include automatic updates and slicing.

Planning Analytics could be improved by adding automation features.

I've been using Planning Analytics for four years.

Planning Analytics is stable.

Planning Analytics is easy to scale.

The initial setup was easy.

We used an in-house team.

I would recommend Planning Analytics to other users as it's user-friendly, accessible, and flexible. I'd give it a rating of nine out of ten.