IBM Planning Analytics vs Pyramid Analytics comparison

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IBM Planning Analytics

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Planning Analytics and Pyramid Analytics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

7.3

IBM Planning Analytics enhances budgeting efficiency and decision-making, providing cost savings and business insights despite pricing concerns.

Sentiment score

8.0

Finance teams achieve high ROI with Pyramid Analytics, achieving 80% forecast accuracy, benefiting resource planning and data investments.

I have seen a return on investment, as the accuracy has really improved in my organization since everything is automated.

Sai Tilak

Team Lead Manager at Finlays

Since using this tool, I can now make decisions faster, even when there is just a small change in the data.

Gladys Njeri

Key Account Manager at DHL

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

There is a positive return on the data investment for my clients using Pyramid Analytics.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.0

IBM Planning Analytics support is generally rated well, though some users report slow response times and seek third-party help.

Sentiment score

8.0

Pyramid Analytics offers highly rated support with quick issue resolution, though some users desire more training materials.

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.

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Instead, we rely on third-party partners recognized by IBM, who provide cost-effective support.

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

They have been very dedicated and provided top-notch solutions.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

The one time we had an issue related to something with the logins, they addressed it that morning.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

IBM Planning Analytics is highly scalable, efficiently handling large data sizes and users, despite potential SaaS costs per user.

Sentiment score

7.1

Pyramid Analytics excels in scalability, supporting diverse data sizes and user numbers, with users rating its integration and performance highly.

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.

Sai Tilak

Team Lead Manager at Finlays

Scalability is quite hard to implement in TM1, largely since the on-premise installation chosen back in 2014.

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

Scalability is straightforward but it is pricey since it's a SaaS model priced per user.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Regarding Pyramid Analytics' scalability from what I have seen, with the right people managing it, it can handle growing amounts of data and users well.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

IBM Planning Analytics is highly stable, reliable, favored for forecasting, with minor issues related to configuration changes or server shutdowns.

Sentiment score

6.3

Pyramid Analytics' stability varies by user, improving with infrastructure upgrades, with occasional bugs not severely impacting operations.

The performance of IBM Planning Analytics has always been fast and reliable for my needs, even when dealing with huge volumes of data.

Gladys Njeri

Key Account Manager at DHL

This stability is really important as we use it for budget calculation, which is time-consuming.

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Pyramid Analytics is stable in my experience; there have not really been issues with downtime or bugs.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

Room For Improvement

IBM Planning Analytics needs better integration, enhanced visuals, simplified interface, stable data extraction, and improved pricing and release management.

Pyramid Analytics requires enhancements in data management, user interface, documentation, graphic capabilities, and offers limited training resources.

The abundance of features results in complexity, requiring strict guidelines for developers to ensure simplistic approaches are adhered to.

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

IBM's visualization needs significant improvement.

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Any advanced user wants to implement an idea that they have, and while the whole idea of a platform is not necessarily to give a custom solution, I would not mind if they had more in terms of AutoML or that sort of capability.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

Setup Cost

IBM Planning Analytics is considered fairly priced, though setup costs are high, with potentially advantageous negotiation options for larger projects.

Pyramid Analytics offers reasonable licensing costs, cost-effective for mid-sized or larger organizations, but may incur additional consulting fees.

TM1 is quite expensive, and I'd rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

While IBM's solutions were costly before, the introduction of SaaS models has reduced prices significantly.

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

Valuable Features

IBM Planning Analytics enhances decision-making with flexibility, real-time calculations, Excel integration, and AI-driven scenario analysis and automation.

Pyramid Analytics enhances data analysis with advanced features, supporting complex datasets for comprehensive financial reporting and data-driven decisions.

Its stability helps controllers win time in their planning processes.

Responsable B.I at a retailer with 51-200 employees

It also integrates machine learning and AI engines, enabling us to use algorithms for inventory forecasting which optimizes our inventory and replenishment rates.

Financial Performance Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the IBM Planning Analytics report

Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

After implementing Pyramid Analytics for my clients, I have seen measurable outcomes and specific improvements, such as having a single platform that gets them from the raw data to the endpoint reporting.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pyramid Analytics report

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

Categories and Ranking

IBM Planning Analytics

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Performance Management (4th)

Pyramid Analytics

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (20th), Data Visualization (15th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Planning Analytics is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 4.5%, down 9.1% compared to last year.
Pyramid Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 1.0% mindshare, up 0.7% since last year.

Business Performance Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Planning Analytics	4.5%
Anaplan	6.9%
CCH Tagetik	5.1%
Other	83.5%

Business Performance Management

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Pyramid Analytics	1.0%
Microsoft Power BI	8.9%
Tableau Enterprise	6.2%
Other	83.9%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Gladys Njeri

Key Account Manager at DHL

Data-driven planning has transformed financial decisions and now saves major reporting time

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.

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Unified data workflows have improved reporting quality and now support better decisions

CEO & Principal Consultant at Pyramid Analytics & Consulting

The best features Pyramid Analytics offers include a broad range of features, which I think is one of the advantages of it. It has a lot of connectors and a lot of different capabilities. I would say end-to-end capabilities is one of the nice features of it. Regarding the end-to-end capabilities and lots of connectors, I found the connectors most valuable. If you are trying to do Snowflake, SQL server, or any of the normal database platforms that you see in the cloud or on-premises, it has those connectors built in. You don't have to worry about writing custom drivers. That is a nice feature to have. Pyramid Analytics has impacted my organization positively in that I use it for my clients' organizations. For my organization, it is great because it gives me a technology platform that clients enjoy using and I am proficient with. For my clients, it is about delivering on their aspirations in terms of what they want to do with their data and where they want to head in their organization. This is definitely a tool that we can use in order to get there. After implementing Pyramid Analytics for my clients, I have seen measurable outcomes and specific improvements, such as having a single platform that gets them from the raw data to the endpoint reporting. I think that streamlining has a positive effect on the quality of the outputs. The quality of the outputs definitely leads to better decision making.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Retailer

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Planning Analytics?

The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Planning Analytics?

While IBM's solutions were costly before, the introduction of SaaS models has reduced prices significantly. Comparatively, IBM rates may be better than those of competitors, such as Hyperion ( /pro...

What needs improvement with IBM Planning Analytics?

IBM is behind competitors like Tableau ( /products/tableau-reviews ) and Power BI in terms of visualization. Their visuals are less innovative and practical with fewer varieties. IBM's visualizatio...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pyramid Analytics?

Regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Pyramid Analytics, I have to be honest, I did not observe any of it. They already had the platform in place when I got there. Fro...

What needs improvement with Pyramid Analytics?

As for how Pyramid Analytics can be improved, I wish that there was a greater degree of customization available. Any advanced user wants to implement an idea that they have, and while the whole ide...

What is your primary use case for Pyramid Analytics?

I have used Pyramid Analytics at a few different projects. I used it at the VA, at the Department of Health and Human Services, and on a couple smaller projects for some smaller customers that were...

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Planning Analytics

Comparisons

Compared 13% of the time

SAP Analytics Cloud vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 12% of the time

Anaplan vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Cognos vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Planning Analytics

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Planning Analytics Competitors

Microsoft Power BI vs Pyramid Analytics

Compared 20% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Pyramid Analytics

Compared 10% of the time

Apache Superset vs Pyramid Analytics

Compared 10% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Pyramid Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

ThoughtSpot vs Pyramid Analytics

Compared 7% of the time

More Pyramid Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

IBM Planning Analytics

Download IBM Planning Analytics product report

Download Pyramid Analytics product report

Also Known As

Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos TM1

No data available

Overview

IBM Planning Analytics is an integrated planning solution that uses AI to automate planning, budgeting, and forecasting and drive more intelligent workflows.

Built on TM1, IBM’s powerful calculation engine, this enterprise performance management tool allows you to transcend the limits of manual planning and become the Analytics Hero your business needs. Quickly and easily drive faster, more accurate plans for FP&A, sales, supply chain and beyond.

IBM

The BI Office from Pyramid Analytics is a web-based governed data discovery and analytics platform. It integrates the four principal functions of any comprehensive BI strategy into a single, seamless application. Users can now analyze, present, report and predict on their data in a single application. Pyramid Analytics has native apps to cover the entire mobile spectrum, iOS, Android and Windows. With BI Office users can integrate SAP data with data from other sources giving them the right tools and better data to make data-driven decisions.

Sample Customers

ManpowerGroup, Convergys, AIG, Orchard Brands, Citibank, InterGen, Northwestern University, EF Education First, Ironside, Bazan Group, CSOB Insurance, Macquarie Group, Charles Stanley, SATO, Government of Sint Maarten, BMW Financial Services

US Department of Veterans Affair, Volkswagen, Siemens, Blackboard, Hallmark, Orange, CDW, LA Fitness, Atelier GS, Memorial Healthcare, Acadia Insurance, BancoBic, Advanced Learning, Microsoft, Drake University

Business Performance Management