IBM Planning Analytics Reviews

The most valuable features are the TM1 Perspective client and the storage of data with write-back ability. Since most businesses are familiar with Excel, they are easily able to use this tool. Also, calculations are faster compared to any other tool for quick forecasting and budgeting.

This tool is able to promptly consolidate all business unit data for enterprise-view and understand the area of improvement, instead of a traditional Excel-based disparate solution.

Data visualization and development interface are areas which need to be worked on.

Improvement in data visualization
Currently in TM1, web and perspective data is visualized with limited dashboarding capability and also for creating fancy reports for top management. There is a need for incorporation of functionalities similar to QlikView or Tableau solutions.

Improvement in development interface
In TM1, the conventional development interface of process and rules are not development friendly, thus reducing productivity. I would suggest to have functionalities similar to that of Java development with Eclipse, auto population of functions and validations, etc.

We have used this solution for around more than 10 years.

It is one of the stable tools available for forecasting and budgeting.

I have not encountered any scalability issues. Since this tool is in-memory based, it also vastly depends on the hardware infrastructure capability, especially the RAM.

Moderate level of support is required for this tool. Business individuals can perform some of the activity themselves, provided they are equipped with necessary access and appropriate solutions during initial training.

Previously, multiple Excel sheets were used by us. We not only found it difficult to consolidate but also calculations were not centralized and had no security around the data. However, TM1 provides centralized data in a secured manner and calculations are done on the fly without any delay.

The initial setup was straightforward. IBM provides a license based on the requirement and infrastructure, which need to be provisioned as per estimated size of the model.

The pricing policy depends on your requirement and IBM provides an entire range of options as per the need.

Tool evaluation has been done based on the requirement and capability of the tool. TM1 is the best capable tool to satisfy most of our requirements.

For forecast, budgeting and reporting financial data, TM1 is the best tool in the market. So, I would say that it would be wise to proceed with this tool in any organization for improvised end results.

• Flexible: You can do almost anything you want
• Can be combined with other software
• Calculates values
• Decides who can write and read the values
• Can be used to design your reports, almost exactly as you want
• Can be used to plan/analyze/report anything. If you miss some stuff, you can program it and combine it with TM1.

I don't think there are many tools out there that are as flexible as this solution.

The surface design needs to be improved. The disadvantage is the old-fashioned surface of IBM Cognos TM1.

I would like to see a more modern design for IBM Cognos TM1 Perspectives/Architect. It is not as modern as some of the other products with which you can do your analysis and planning.

I have used this solution for several years.

The last version,10.1, was not really stable at the beginning. However, the latest version is fine.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

The technical support is okay. You can also find lots of answers in different forums on the internet.

We were not using any other solution previously.

The initial setup was not complex.

I personally have not evaluated other options. However, my company has looked at other solutions.

It is the best solution you can have. However, you have to know what you need for sure and what you want to do with the tool.

Every product is established for some special needs. It depends on what you need. You can choose the right tool accordingly.

It provides all the required functionalities for Financial Performance Management, such as planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation and dimensional reporting and analysis.

TM1 is actually a modeling tool that allows us create our own customized budgeting, planning and reporting solutions.

We have been using this software to implement solutions in many different areas of business.

For example, in budget applications, it helps a lot in running the budgeting process properly. All budget inputs, calculations, submissions, reporting and analysis during the budgeting process are handled with TM1 properly.

The CAFE Excel plug-in needs to be improved to handle all the features of older TM1 Perspectives plug-in for Excel.

CAFE is an Excel add-in that allows interacting with TM1 data from within Excel, especially for generating Excel-based reports out of TM1 data. It is actually called IBM Cognos Analysis For Excel, but usually referred to as IBM Cognos CAFE. It comes with TM1. For the same purpose, we have been using IBM Cognos Perspectives for Excel for many years. CAFE is a newer tool than Perspectives, and it needs to be improved to cover some of the functionalities that already exist in Perspectives.

We know that IBM is already working on improving CAFE. In the upcoming release, probably, we will see a lot better functionality in CAFE.

We have been using it for the last seven years, since version 9.4.

It is a very stable software product; no major stability issues.

Scalability is the best feature of TM1; it is highly scalable. As the data and model grow, all we need to do is to keep the HW aligned with the increasing size of the model.

All technical support information is available by Google search, but for new issues, IBM provides a good level of remote support.

Prior to TM1, we had been using IBM Cognos Planning.

TM1 is a lot more scalable than IBM Cognos Planning. IBM Cognos Planning is only an Enterprise Planning tool. However, TM1 is also an OLAP reporting and analysis tool, in addition to being an enterprise planning tool. TM1 provides more capabilities for customization.

TM1 is not a packaged application. It is an application development platform and toolset for performance management. Hence, you need to do a good implementation project to get an application built based on your requirements. Therefore, it is important to work with people with the proper technical skills and business knowledge. Technical installation of the platform was relatively straightforward.

For companies that require less than 50 users in TM1, it might be better to get IBM Cognos Express PM licenses. If you require more users, then you might need to get IBM Cognos PM licenses. There is also an unlimited user licensing model, which is based on server PVUs.

I recommend making a proper requirement analysis and model design before start developing models with TM1.

In your first implementation of TM1, it is very important to work with experienced TM1 developers.

It is better to choose TM1 consultants with both technical and financial skills and knowledge.

This software uses in-memory processing, so performance is a strength, as are the flexibility to make development changes and the facility to learn the programming language.

I work at a company that implements this software for a lot of clients. The clearest improvement is that, after the implementation, the clients have a lot of more time to analysis their results and make strategic decisions, as opposed to wasting time creating operation jobs.

I think the software front-end on Cognos Contributor should be developed further to provide the final user with a better and clear design. The view where the user makes inputs and analyses data is not user-friendly.

I’ve been using it for four years.

I have some problems with a few clients. I contact the vendor support, and in some cases I have experienced some difficulty getting a quick resolution.

I have not encountered any scalability issues. I have the biggest server operating in a client with IBM Cognos. We have never had a big issue with scalability.

On a scale from 0-10, I rate technical support 7. I have had some problems, but in general, my issues have been resolved quickly.

I did not previously use a different solution.

It was a little complicated to implement a proper setup that ensures future performance and prevents issues. It takes some time to gain enough implementation experience with different environments.

You have to negotiate to have some advantage, but with more clients, you are in a better position to negotiate.

For most clients, they evaluate other similar software, but in general this software has more flexibility to make changes and adapt their business rules to the tool.

Have employees participate in a lifecycle project, to learn and understand all the power the software can provide the company. In some cases, the clients are not focused during participation and at the end, they lose the opportunity to use all the functionalities the tool can provide.

This product is entirely designable and flexible, you can answer to very complex requirements.

Cognos TM1 is particularly adapted to Budget planning. You can input data and comments easily. Real time calculation, TM1 calculate reports in real time, each time you refresh it. Ownership: one of the goal of this product is that end users like CFO's can make modifications (model, business rules, etc.) without the help of the IT.

As a consultant I implemented this product in many organizations, mainly in finance departments. Their reporting and budgeting processes were improved at several levels: Time saving to produce the reports, budget/forecast cycle shortened from quarters to months, access and security of data and more. Many improvements can be gained from this process automation.

The product need to be more integrated. It is easy to be lost in all the Cognos suite and to make them communicate/connect it to TM1, and the pricing is too complex too.  

TM1 is a bit expensive, especially for small companies who shoud look more at products like Jedox or Tableau etc.. Who propose all in 1 products with good looking vizualisation components

TM1 need to automate more things like feeders.  When you write a business rule in TM1, you also have to write another rule called “feeders” to tell TM1 where to do the calculation. But it appears to be difficult to automatize for IBM engineers. 

6 years

As with all IT projects we encountered several issues: servers not received in time, users workstations configuration not ready for Cognos TM1, lack of communication around the project. I don’t remember any issue caused by the product itself.

Cognos TM1 can be sensible to changes of configurations. Sometimes it implies several files and services on the user workstation (Excel, web, ISS). You need to remember the technical requirements of the product before your change something if you don’t want to have some bad surprises.

One of the advantages of TM1 is it's adaptability and it's capacity to calculate a lot of data in real time. The issues you can encounter with this kind of product will be mainly due to a problem of design of TM1 database. With the experience you learn how to design your model flexible enough to resist to any scalability issues.

I created a model with Qlikview at its early beginning in France. But it was more adapted to simple data/KPI visualization than budget planning with complex business rules which are the main parts of my projects.

For me the first times was a little complex, management and finance are more my specialty than IT. I had to learn how to install the product and what to ask IT to prepare the installation.

Most of the setup cost come from the consulting charges, around 130, 000 euros for a 6 months project. After you add the cost of the TM1 licenses, not so expensive, depends of the number and type of users.

I did a comparative study between Qlikview, Cognos TM1, and Microsoft BI several years ago for a one of the world leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. QliKview was more “sexy” than the others products but couldn’t match with all the business requirements, and Microsoft BI was not flexible enough.

Before implementing this kind of product you have to make sure that it matches with your needs. Its unnecessary to implement such a product to replace 2 or 3 reports on Excel. Then for implementation, look for experienced TM1 professionals, which have successfully implemented this tool several times and with almost the same needs.

IBM Cognos TM1 is an enterprise planning software platform that can transform the planning cycle, from target setting and budgeting to reporting, score carding, analysis and forecasting. Available as an on-premise or on-cloud solution, and with extensive mobile capabilities, Cognos TM1 enables you to collaborate on plans, budgets and forecasts. You can analyze data, and create models to reflect a constantly evolving business environment

In terms finance the return on investment (ROI) can be increased. What-if analysis and business modeling options which users can run without IT involvement

• Pulling data from planning crashes very often. if this can be stabilized in next version that would be great
• Include a performance modeller feature at architect level
• Automation of feeders
• Cognos reporting modules can be improved to be more intuitive, and interactive like QlikView. And more generally, I think the BI solution's data visualizations based on maps are too poor, they should improve it by interfacing their product with Google maps for example

The unlimited licensing is valuable.

I would strongly recommend to go with TM1 Enterprise in terms of stability, scalability and performance.