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IBM Planning Analytics vs Looker Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Planning Analytics
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (3rd)
Looker Studio
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (13th)
 

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 9.8%, up 7.4% compared to last year.
Looker Studio, on the other hand, focuses on Reporting, holds 2.4% mindshare, down 2.8% since last year.
Business Performance Management
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Arnold Steffens - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 3, 2024
Offers speed of calculation, the ability to build complex models and integration with different data sources
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.
Srini-Dhanaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
May 28, 2024
Available for free and can help businesses resolve their data migration problems
It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. Google Data Studio is a cloud-based tool. With cloud-based tools, there can be two challenges, the first one being associated with the bandwidth of your data strength. If I run a report from my home because of the wi-fi connection, it may give an excellent response. When I run the reports, Google Data Studio develops reports from my home, and because of wi-fi, it works in an excellent manner. When I am on the road or at the wheel, if I use the internet data from my mobile to browse my reports, the performance may not be good, and this issue is not because of the product but because of the bandwidth. The second issue arises when you connect Google Data Studio to a source system to extract the data to do the visualization. If the source system is not responding as quickly as expected, it could be the reason why the report may be printed slowly. Considering the aforementioned aspects, the problem may not be because of Google Data Studio but because of the source system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized."
"IBM Planning Analytics is easy to use and deploy. It is quick to develop. The calculation machine is also very fast."
"A lot of the platform is in-memory, so Planning Analytics can run calculations quite fast. It also offers several user interfaces. And in the newest version of Planning Analytics, there is a new one called the Planning Analytics Workspace. Maybe it could be useful for the business side."
"Navigating through the data to make analysis is really quick."
"The product's stability is good."
"The flexibility of IBM Planning Analytics is a great feature of this solution. The design flexibility with data rules and defining calculations The ability to combine online and offline calculations are a benefit. Additionally, the forecasting features and predictive analytics is very good."
"The most valuable feature is that it is able to slice and dice the data."
"It's a very stable, robust product."
"The ability to design complex data models and equations."
"I find it favorable regarding speed of development, ease of building, and flexibility."
"The solution is free so that is a good feature."
"The best thing about the tool is that it allows you to share information easily and dashboards with colleagues and teammates because it's all online. No matter where you are, as long as you have the Internet, you can connect and use these dashboards. Google made good documentation for this tool. There are many examples of how to use and create dashboards and videos on YouTube. So, I think it's easy to learn."
"The ability to integrate with a great variety of data sources."
"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."
"I am impressed with the tool's scheduling mechanism, refresh mechanism, and different types of charts."
"This has improved our organization by allowing people to see their data and develop visualizations themselves."
 

Cons

"The tool should include features for prediction. It can also improve the scalability."
"Extracting data is a little slow."
"The new frontend Planning Analytics Workspace is not very good, it could be improved. I like the Planning Analytics functionality but it would be helpful if it could be more customizable. You can create a prediction and receive information but you cannot do feature engineering regarding the predictive models. If this was added it would be helpful."
"It is a bit expensive, but it does the job."
"The dashboard is very poor and needs a lot of improvement."
"It's highly competitive right now, and all the vendors are in a race to put out new versions with additional features. IBM comes out with new versions too often, and it has an impact on quality."
"It's wonky, and not super user-friendly with Excel."
"Planning Analytics could be improved by adding automation features."
"The challenges with Google Data Studio are associated with the security part, making it an area where improvements are required."
"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."
"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."
"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."
"Panels are not as easy to use as other data extraction UIs."
"It's not yet a replacement for a complete BI tool."
"Stability and scalability an be improved for a full ten."
"When you physically install a product on one machine instead of the cloud, you have a better visibility, best icon quality, etc.. It's more of an issue with how we are adapting to the transition. We are still in the early moments of using this tool, and we need to go deeper to discover some improvements."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Planning Analytics is not the cheapest solution, but it's priced per the market standard for this type of solution. I rate the price at seven out of ten."
"Compared with the other tools in the market, IBM Planning Analytics is a bit expensive."
"I would rate the tool's pricing a nine out of ten since it's expensive."
"IBM Planning Analytics is priced well, and licensing costs are yearly."
"The license of this solution is paid annually. Most of my customers choose a license that includes support."
"It is a bit expensive, but you get what you are paying for."
"Our licensing cost is approximately $50,000.00 per year."
"The product is available for free."
"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."
"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."
"The tool is free."
"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
45%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
The cost of IBM Planning Analytics is not cheap, considering the amount of money involved. However, it offers good ROI for customers.
What needs improvement with IBM Planning Analytics?
The workspace API should be improved and documented so we know better which objects and tier-one objects are used.
What do you like most about Google Data Studio?
The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, all...
What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?
The tool has a lot of room for improvement. It's not very professional and allows for only simple tasks like indicating KPIs or quick calculations. It lacks a good calculation-based language like P...
What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?
The solution is a visualization tool that helps to make dashboards.
 

Also Known As

Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos TM1
Data Studio
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

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
Genesys, Shueisha
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: September 2024.
802,829 professionals have used our research since 2012.