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IBM Planning Analytics vs SAS Visual Analytics 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 (4th)
SAS Visual Analytics
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (9th)
 

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 9.6%, up 8.3% compared to last year.
SAS Visual Analytics, on the other hand, focuses on Data Visualization, holds 5.2% mindshare, down 7.1% since last year.
Business Performance Management
Data Visualization
 

Featured Reviews

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2024
Can easily create dashboards and helps businesses improve forecasting accuracy
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.
Robert Heck - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 10, 2022
A great solution for big organizations, complex business requirements, and highly sophisticated and specialized statistics
There are a few little things that are predefined and can be done out of the box immediately. There is no business intelligence application that is predefined, which is something some customers or prospects would love to have. Small and mid-sized companies would struggle with it because they prefer something standard that has been predefined by somebody else. For instance the system does not come with a pre-defined accounting, budgeting or planning model for a particular industry. Some competitors come with such a model (e.g. for retail companies) which makes the implementation of course easier if the customer can comproise with this predefined model. SAS does not provide such models but does not demand customers to comply with a foreign business model.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized."
"Planning Analytics' best features include automatic updates and slicing."
"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."
"All the different platforms are well integrated."
"It's a very stable, robust product."
"The most valuable feature is that it is able to slice and dice the data."
"It provided the capability to visualize a bunch of data in an organized way."
"The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps with quality assurance processes."
"The visualization capabilities and the email functionality are most beneficial."
"Simplifies report designs and quickly displays tables and graphs."
"Quick deployment to dashboards and analytics features (using SAS Visual Statistics and Enterprise Guide). Easy to create a simple forecast and discover business insights using segmentation tools."
"Data handling is one of the best features of SAS Visual Analytics."
"It's relatively simple to create basic dashboards and reports."
"It is a very stable solution."
 

Cons

"The workspace API should be improved and documented so we know better which objects are used."
"The tool should include features for prediction. It can also improve the scalability."
"Planning Analytics could be improved by adding automation features."
"The dashboard is very poor and needs a lot of improvement."
"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."
"The tool's transport layer could be improved when promoting development between environments."
"It's wonky, and not super user-friendly with Excel."
"Some capabilities are missing compared to Power BI, especially when working with spreadsheet types."
"The solution should improve its graphics."
"In Brazil, there are few documents, courses, and other resources for studying and implementing the tool."
"I haven't come across any missing features."
"The solution is a little weak at the front end."
"The charts and tables could use better sorting, primarily using other variables than the ones on the figure. If they could implement views like in the older version (previous to Viya), it would be very nice."
"The deployment isn't smooth. Deploying Visual Analytics on the cloud takes a lot of work, or you can use some providers that give you SAS as a service. For example, there is a provider called SaasNow. They host SAS Visual Analytics and the license. You can buy the license and deploy it there without the hassle of installation because deploying the software isn't easy."
"There are certain shortcomings in the tool's support services, making it an area where improvements are required."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared with the other tools in the market, IBM Planning Analytics is a bit expensive."
"IBM Planning Analytics is priced well, and licensing costs are yearly."
"Our licensing cost is approximately $50,000.00 per year."
"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."
"It is a bit expensive, but you get what you are paying for."
"I would rate the tool's pricing a nine out of ten since it's expensive."
"The license of this solution is paid annually. Most of my customers choose a license that includes support."
"$10,000 per annum for an enterprise license."
"I work with the tool's free version...The tool's corporate version is very expensive and requires a monthly hire."
"The product is quite expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"It was licensed for corporate use, and its licensing was on a yearly basis."
"Licensing is simple."
"SAS Visual Analytics is expensive, as is the rest of the platform."
"Visual Analytics is expensive for a small company like mine. You also need to deploy it on a server or cloud, so you pay for the license as well as the cost of the cloud or the server that you will deploy on."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
46%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
 

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 SAS Visual Analytics?
The most solution's notable aspect, in my view, is the ability to integrate various data sources and harness advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. This helps w...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Visual Analytics?
It's about an average of five. It's easy to scale, but it comes with cost.
What needs improvement with SAS Visual Analytics?
Some capabilities are missing compared to Power BI, especially when working with spreadsheet types. Furthermore, Excel is more customizable compared to SAS Visual Analytics, which can be quite rigi...
 

Also Known As

Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos TM1
SAS BI
 

Learn More

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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
Staples, Ausgrid, Scotiabank, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy, and Triad Analytics Solutions.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.