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IBM Planning Analytics pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
4.2 out of 5
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4,876 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM Planning Analytics offers extensive data slicing and dicing capabilities, facilitating quick data navigation and analysis.
Its integration with different platforms and Excel spreadsheets enhances functionality and ease of use.
The platform's robust and stable performance streamlines planning processes with centralized data management.
Its scenario modeling capabilities allow users to create and compare different scenarios effectively.
The flexible design with data rules and calculation definition supports both online and offline computations.

CONS

IBM Planning Analytics could be more user-friendly, as it is considered wonky and complex to perform simple tasks.
Data extraction is a little slow, impacting productivity.
The tool lacks features for feature engineering in predictive models, which limits its customization options.
IBM frequently releases new versions, which can impact the quality of the tool.
The tool should improve its transport layer for better development environment promotion and scalability is difficult to implement, rating only four out of ten.
 

IBM Planning Analytics Pros review quotes

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2024
The product's stability is good.
Arnold Steffens - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 3, 2024
The scenario modeling capabilities are frequently used to create different scenarios, compare them, and see which action leads to which result.
Milan Orendac - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 22, 2024
The most valuable features of IBM Planning Analytics for streamlining planning processes include a unified database where all data are centralized.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Planning Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1517922 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 10, 2025
This level of stability is crucial for a product like Cognos TM1, as using an unstable platform would result in loss of time.
reviewer890292 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 5, 2021
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.
Dirk Boeckmann - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 2, 2022
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.
reviewer1484589 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 25, 2021
Navigating through the data to make analysis is really quick.
SO
Feb 8, 2022
The ease of use is valuable. The fact that it's plugged into Excel spreadsheets is also valuable. It provides additional functionality where you can slice and dice the information in a way that you can't do with spreadsheets
reviewer1375443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 12, 2020
The most valuable feature is that it is able to slice and dice the data.
VM
Apr 14, 2023
It's a very stable, robust product.
 

IBM Planning Analytics Cons review quotes

Gnanavel-Chakkarapani - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2024
The local authentication part is difficult to manage in the product, making it an area where improvements are required.
Arnold Steffens - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 3, 2024
The workspace API should be improved and documented so we know better which objects are used.
Milan Orendac - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 22, 2024
Adding predefined templates could be beneficial.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Planning Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1517922 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 10, 2025
If we talk only about the TM1 engine, it's quite rich and possibly too rich, making it complex to perform simple tasks.
reviewer890292 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 5, 2021
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.
Dirk Boeckmann - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 2, 2022
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.
reviewer1484589 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 25, 2021
It would have been better if the solution was not just a tool kit.
SO
Feb 8, 2022
It is a bit expensive, but it does the job.
reviewer1375443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 12, 2020
It's wonky, and not super user-friendly with Excel.
VM
Apr 14, 2023
The dashboard is very poor and needs a lot of improvement.