How to use IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

July 21, 2016

With the release of the IBM Planning Analytics, IBM has included a new reporting tool for TM1. Planning Analytics Workspace provides users with new ways to analyze data, plan and to access content. They can create books (e.g. Monthly Operating Results Book, Board Books, etc.) that allow them to organize and format your analysis along with:

Add TM1 views and web sheets to a book.
Slice and dice your data to change context, by nesting dimensions and by sorting and filtering on dimensions.
Add a number of different graphs (e.g. bar charts, heat maps and scatter plots) that dynamically reflect your source data views.
Create dynamic Dashboards that include graphs, views and web sheets to provide deep insight into your data at a glance.
Enter Plan data. You can enter data simply by typing in editable cells. You can also use a variety of data spreading shortcuts to speed up the data entry process.
Work in sandboxes: You can work in sandboxes for views and web sheets. This allows you to do analysis and planning in your own personal workspace without impacting live data.

Getting Started

When you enter IBM Planning Analytics Workspace, you first see a Welcome page. The Welcome page contains books and views that are either shared with other people, or personal. You can also create and share books from the Welcome page.

All your resources, (books, views and other content) are available to you through the Welcome page.

To view your shared resources, under Workspace, click Shared. To view resources that you own and that are not shared with anyone, click Personal.
You can create folders to organize your Books.
You can search, sort, and filter resources on the Welcome page.
If you are an administrator, you can also see Users resources: you will see a folder for each user in your group.

A user will primarily be building Books. A book is a canvas that you can put content on: TM1views, charts and other visualizations, web sheets, and other objects like shapes, images, or even videos. In addition, your books can contain sheets to organize the content.

You can also create folders to organize your books. You can share folders and their contents with other users. When you create a new book, you choose a dashboard style and template, depending on what you want to create. For example, below is a dashboard created in Planning Analytics Workspace. We will go over building a dashboard like this in future blogs

Dashboards