If you are one of Revelwood’s clients using IBM Planning Analytics, you are likely familiar with Lee Lazarow, our IBM Planning Analytics Leader. You’ve probably read some of his blog posts, attended some of his webinars, and learned from his Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos.
Here’s your chance to learn a little more about Lee. Here’s a recent interview between Lee and IBM.
How long have you been an IBM Champion?
Since 2022
What is your favorite IBM product and why?
I have been implementing Planning Analytics (and TM1) solutions since 2003 –and I cannot say enough great things about it! Every aspect of my career has entailed a combination of business and technology, and PA fits perfectly into that mix. In 20+ years, I have yet to find an FP&A challenge that can’t be solved with the tool.
What’s your favorite type of “advocacy” – blog? Community? Speaking? and What drives you to give back to the technology community and led to your becoming an IBM Champion?
I don’t have a single favorite type of advocacy. Those who know me know that I love to speak (maybe sometimes too much!) and I also love to write. I am truly a fan of Planning Analytics and will gladly talk about this to anyone who wants to listen and will gladly write about this for anyone who wants to read. This approach led me to begin posting weekly “Tips and Tricks” blogs which has expanded into a full Revelwood team effort. In the past 5 years alone, we have published over 200 blogs with topics including Planning Analytics tips, general Excel tips, and Financial Planning concepts.
What is one accomplishment you’re proud of or a story about your success that you’d like to share?
We recently worked with a customer that expressed a simple concern of “our system is slow.” While many companies may look at this as a technical issue, we expanded our approach to also look into the customer’s business process. Once we learned what the customer was trying to analyze, we found that the customer was performing millions of unnecessary calculations. After modifying the model to match their business goals, we were able to shrink their model by more than 99%!!! The full case study can be found here.
If you didn’t work in technology what would your dream job be?
I would be a teacher. I fully believe in the Whitney Houston lyrics of “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.” This is why most of my non-work activities entail coaching or leading various activities for kids.
Share your viewpoints/ experience/ future plans about IBM’s AI capabilities and watsonx!
A few months ago, I led a webinar that talked about AI as one of the big trends impacting PA. The community had a lot of questions and we were able to share our thoughts about both the future of AI and PA’s use of AI. Some of the points that I covered included Gartner’s assessment that financial planning software (like Planning Analytics / TM1) is at the forefront of finance modernization efforts, how to write code with the help of AI tools, and how to use PA’s Forecasting feature that allows customers to use time series modeling to discover trends, seasonality, and time dependence in their data.
Any upcoming events/conference that you will be speaking at?
I recently hosted a webinar that discussed and analyzed the new IBM Planning Analytics Engine (also called v12). The video replay can be found on our YouTube channel.
What would be your superpower and why?
Batman has shown me that anything can be done with planning and preparation, even without powers. With that said, it would be nice to have super speed so I can get my kids to their activities without getting stuck in traffic.
Lightning Round:
Ice cream or cake? Cake with lots and lots of frosting!
Cats or dogs? Dogs, of course. They are not afraid of a squirt gun.
Summer or winter? Winter. The polar bear swim isn’t as challenging in the summer.
Morning or evening? Morning. It’s nice to be ahead of the day before 8am.
eBook or paper book? Paper so I can hear the sound of the pages turning.
TV shows or movies? Movies. Once I start something it’s hard for me to not finish it, and a good TV series can go on for many seasons.
A night out or a night in? A night in, although I might change my answer if I ended up getting the super speed!
Cannonball into the pool or dip a toe in first? Cannonball. Why delay?
Go-to karaoke song? I’m more of a shower singer, so only a few people have heard me sing. However, I was in a 5th grade select chorus … but it’s been downhill since then.
Drive or fly? Fly, even though my 6’1″ 225-pound frame doesn’t always fit so well.This post was originally published on the IBM TechXchange Community.
