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Budgeting Planning & Forecasting

New Performance Tune-Up Service for TM1 & IBM Planning Analytics Users

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In response to customer requests, we’ve been expanding our Customer Care program. The newest option is a Performance Tune-Up. Proper maintenance of your TM1/Planning Analytics environment is the key to overall good health and performance. Think of our team as your “mechanics” for your solution. You take your car to the auto shop for regular tune-ups. Why not do the same for TM1/Planning Analytics?

We’ve designed this service to make sure your system is running at its best. It is a recurring, scheduled maintenance program consisting of annual tune-ups and quarterly tune-ups. We’ll conduct interviews with your users and detailed technical reviews of your cube models, reports, business processes and the overall environment.

The Performance Tune-Up accomplishes many things, including:

  • Verifying that your TM1/Planning Analytics solution is maintaining peak performance levels and meeting your business and technical requirements
  • Confirming you are up-to-date with the latest IBM technology and leveraging new features and capabilities
  • Ensuring a positive end-user experience

We also offer other services for customer care. These include a subscription-based dedicated TM1/Planning Analytics Help Desk and a System Administration as a Service (SAaaS) offering. Our dedicated TM1 Planning Analytics Help Desk helps you diagnose, troubleshoot and resolve bugs and other issues related to your entire TM1/Planning Analytics environment – including all of your customizations and configurations. Our SAaaS solution is designed to free up your team from the labors of TM1 administration and comes in two options: fully out-sourced coverage and backup/supplemental coverage.

Let our expert team at Revelwood free up your time by taking advantage of our Customer Care program today!

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Synchronizing Selectors with Planning Analytics Workspace

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Did you know that you can easily synchronize your selectors with your IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) components?

PAW allows you to synchronize your widgets to a selector or set of selectors. This ensures that a change in your selected elements impacts all of the widgets on your page. Synchronization is defined by clicking on the dashboard properties and selecting the option for “Synchronization scope.”

Synchronizing selectors in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

You will be given the option to synchronize items for the selected sheet or throughout the entire book.

How to synchronize selectors in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

Once selected, you can now define the dimensions you want to synchronize throughout the sheet or the book. This approach allows you to create powerful dashboards with live data that can be changed via a single selector.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

Revelwood Launches Adaptive Insights Practice

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Since our founding in 1995, Revelwood has been fiercely committed to working with what we believe to be the absolute best-in-class analytics technologies on the market. Despite overtures from many vendors in the space, we’ve always held to certain principles that dictate the vendors we choose to work with.

When it comes to FP&A solutions, factors like ease-of-use, performance, breadth of functionality, scalability, vendor strength and product vision are paramount. We’re passionate about working with great products and want to share that enthusiasm with our clients. Your success in managing the FP&A process of your enterprise is our #1 objective.

Earlier this year Revelwood was invited to join the Adaptive Insights partner channel in North America. Adaptive Insights is a cloud-based FP&A solution with over 4,000 customers worldwide spanning just about every industry. After nearly a year of vetting a variety of vendors in the space, we excitedly accepted their invitation and are off to a fantastic start.

According to Mel Zeledon, VP of Global Channels and Alliances for Adaptive Insights…

“I am very proud to have Revelwood as part of the Adaptive Insights partner ecosystem. I have personally worked with Revelwood for over a decade, and they were the first prospective partner that I turned to when I joined the company. Revelwood’s reputation in the market is impeccable, driven by their passion to drive absolute customer success in every one of their engagements. Revelwood is not like any other consulting company – they truly focus on business strategy and business outcomes from the very beginning of the engagement. Every company that engages with Revelwood just becomes better. Grounded in very well-established company core values, they provide deep business knowledge, technological prowess and the ability to run large and complex projects. They are accountable, reliable and a partner for the long haul.”

Although Adaptive Insights is probably best known for its market-leading presence in the small and mid-market space (allowing Revelwood to address the below $100M market), it has steadily expanded its footprint in large enterprises, as well, with clients like Boston Scientific, P.F. Chang’s, Siemens, Domo, Papyrus, Harry’s and Toyota. Their development team has put a tremendous focus on scalability and performance to allow the product to support much larger models and user volumes. Perhaps most significantly, they were recently acquired by Workday for $25 billion as the cornerstone of Workday’s Business Planning suite.

While we continue to maintain our great partnership with IBM and support new and existing clients on its Planning Analytics and Cognos Analytics platforms, we’re equally excited to expand our portfolio and reach new markets and customers with Adaptive Insights and Workday.

If you have any questions about either of these market leaders (both of whom appear in Gartner’s upper right “Leaders” Quadrant in the July 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions), please give us a call. Our success is predicated on your success.

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Workarounds for Unsupported Excel Functions in TM1 Web

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Did you know there are a number of workarounds available for Excel functions that are not supported by TM1 Web? This blog post is the second in a series discussing these workarounds. Below, I’ll describe ways to accomplish the same results using functions that are compatible online.

Function: CELL

Description: Returns information about the formatting, location, or contents of a cell

Please note that workarounds only exist for some of the information supported by the CELL function.

 ABCD
1InputOriginalResultCompatible with TM1 Web
21CELL(“address”,A2)$A$2ADDRESS(2,1)
3 CELL(“col”,A2)1COLUMN(A2)
11 CELL(“row”,A2)2ROW(A2)

Function: ISLOGICAL

Description: Returns TRUE if the value is a logical value

 ABCD
1InputOriginalResultCompatible with TM1 Web
21ISLOGICAL(A2)FALSEIF(OR(A2=TRUE,TEXT(A2,””)=”FALSE”),TRUE,FALSE)

Function: N

Description: Returns a value converted to a number

 ABCD
1InputOriginalResultCompatible with TM1 Web
21/1/2018N(A2)43101VALUE(A2)
3   NUMBERVALUE(A2)

Function: QUOTIENT

Description: Returns the integer portion of a division

 ABCD
1InputOriginalResultCompatible with TM1 Web
25QUOTIENT(A1/A2)2FLOOR.MATH(A1/A2)
32   

Function: SQRTPI

Description: Returns the square root of (number * pi)

 ABCD
1InputOriginalResultCompatible with TM1 Web
24SQRTPI(A2)3.544907702SQRT(A2*PI())

IBM’s documentation on Excel functions that are not supported by TM1 Web can be found here.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

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Did you know that there are different ways to create selectors in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)?

TM1 Perspectives allows you to create selectors via the SUBNM formula. This approach offers an easy way to create a selectable list on a report or input template, but it requires some training to learn how to create and manipulate the formula.

PAW allows users to more easily create selectors by simply dragging items onto the screen via a “selector widget.” This is done by right clicking on a dimension and then selecting the option for “Add as selector widget.”

Creating selectors in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

The selection initially appears as a list, but the appearance can be changed by clicking the option to “Change visualization.”

Using the selector widget in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

You will then be given the option to change the visualization to a slider, which allows users to create an automated loop through the available selections.

Learn how to use the selector widget in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

Users can now create an easy to use report without having to learn any formulas or parameters.

IBM Planning Analytics, which TM1 is the engine for,  is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Read more blog posts containing tips and tricks on TM1 and IBM Planning Analytics:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Dynamic, Attractive Views and Dashboards

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Visualizing Data into Pie Charts

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Displaying Data in Maps

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

BPM Partners Vendor Landscape Matrix for Financial, Strategic, and Operational Business Performance Management

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Each year BPM Partners releases its Business Performance Management (BPM) vendor landscape report. According to the firm, the purpose of the report is to “provide a point-in-time snapshot of all the core players, their status in the market, and the focus of their offerings.” This year’s report found “cloud momentum picked up with the vast majority of vendors seeing their cloud version account for the bulk of their sales.” The report also states that the “focus on the customer has not let up with vendors making their products easier to use, ramping up support, and constantly measuring customer satisfaction.”

Two of our partners, Adaptive Insights and IBM, were among the 18 vendors covered this year. The other vendors were: Anaplan, Axiom Software, BOARD International, CCH Tagetik, Centage, deFacto Global, Host Analytics, Jedox, Longview, OneStream Software, Oracle, prevero, Prophix, SAP, Vena Solutions, and XLerant.

Highlights on IBM from the BPM Partners Vendor Landscape Matrix

IBM is one of six companies in the Upper Midmarket/Large/Enterprise Vendors category. The IBM products included in this assessment include: Planning Analytics, Sales Performance Management, Watson Analytics, Cognos Analytics, SPSS and more. BPM Partners concluded that IBM’s products in the space are a best fit for cloud-first implementations; its Excel user interface; applications beyond finance; powerful modelling; sales planning; BI and data visualization; full mobile access; collaboration; consolidation; scalability and complexity handling; and that it is next generation-ready.

Highlights on Adaptive Insights from the BPM Partners Vendor Landscape Matrix

Adaptive Insights is one of nine companies in the Midmarket/Large/Enterprise Vendors category. The firm assessment included Adaptive Insights for Finance, Adaptive Insights for Sales, and the company’s Elastic Hypercube™ Technology. BPM Partners found that Adaptive Insights products are a best fit for cloud-first implementations; ease of use; its Excel user interface; BI, analytics and data visualization; powerful modelling; full mobile access; collaboration; sales planning; applications beyond finance; scalability and complexity handling; and that it is next generation ready. It has a strong presence in some vertical markets, including non-profits and professional services, among others.

Download your copy of BPM Partners Vendor Landscape Matrix to get a full look at how these 18 vendors match up to each other.

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Dynamic Sets in the PAx Set Editor

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This is a guest blog post from Revelwood’s Shane Bethea.

Did you know that you can use the IBM Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) Set Editor to create dynamic sets to be used in a view?

This can be accomplished by using the ‘Search available members’ bar in the set editor. I will use the bpmAccount dimension in this example.

Start by opening the set editor in PAx. Right click the bpmAccount dimension (or click the drop down arrow by the dimension name) and choose Edit Set.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using the PAx Set Editor

In the PAx Set Editor, enter your search criteria into the ‘Search available members’ bar and click the search button. If you have multiple criteria, such as a certain naming convention or attribute values, you can add to your search by clicking the drop down arrow to the left of the search bar. For this example, I will search for all accounts that have ‘COGS’ in the name.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Working with the PAx Set Editor

The results of the search display all elements with ‘COGS’ in the name.  Look closely and you’ll notice the very first node of the results is an entry that says ‘Search – (Name Contains COGS)’. If I select that node and choose the ‘Replace set with new insertion’ button, the MDX query that makes up that search will be moved into the Current Set section. Once ‘Apply and close’ is selected, the set will be a dynamic set. Anytime a new element is added with ‘COGS’ in the name, it will automatically be added to the set.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Learn to use the PAx Set Editor

This approach of defining criteria and creating a dynamic set will ensure that your report will always contain the correct set of elements.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Read more blog posts on IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAx VBA API Calls

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetrical Axis in PAx

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Converting Reports to PAx

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

New Report Details Finance’s Adoption of Automation

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CFOs in companies of all sizes are assessing how, when and where they should automate their finance functions and processes. One of our partners, Adaptive Insights, recently surveyed 160 CFOs across the globe for its most recent CFO Indicator Report, Full Steam Ahead: Finance on Board with Automation. Among other things, the survey found that 40% of them consider the biggest driver behind automation is the demand for faster, higher quality insights from executives and operational stakeholders.

The report explains and details these findings:

  • CFOs are not only moving full speed ahead with automation, but also see automation as critical to putting themselves and their teams on track to becoming more strategic and agile.
  • CFOs view automation as a requirement to address the rising volume and complexity of data, while delivering the insights and agility needed to seamlessly guide the business through an often-volatile economic climate.
  • CFOs believe that leveraging new financial systems and software – combined with better collaboration across the business – will most impact their teams’ effectiveness.

The report brings to light some interesting statistics about where most CFOs and finance teams are in their journey to automate finance tasks. For example:

  • 41% of CFOs say that their financial reporting process is either mostly or fully automated
  • 35% state that their period-end variance reporting (budget vs. actual) is automated
  • 25% have automated allocations
  • 22% of CFOs report that they have automated workflow
  • And 21% say they have automated account reconciliations
Download Adaptive Insight's CFO Indicator Report: Full Steam Ahead: Finance On Board with Automation

Download Adaptive Insight’s CFO Indicator Q4 2017 report, Full Steam Ahead: Finance On Board With Automation to learn the key drivers behind the movement to automate FP&A, what skills CFOs are looking for in new hires, and more.

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Writing Rules

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Did you know that that way you write your rule could impact the performance of the model in IBM Planning Analytics?

There are three parts to a rule. The area definition describes the section of the cube to which the rule will apply. The qualifier allows formulas to be restricted to base level numbers, consolidated, numbers or string values. And the formula defines how the components will be calculated.

Sometimes I am asked about the best approach to use when creating a rule for a single intersection. For example, assume that I want to create a rule that populates January’s Actual value for account 40000 to the number 99. One approach that will perform this calculation is:

[‘Actual’, ‘40000’] = N: IF (Month = ‘January’, 99, CONTINUE)

This rule defines the Actual scenario and account within the area definition and then uses an IF statement to check the month. While functional, this rule requires the model to look at every month to determine when to populate the number 99 into the cube. This means that the rule is checking at least 12 values to simply populate one of them.

Another way to write the same rule is:

[‘Actual’, ‘40000’, ‘January’] = N: 99

This approach performs the same calculation but doesn’t require the system to look at all of the months since January is defined in the area definition. This is a more efficient way to perform the same calculation.

Proper use of the area definition can make your rules more efficient and can therefore optimize your existing models and calculations.

IBM Planning Analytics is full of new features and functionality. Not sure where to start? Our team here at Revelwood can help. Contact us for more information at info@revelwood.com. And stay tuned for more Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks weekly in our Knowledge Center and in upcoming newsletters!

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Cleaning up Your TM1 Environment

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Regions with Planning Analytics Rules

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: False Options within an IF Statement

Home » Budgeting Planning & Forecasting » Page 22