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

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Did you know IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) allows you to visualize your data using a variety of charts and graphs, including the ability to display your results via a pie chart?  In order to create a pie chart, you must follow one simple rule: ensure that you have only one “measure” element on either the row or the column.

You can create a pie chart in PAW with three easy steps:

1. Ensure that a dimension is defined as the measure by right clicking on the cube name within Server Explorer and then selecting the option for properties.

Creating pie charts with IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

2. Create a view in PAW with either the rows or the columns displaying a single element from the measure dimension.

How to create pie charts with IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

3. Set your visualization type to be a pie.

How to create a pie chart with IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

The resulting display will appear as a pie chart:

Using IBM Planning Analytics Workspace to create pie charts

Once the pie chart is created, you can use PAW to change the appearance of the colors, the legend and other details.

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 » Page 16

Tips & Tricks for Using TM1 – Variance Analysis in IBM Cognos TM1

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This is a guest blog post by Revelwood’s Susan Musselman.

Did you know many companies find it beneficial to do a variance analysis to identify differences between the planned financial outcomes and the actual financial outcomes? Many clients prefer to store account balances in IBM Cognos TM1 using positive values unless the value is contra to the account. For example: even though revenue is a credit value in the General Ledger, it is shown as a positive number on a P&L report. Costs are also shown as positive and then subtracted from Revenue to get Gross Profit.

To get a variance amount, Budget is subtracted from Actual. This results in a correct variance for Revenue. For example: if budgeted revenue is $15,000 and actual Revenue is $20,000 then the variance would be a positive $5,000, which is correct because higher revenue is a good thing. However, if we use the same calculation for cost then the variance is backwards. For example:  if budgeted cost is $5,000 and actual cost is $8,000 then the difference calculates to positive $3,000. However, a higher cost is not good so the number should be displayed as a negative.

Learn how to conduct variance analysis in IBM Cognos TM1

One solution would be to use a different formula for every row on every variance report that is created. However, this solution would require a lot of manually created rules that will slow down your overall TM1 application. A better solution would be to create a generic rule that can calculate the correct variance based on an attribute. To do this, first create an attribute in the Account dimension and populate the value with a 1 or -1 for every account. You can populate the attribute via rule to avoid future maintenance to the model.

Here is an example of some attributes values (please note that the attribute is populated for all levels of elements, including consolidations):

Calculate variances in IBM Cognos TM1

Next, create an element in your version dimension called “variance”. You can then create a rule for the new version to calculate the variance.

Learn how to calculate variances in IBM Cognos TM1

This gives the correct results:

Learn an easy approach to calculating variances in IBM Cognos TM1

Now the variance element can be used in any report!

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 on Tips & Tricks for IBM Planning Analytics and IBM Cognos TM1:

Tips & Tricks for IBM Planning Analytics: Creating URLs for TM1 Websheets

Tips & Tricks for IBM Planning Analytics: Creating TM1/Planning Analytics Picklist Cubes

IBM Planning Analytics: Using the Full Power of MDX

Home » Budgeting » Page 16

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

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Did you know IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) allows you to create dynamic, attractive views and dashboards? With the vast number of stylistic options available, there are a few key tips that can be used to create a fluid user experience.

Use the “Caption” alias for dimension names.

The “Caption” alias can be modified for each dimension in the }DimensionAttributes cube. Once you’ve assigned a user-friendly name, or caption, to a dimension, this value will appear in your Planning Analytics Books in place of the dimension’s original name. The caption can then be updated at any point.

Use selector elements to ensure a uniform user experience.

Create selector elements when all users may not have access to all elements in the dimension. For instance, create an element in the department dimension called “Select a Department” and give everyone security to this new element. You can then set the new element as the starting point. When users open the dashboard, they will not see any data and will then be able to select elements based on their security rights.

Synchronize dimensions throughout the Book and individual Sheets.

Once you’ve created a new Book, you can synchronize the data using the “Synchronization scope” option in the Properties dropdown. The Properties button is located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen when you are in edit mode (image below). You have the choice to synchronize across the Book or Sheet, meaning an element selection can be carried across multiple visualizations to allow for uninterrupted data access.

For more information on Planning Analytics Workspace, refer to the IBM Planning Analytics 2.0.0 documentation.

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 » Page 16

The Hackett Group Finds Performance Management in the Cloud is Gaining Momentum

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A research study from The Hackett Group found that the adoption of performance management in the cloud is “set to rise significantly in the next couple of years.” The firm considers the momentum to be driven by the fact that performance management in the cloud solutions are “cost-effective, flexible and streamlined, while allowing more people to participate in the planning process.” The research shows that 72% of companies are either planning or exploring an implementation of a cloud-based financial planning or business intelligence solution.

The report lists several reasons for the growing adoption of performance management in the cloud, but there are two particular drivers that are quite interesting – they go beyond the “traditional” list of factors. These two reasons are:

  • “They are reacting to the entry of major vendors in the cloud.” While there’s been plenty of hype around cloud-based financial planning and budgeting solutions for several years now, The Hackett Group states that “they have been offered mostly by midsize vendors and adopted by midsize companies as a cost-effective alternative for full-fledged, on-premise applications.”
  • “They can better adapt to change and fiercer competition.” According to The Hackett Group, “Finance needs to generate data-driven decision support so the business can rapidly adapt amid volatile market conditions. The onus is on FP&A teams to put in place an infrastructure that lets them gather data from multiple sources and apply analytics in real time, while shaving days off core budgeting, forecasting and planning processes. Waiting for new functionality is not an acceptable option.”

The report also delves into how to extract the efficiencies of cloud solutions, whether or not to customize a cloud-based solution (or to what extent), and a mini case study of why one company selected to go with a cloud-based, versus on-premise, performance management solution.

Home » Budgeting » Page 16

Tips & Tricks for using IBM Planning Analytics – Creating TM1/Planning Analytics Picklist Cubes

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

Did you know Picklists can be used in TM1/Planning Analytics to allow your users to pick values from a predefined, non-changing list of values?  These can be setup as a static list of values, a subset of values from a specific dimension, or all elements within a specific dimension.

Picklists can be associated with a dimension in situations where the definition is always the same.  An example of this would be a Payroll model where you want users to assign each employee to a pre-defined list of job titles.

Picklists can also be created with more flexibility for situations where you want a fluctuating set of definitions.  For example, you may want to have a list of pay period start dates based on the pay method selected for that employee.  If the pay method is monthly then your list can include one set of dates whereas a bi-weekly pay method would entail a second set of dates.  This approach can be created with a Picklist cube.

To create a Picklist cube in TM1/Planning Analytics, simply right click on a cube where you want to have the Picklist and choose “Create Pick List Cube”.

The resulting Picklist cube is created with the name ‘}PickList_<CUBENAME>’.  The new cube will have the same dimensionality of the existing cube plus one extra dimension called }PickList.

Once created, rules can be written for the Picklist cube to determine what values are available in the list.  The example rule below will populate the Picklist value with one of three definitions based on the selected pay method.

Once the Picklist cube and rules have been set up in TM1/Planning Analytics, users will see a different set of dates for the Pay Period Start Date measure based on the method selected for each employee.  This is one example of creating a dynamic Picklist using Picklist cubes, but the possibilities are endless.

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!

Interested in more tech tips for TM1 & IBM Planning Analytics? Check out these blog posts:

IBM Planning Analytics: Using the Full Power of MDX

Creating URLs for TM1 Websheets

Home » Budgeting » Page 16

Important Things to Consider when Changing your COA Structure

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Over the years, we have had many clients who have taken on the project of changing their chart of account (COA) structures. These projects can be resource and time consuming and they affect many business areas and processes beyond accounting and finance. We have found that when clients consider the downstream reporting systems (like IBM Cognos TM1) early in the chart of account change project, they avoid some critical pitfalls that can affect the success of these projects.

Why change your chart of account structure?

There can be several reasons for a business to change its chart of accounts. Businesses are constantly changing. As the business acquires other entities, launches new products or starts operations in new locations, the chart of accounts needs to be able to incorporate these changes flexibly and efficiently to support the reporting needs of their organization.

You may consider restructuring your chart of accounts if:

  • You can no longer generate financial and management reports directly from the COA efficiently.
  • You can no longer easily integrate organizational changes or natural accounts groupings into the COA to support external and internal reporting and compliance requirements.
  • You are moving to a new ERP/GL system and a new chart of account structure is needed to take advantage of full functionality of the new environment.

Beyond the GL

Many of our clients get so involved in the actual changing of the COA codes and mapping them in the GL system, they forget to consider other key areas impacted by this change.

If you have a reporting and budgeting/planning system like IBM Cognos TM1, you should consider the impact of a COA change on this system as early as possible. You will need to determine the impact of the COA change to the data load processes—dimension/hierarchy definitions, embedded logic (TM1 rules) etc. Depending on the extent of the changes to the COA structure, you may need to create new TM1 dimensions and cube models to support the new structure.

Re-mapping of historical data

Most clients consider the need to re-map historical data within the GL. You also need to determine what other reporting system data needs to be re-mapped to support all of your reporting needs on the new COA structure.

Many of our clients also use their TM1 systems to report and model data at a much more granular level than the GL balance level (employee/staff, revenue, vendor, etc.) If you do not map this data to the new COA structure, it will impede your ability to have historical trending reports of this data once you convert to the new COA structure.

To support this, we typically re-create the mapping tables used in the ERP system within TM1 and create processes that allow our clients to map all the historical data they need to support their reporting requirements.

Use your reporting system during the COA project

We also often use TM1 as early as possible in the COA project to download the data from the GL as soon as it is available mapped to the new COA. TM1 users can then see their data in the new COA structure in the reporting tool they are accustomed.

The benefits of this approach are:

  • Users can start reviewing the new COA early to familiarize themselves with the changes to the COA. This gives these users much more time to plan how to incorporate the new COA into the reporting that is required of them.
  • TM1 users can more easily participate in the reconciliation process to ensure the data moved from the old COA to the new COA is correct.

Use the new COA as an opportunity to review your reports

A key task to the COA project is the re-creation of many reports that are impacted by the COA change. This gives you the opportunity to review all the reports you currently produce and determine the reports that are truly required.

We have found the best approach is to organize your reports into:

  • Must have reports that need to be converted as part of the COA conversion. These are reports that are required to be available as soon as the new COA is active.
  • Nice to have reports that can be re-created over time but are not required for go live.
  • Reports that can be eliminated. Many clients find by reviewing all of the reports they have many reports that are produced that are redundant to other reports or have no significant reporting or analytical value.

Summary

By considering the impact of your COA structure changes on your FP&A system, you will have a much more successful project. If you are considering a change to your chart of account structure, let us know. We can share our best practices and client stories to make your transition as easy as possible.

Home » Budgeting » Page 16

Complex Modeling in IBM Cognos TM1 at New York Blood Center

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If you are looking for a great example of complex modeling in IBM Cognos TM1, look no further than the case study on New York Blood Center. Imagine having untold numbers of separate models in disparate systems – such as Excel and Access – all built for a single purpose, but that did not talk to each other? How could you answer simple questions about the data, let alone complex questions?

That’s the situation that New York Blood Center (NYBC) faced. NYBC is one of the largest independent, community-based blood centers in the country. In 2012 NYBC brought in a new CFO, Beth Gibson, who, in turn, brought in a new director of financial transformation a year later. Diane Arritt, who took on the role of Director of Finance Transformation, was charged with taking the old, manual, largely spreadsheet-based financial infrastructure and move to a single, sophisticated system.

Today, NYBC has a core set of TM1 models to store GL, billing, payroll, AR and AP data. From there, each model was then built out to support NYBC’s reporting and planning needs. Then we created a series of allocation models to allow for the proper distribution of overhead costs across all of NYBC’s reporting lines of businesses. We also created allocation models to allow NYBC to report on costs per unit related to collecting and distributing the blood products.

The TM1 system enables the organization to plan, model, allocate, report and manage the revenue and expense data faster, in more detail and more accurately than ever before. The overall impact of the new financial system is much larger than just the time savings, which is significant. With TM1, changes that previously took more than a day can be done in just minutes.

“Previously, it would have taken us at least three months to map general ledger accounts and accounting units into our processes to do the appropriate reporting for an acquisition,” said Diane Arritt, Director of Finance Transformation. “Now our team was able to produce combined financial results for management the first month we acquired the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City. We simply could not have done that without the hierarchies and flexibility of TM1.”

Read the full case study on how New York Blood Center transformed its financial operations with IBM Cognos TM1 by downloading it here.

Read more Revelwood client success stories:

Rayonier Makes Better use of Resources with IBM Cognos TM1

Home » Budgeting » Page 16

Creating a Technical Planning Model for IBM Cognos TM1

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A global publisher in the areas of scientific, technical, medical and scholarly research has turned to IBM Cognos TM1 for a top-down approach to a custom technical planning model. To some, that might seem an odd choice, since TM1 is typically used for bottom-up financial planning and reporting.

But the company already used TM1 as its global planning solution, and TM1 would be well-suited to handling the publisher’s complexity and volume of products for which it wanted to plan. The technical planning model would enable the publisher to plan down to a very granular level, such as individual subject categories and product types.

An additional challenge was that to correctly design the model, the team needed to take a step back, reevaluate what it needed to plan for, versus what it wanted to analyze. For example, before using the TM1 technical planning model, the company would plan to a level of detail that included whether the books sold were hard cover or paperback. In the end, it was determined that for planning, it was not necessary to factor in the type of material of each book sold. It was more important to plan by category and by product type.

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Survey Finds the Office of Finance to Double its Adoption of Analytics

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The IBM Center for Applied Insights surveyed 337 senior finance leaders on their adoption of analytics. It may not be surprising, but the survey found that organizations plan to double adoption of analytics in all areas of finance in the next two years. A report citing the study answers the why: “As one executive admitted, ‘Advanced analytics gives me answers to questions I didn’t even know I had.’”

Interestingly, 28 percent of the survey respondents were categorized as the “most effective” finance leaders. They were more effective than their peers across these ten finance-focused activities:

  1. Cash forecasting
  2. Expense management
  3. Finance process optimization
  4. Financial planning
  5. Management reporting
  6. Mergers and acquisitions
  7. Order-to-cash
  8. Procurement
  9. Profitability and margin analysis
  10. Revenue forecasting

The same survey found that 9 out of 10 finance organizations have implemented analytics solutions to support their financial processes in the last five years and even more are expecting to implement analytics in the next five years. One of the challenges, though, is that organizations are still primarily using analytics to look backward rather than to predict business outcomes. That ability to look forward is increasingly becoming a competitive differentiator for organizations in nearly all industries.

Even finance organizations that are deep into analytics are still finding new areas to exploit. For example, the survey found that the use of finance process optimization (for cost reduction, accuracy and speed) is expected to grow from 21 percent to 73 percent. Survey respondents expect to apply analytics to the following finance activities:

  • Optimizing planning, budgeting, and forecasting processes
  • Integrating macro-economic data, industry trends and competitor data
  • Revenue forecasting

Now is the time to think about how you are currently using analytics in finance, and where you want to take your team’s use of analytics. The question really isn’t how can you use analytics in finance, but more how can’t you use analytics?

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