IBM Cognos TM1

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Rename Views in PAfE

March 4, 2025 by Lee Lazarow

Have you ever been in a situation where you saved a view and then realized that you want to change the name in IBM Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE, formerly PAx)? Maybe you had a typo or maybe you referenced a date that has changed.

In the old Perspectives world, there was no way to change the name of an existing view, so you were forced to resave the view with a new name and then delete the original view. Planning Analytics for Excel offers the ability to rename a view without having to perform multiple steps.

Renaming a view in PAfE is as simple as right-clicking on the view!

Once the option is selected, a popup box will appear that allows you to rename the view.

This approach gives you the ability to maintain your environment with a single click, thereby simplifying your overall processes.

Revelwood is an IBM Gold Business Partner with 25+ years of experience designing, developing, implementing and maintaining IBM Planning Analytics environments. Revelwood has helped clients in all sizes across all industries optimize and grow their use of Planning Analytics. Revelwood’s Planning Analytics team consists of experienced PA experts, including a multi-year IBM Champion.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel’s AGGREGATE Function

February 18, 2025 by Ivan Cepero

Excel’s AGGREGATE function lets you manage complex reports and ensure they foot correctly.

For example, suppose you are building a sales report by product and region.

A screenshot of a table

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Building the Grand Total calculation for a multi-level report like this is error-prone. You would need to use the SUM function and select every individual region while ensuring that no totals were included.

You can use instead use the AGGREGATE function to define all the totals … both the subtotal and the grand total. AGGREGATE can sum (among other things) and you can set the option to ignore other AGGREGATE formulas.

The AGREGATE function requires three parameters:

A function number to define Average, Count, Max, Sum, etc. Function number 9 is sum.
An option to define how to interact with other subtotals, hidden rows, etc. Option 0 ignores other subtotals and aggregate functions.
The range to perform the function.

The image below shows the same report along with the formulas used.

A screenshot of a spreadsheet

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Notice how the formula in C17 can include all the cells above it. You can now insert rows in any region and not have to update the grand total.

Additionally, you can have AGGREGATE ignore hidden rows. Hide a particular SKU, see the results and unhide the row. Very easy for on the fly what-if scenarios. The ignore hidden rows feature works very well when trying to derive a sum of an Autofiltered list.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Update on Planning Analytics’ Deprecation

February 4, 2025 by Revelwood

IBM recently made the End of Support dates for Planning Analytics 2.0.9.x official.

As we mentioned in our previous blog post on the deprecation of Planning Analytics 2.0.9.x, IBM is extending the general support period for Planning Analytics 2.0.9.x until October 31, 2025. This includes IBM Planning Analytics Local, IBM Planning Analytics Advanced and IBM Planning Analytics Express.

Now is the time for you to start thinking about your migration plan. The next ten months will pass by quickly.

Our team has created a few resources for you regarding the upcoming changes. They include:

We’re happy to work with you on your migration. Email us at info@revelwood.com.

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A Resolution You Should Actually Keep: Upgrade Your IBM Planning Analytics Environment

January 7, 2025 by Revelwood

Did you know that almost 80% of all New Year’s resolutions are associated with health? As an IBM Planning Analytics user, it’s important to also think about your system’s health! This is why you should put “upgrading Planning Analytics” on your list of resolutions. Here’s why …

IBM recently announced some changing timelines to the forthcoming deprecation of Planning Analytics 2.0.9.x. For background, read our blog post, IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Upcoming Changes to Planning Analytics, or watch our on-demand webinar, Understanding the Migration from Legacy TM1 to Planning Analytics.

Key Updates

IBM is extending the general support period for Planning Analytics 2.0.9.x until October 31, 2025.
Users can purchase extended support from IBM for an additional year through October 31, 2026.
Planning Analytics 2.1.x is now supported until April 30, 2027.

Implications for Users

Staying on unsupported versions can expose organizations to security vulnerabilities, lack of technical support and missed opportunities for leveraging new functionalities. You should assess your current Planning Analytics environment and develop a roadmap for upgrading to supported versions.

Recommended Actions

1. Evaluate Current Usage: Understand how your organization uses Planning Analytics and identify any customizations or dependencies that may affect the upgrade process.
2. Plan the Upgrade: Develop a comprehensive plan that includes timelines, resource allocation and testing phases to ensure a smooth transition.
3. Engage with Revelwood: We can help you access support resources and documentation to assist with the upgrade process and address any challenges that come up.

By proactively addressing these end-of-support dates, organizations can maintain the integrity of their financial planning systems and continue to benefit from IBM’s advancements in Planning Analytics.Need help?

Send a quick note to: info@revelwood.com.

Once selected, you will be prompted to define which hierarchy to export and the name of the csv file that will be created. The resulting file will contain the following information for each element:

Name
Parent (root elements will have a blank parent field)
Type
Weight
All defined attribute names and values (the attribute name will be prefixed with ATTR_N or ATTR_S to define the attribute as numeric or string)

Here is a snippet of an export file that shows a header record, a consolidated element, and two children:

“Member”,”Parent”,”Type”,”Weight”,ATTR_S_Manager”,”ATTR_S_Currency”

“Total Company”,””,”Consolidated”,”0″,”Total”,””

“001”,”Total Company”,”Numeric”,”1″,”John Smith”,”USD”

“002”,”Total Company”,”Numeric”,”1″,”Jane Doe”,”USD”

This feature will allow you to export your dimensional structures to files that can be used for reporting, auditing, and other areas where you need to display your structural information.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Selector Menu

December 10, 2024 by Lee Lazarow

You may already know that you can create a selector widget in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) by simply dragging a context dimension outside your existing view. Once synchronized, this approach provides an easy way to create independent selectors that can be used with your existing PAW data pulls.

But what do you do in a situation when you have already hidden your exploration overview or converted your exploration into a chart? One approach is to reset the visualization into a fully expanded exploration, drag the dimension, and re-format the visualization. But did you know that an easier way exists?

PAW version 99 introduced an option to add a selector directly from the data tree (e.g., the left pane). This can be accessed by simply right-clicking on a dimension in the tree. Once selected, there will be two options: add selector tile and add selector list.

There are three types of tiles: single tile, multiple tiles, and range selection tile. There are three types of lists: single list, multiple lists and multiple selection list.

Once created, the properties area will allow you to define appearance aspects such as colors, fonts, and header information.

This approach will allow you to create easy-to-use selectors without having to undo any existing formatting that has been created.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

How High Availability Works

Load balancing and fault tolerance is at the core of high availability. When a user submits a request—be it updating a data point, executing a TurboIntegrator script, or conducting some other processing—the request is directed to one of the database replicas, known as the leader replica.

1. Role of the Leader Replica:
- The leader executes all required changes, performs calculations, and manages processing tasks.
- Once the leader completes these tasks successfully, it shares/sends the changes to all other replicas, ensuring that they are kept in sync.
2. Load Distribution:
- By distributing user requests across multiple replicas, the system mitigates the risk of a single heavy processing task impacting overall performance. This load spreading enhances the user experience, particularly in environments with fluctuating demands.
3. Active Management of Replicas:
- The engine takes an active role in monitoring and managing the health of each replica. If the leader becomes unavailable for any reason, another instance is automatically promoted to take over its responsibilities, ensuring continuity of service.
4. Dynamic Scaling:
- One of the standout features of high availability is the ability to dynamically adjust the number of replicas based on current demands—all without requiring downtime. This flexibility is particularly useful for organizations with varying usage patterns:
  - During peak periods (e.g., month-end closings, budgeting cycles), you can scale up the number of replicas to accommodate increased user activity.
  - Conversely, during quieter periods, you can scale down, optimizing resource usage and costs.

Managing High Availability

Managing high availability in Planning Analytics is straightforward and user-friendly. Here’s a brief overview of how to configure and monitor this feature:

1. Accessing the Management Interface:
- Within the administration interface, you can easily enable or disable high availability by selecting the relevant checkbox.
2. Configuring Replicas:
- You can define the number of replicas you wish to create. As you increase the number of replicas, the system automatically adjusts memory usage based on your configuration. For instance:
  - If the original database requires 4 GB of memory, adding a replica would require an additional 4 GB.
3. Real-time Monitoring:
- The system provides real-time feedback on memory usage and warns you if you attempt to allocate more replicas than your available resources can support. This proactive management ensures that you maintain optimal performance without overloading the system.

IBM Planning Analytics version 12’s high availability feature is an advancement in how organizations can manage their Planning Analytics environments. Users achieve greater efficiency, reliability and scalability by leveraging multiple replicas.

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: ASCIIOUTPUT

November 5, 2024 by Revelwood

One of our recent IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos and blog posts focused on IBM Planning Analytics file manager, and how it can be used to export files. With IBM Planning Analytics, version 12, you can use that approach. But you can also still use ASCII output to create files.

The change with version 12 is that the output path is going to be a little different. Watch Lee Lazarow, Revelwood’s IBM Planning Analytics practice leader, explain how to use ASCII output in version 12.

Lee shows you how to:

Modify a TurboIntegrator script for specific paths
Create new folders with ASCII output

You’ll also learn the pros and cons of automatic folder creation.

Stay up to date with PA – sign up for our weekly Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks newsletter, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and join our IBM Planning Analytics All-Stars group on LinkedIn.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Rename Views in PAfE

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel’s AGGREGATE Function

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Update on Planning Analytics’ Deprecation