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IBM Cognos TM1

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: The Hold Feature

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Today’s IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks video focuses on the new hold feature in Planning Analytics. Watch the video and you’ll see our Director of FP&A Technology, Lee Lazarow, demonstrate how to use the hold feature, which gives you the ability to do full top-down spreading or partial spreading.

In this video Lee will show you how to do top-down planning in Planning Analytics. He walks you through the simple scenario of decreasing all expenses by 10%. He also shows you how to set a fixed expense, but then also decrease your other expenses.

This is just one of many new useful features in Planning Analytics.

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!

Want to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered to your inbox every Tuesday? Sign up to get our weekly email of just the week’s tip! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Planning Analytics videos.

Watch more Planning Analytics video tutorials:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Using Words Instead of Numbers

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: How to Reorder TM1 Cubes in Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Filtering in Planning Analytics

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Admin Critical Alerts

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In your existing TM1 world, much of the administration is done via your computer’s operating system. Planning Analytics brings a great deal of the administration into your environment via a web-based interface. One of the tasks you can do in this interface is to create and define email alerts.

In an earlier Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks blog post, I discussed the ability to define admin alerts. One of the alerts is associated with a critical database health. But what does “critical” mean? Planning Analytics allows you to define that yourself within the administration screen.

To access the administration screen, click on the Administration option at the top right corner of your screen (note that this will only appear if you have Admin permissions).

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Admin Critical Alerts

Once inside the administration portal, select the option for Databases, Configuration.

How to use admin critical alerts in Planning Analytics

Within the configuration settings window you can then select Threshold and expand the Database usage section.

What are Planning Analytics admin critical alerts

This screen allows you to define traffic lighting for green, yellow and red status of both your CPU usage and your Memory usage. The results of these settings are used on the main database screen (the colors associated with the server box) and in the alerts section (notifications for critical database health).

This approach within Planning Analytics allows your system administrator to have quick and automated ways to monitor your server status.

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! Or, sign up to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered directly to your inbox!

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Admin Alerts

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Administration

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The New Planning Analytics Admin Approach

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using Words Instead of Numbers

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In today’s IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks video, our FP&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, demonstrates how you can use words to input data in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) instead of numbers. In the old TM1-world, you had the ability to put numbers into your system as part of your normal planning approach. Now, you can use words. Let’s explain …

Watch our Planning Analytics video and you’ll learn how to:

  • Enter words such as 2k to indicate 2,000
  • Enter 2.5K for 2,500
  • Use the “greater than” sign to spread values into other cells and reconsolidate them
  • Have Planning Analytics Workspace do the math for you by typing in common phrases such as “add 100” or “increase by 10%”

This approach gives you a great deal of flexibility when using PAW. You can use your number keypad, your standard keyboard, or even voice commands to enter data into Planning Analytics.

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!

Want to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered to your inbox every Tuesday? Sign up to get our weekly email of just the week’s tip! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Planning Analytics videos.

Watch more Planning Analytics video tutorials:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Reordering TM1 Cubes

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Filtering in Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Admin Alerts

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In your existing TM1 world, much of the administration is done via your computer’s operating system. Planning Analytics brings much of the administration into your environment via a web-based interface.  One of the tasks you can do in this interface is to create and define email alerts.

Planning Analytics offers the ability to notify you about aspects of your server such as “Alert me when memory usage on the machine exceeds 50%”.  This is done within the administration screen.

To access the administration screen, click on the Administration option at the top right corner of your screen (note that this will only appear if you have Admin permissions).

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Admin Alerts

Once inside the administration portal, select the option for Databases, Configuration.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips: Admin Alerts

Within the configuration settings window you can then select Alerts, expand the Databases section, and select a database.

IBM Planning Analytics Tricks: Admin Alerts

Once selected, you will have a series of options such as memory usage and thread information. Each option offers threshold definitions and an option to send a notification. The bottom of the screen defines the email addresses that will be used when notifications are sent.

This approach within Planning Analytics allows system administration to be performed by PA administrators without the need to learn operating system techniques or advanced coding methods.

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! You can also sign up to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks sent directly to your inbox!

Learn more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks to make your admin tasks easier!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The New Planning Analytics Admin Approach

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Simplifying Dimension Maintenance

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Administration

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

What’s the Total Economic Impact of IBM Planning Analytics?

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When potential clients are evaluating IBM Planning Analytics as a budgeting, planning and reporting solution, they often ask us for its ROI. It’s not a simple question to answer. Every organization’s business situation, and needs are unique to them. The corresponding implementation is as well. As a result, there’s really no universal ROI for any given software solution.

A Forrester report helps provides some related information for businesses looking at Planning Analytics. IBM and Forrester recently came out with The Total Economic Impact™ of IBM Planning Analytics. The analyst firm used its Total Economic Impact (TEI) framework and methodology for the report, which serves “to provide a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions.” The findings are based on interviews with four customers with significant experience with IBM Planning Analytics, and with IBM executive and Forrester analysts.

The Total Economic Impact of IBM Planning Analytics

Based on the report, the total economic impact of Planning Analytics include:

  • 63% less time spent to complete the annual budgeting cycle
  • 80% faster processing planning data
  • 70% fewer labor hours required to complete forecasting cycles

Learn more about the key findings in the report and the benefits of Planning Analytics.

Read additional analyst reports that cover IBM Planning Analytics:

Revelwood Partners Adaptive Insights and IBM Earn High Ratings in BPM Partners’ BPM Pulse Survey

Excel Users Embrace IBM Planning Analytics

Independent Survey Ranks IBM Planning Analytics Against Competing Products

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to Reorder TM1 Cubes in Planning Analytics Workspace

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In today’s IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks video, our PF&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, demonstrates a new feature in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) version 2.0.44, that enables you to reorder TM1 cubes. Your TM1 cubes were likely designed for a specific reason. Over the course of years, the data has been changed and added to. TM1 would let you optimize the system by reordering the dimensions and re-indexing the database.

Watch this Planning Analytics video to see how this new feature lets you optimize your cubes by reordering them. When you reorder your cubes, PAW gives you information about the optimization, including if there will be an increase or decrease in performance, and what the impact on RAM will be.

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!

Want to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered to your inbox every Tuesday? Sign up to get our weekly email of just the week’s tip! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Planning Analytics videos.

Watch more Planning Analytics video tutorials:

Filtering in Planning Analytics

Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics

Planning Analytics Admin

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Filtering in Planning Analytics

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In today’s IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks video, our FP&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, demonstrates how to do filtering in Planning Analytics. Filtering in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) will make it easy for your users to select the data they want to see, thereby giving them a good user experience.

The new PAW interface works much like Windows Server does – you can do various searches (wildcard searches, level searches, attribute searches) and thereby take a giant list of elements and filter it down to a smaller subset. The PAW interface even takes it a step further by enabling you to make your search criteria much more structured and user-friendly.

When you master the ability to do filtering in PAW, you’ll enable your users to easily select the data they need.

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!

Want to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered to your inbox every week? Sign up to get our weekly email of just the week’s tip! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Planning Analytics videos.

Watch more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos:

Reviewing Chores in Planning Analytics

Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics

Planning Analytics Admin

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel’s CONCAT and TEXTJOIN Functions

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Microsoft Excel has recently introduced a new version of the CONCATENATE function called CONCAT. The purpose is similar in that the new function still combines text from multiple ranges and/or strings. CONCAT will eventually replace CONCATENATE, but Microsoft has not released plans to sunset the original function to ensure compatibility with older versions of Excel.

The CONCAT function expects at least one text parameter value, with a maximum of 253 arguments. For example:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: CONCAT and TEXTJOIN Functions
=CONCAT(A1,B1,C1,D1,A2,B2,C2,D2)

returns “Tobeornottobe.” The new function also allows you to combine text ranges. For example:

=CONCAT(A1:D2)

returns a string consisting of the values in cells A1, B1, C1, D1, A2, B2, C2, and D2. In this case, “Tobeornottobe” will once again be returned.

Similarly, the TEXTJOIN function joins text from multiple ranges and/or strings but includes two additional parameters. These parameters allow you to specify the delimiter and determine if empty cells are ignored. For example:

=TEXTJOIN(“ ”, TRUE, A1:D2)

returns “To be or not to be,” whereas

=TEXTJOIN(“ ”, FALSE, A1:D2)

returns “To   be or not  to be.” In the last example, the spaces have been doubled wherever there are empty cells because the second parameter has been set to FALSE.

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!

Want to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered to your inbox every Tuesday? Sign up to get our weekly email of just the week’s tip!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: New Excel Feature – XLOOKUP

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Learn the Excel CELL Formula

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Recalculating Excel Worksheets

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Reviewing Chores

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In today’s IBM Planning Analytics video tutorial, our FP&A Technology Director, Lee Larazow, demonstrates PAW v 2.0.43’s new approach that allows you to easily review the chores that are associated with a specific process. Once you have mastered the techniques Lee explains in this video, you’ll have a key skill to making it much easier to maintain your Planning Analytics environment.

Watch this video and you’ll learn how to:

  • Go into a list of processes
  • View all the individual chores associated with a process
  • Define the processes within the chore
  • Completely remove a process from the chore

This new approach by PAW makes Planning Analytics maintenance much easier!

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!

Want to get our Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks delivered to your inbox every Tuesday? Sign up to get our weekly email of just the week’s tip! And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Planning Analytics videos.

Watch more Planning Analytics video tutorials:

Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics

Planning Analytics Admin

Dimension Maintenance in IBM Planning Analytics

Home » IBM Cognos TM1 » Page 21