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IBM Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How We Solve Problems

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This post is the first post in our new blog series: How We Solve Problems. Each blog post focuses on a real-world client experience where Revelwood was presented with a unique or thorny problem.  We’ll explain our approach to how we solved it.

Revelwood Client: A publicly traded television broadcasting company that owns and operates more than 175 stations across the United States.

Planning Environment: IBM Planning Analytics

Problem: The company’s budgeting process was very granular and plans down to the individual employee. The calculations in the model include detailed benefits and taxes, combined with multiple bonus calculations that depend on results from the core financial model. Due to the size and complexity of the process, “top of the house” reports took more than 10 minutes to properly refresh.

How We Helped: Revelwood analyzed the existing calculations and the interaction of the various models to determine an efficient order of processing. Due to the need for an order of operations, many of the live rules were converted into on-demand TurboIntegrator scripts. This approach shrunk an individual company’s refresh time from one minute down to a few seconds while also bringing the “top of the house” analysis down to under 20 seconds.

Do you have a challenge with your Planning Analytics environment? Let us tackle the problem!

Send us a quick email!

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Identifying a Specific Dimension

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Have you ever wanted to change (or delete) a dimension, but first wanted to know how this action will impact your model?  IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) allows you to quickly identify all the cubes in a database that include a specific dimension.

Since this is a development task, this approach is defined within a modeling workbench.  You can access this option by right-clicking anywhere you see a dimension name within the databases tree (cubes, dimensions, control cubes, and control dimensions) and selecting the option to “View related cubes.”  

The resulting list will define the full dimension name (e.g., not the caption) and show all the cubes that include the selected dimension.  

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If you want to better understand the data in the cube, you can then review any of them by clicking on the cube name and then selecting the option to Open the cubes. An exploration view for each cube will open on separate tabs in the modeling workbench.

This approach will give you a fast way to determine the overall impact of a dimension change.

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetrical Expand in PAW

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Greenbar

IBM Planning Analytics Tips and Tricks: Excel’s ARRAYTOTEXT Function

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetrical Expand in PAW

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Have you ever been in a situation where you have stacked dimensions in your view and only want to expand one section of it? In legacy Perspectives, an expansion of one area equates to an expansion of all areas. IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW), version 87, introduced functionality that allows you to expand just one piece at a time.

Here is an example of a simple view that shows Actual Finance expenses by Company.

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By default, an expansion of the Finance department would show an expansion for all three companies.

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A new icon has been added that will allow you to determine how you want to expand and collapse the elements within your view.  

When clicked, you will have two options: Symmetrical and Asymmetrical.  

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If we change the approach to Asymmetrical and then expand the departments within company 2, only a subset of the full view is expanded.

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This approach will allow you to tighten your analysis and let your users focus on a subsection of your view while still easily having the ability to see the big picture.

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 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW “Spacers”

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Switch Function

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Greenbar

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Have you ever generated an IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) exploration and struggled to read the values in the grid? For example, how easy is it to define the travel cost for department 55 in the screenshot below?

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A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about solving this in Excel by using formulas to shade every other row. This approach is built into PAW via an option called “Zebra strips.” You can enable this option within the Custom properties of an exploration:

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Once enabled, PAW will lightly shade every other row to allow you to quickly navigate through your exploration. Using the example from earlier, it is now much easier to define the travel cost for department 55.

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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 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW “Spacers”

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Switch Function

Home » IBM Planning Analytics » Page 5

IBM Planning Analytics Tips and Tricks: Excel’s ARRAYTOTEXT Function

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Have you ever needed to export Excel data in a format that can be read by other systems?  Although csv files are widely accepted, many legacy systems expect data in an array format. This can be done using the ARRAYTOTEXT formula in Excel.

The syntax of the ARRAYTOTEXT formula is:

=ARRAYTOTEXT(array, format)

  • Array: the text to convert to an array
  • Format: the format to apply on conversion
    • The only valid values for this parameter are 0 and 1

A standard array format uses a set structure:

  • The array enclosed by curly braces. 
  • All items in the same row are separated by commas
  • The end of a row is indicated by a semicolon

For example, this data set …

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… would appear like this in array notation:

{“Row1Col1″,”Row1Col2″;”Row2Col1″,”Row2Col2”}

However, the function does not force you to use the standard array format.  Using the following table as an example:

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Format = 0 (also called the concise format) will join all the data into a single comma delimited list, similar to the TEXTJOIN formula.

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Format 1 (also called strict format) will convert the data into an array format.  Every item on the same row is separated by a comma and the end of a row is indicated by a semicolon.

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As an added feature, the ARRAYTOTEXT formula detects data types and does not convert the numbers to text (numbers are not enclosed by quotation marks).

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 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW “Spacers”

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

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Switch Function

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW “Spacers”

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Have you ever created an exploration in IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) that contains a lot of data and wish that you could separate the information? PAW allows you to insert blank rows and columns called “spacers” into your exploration.

Here is an example of a grid that shows expenses by company:

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This subset of data is not very large, but it’s somewhat difficult to differentiate the totals from the details within the grid. This is an example where spacers can help.

You can insert a space by simply right-clicking on the area where you want to insert the blank row or column and then selecting the option to “Add spacers.” You can insert the spacer before or after the area that was clicked.

Here is the same example after inserting a blank row that separates the total expense value from the account values:

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From there, we can adjust the size of the spacer and update the formatting of the top row to make the total values stand out. 

This approach will help make it easier for you to create easy-to-read explorations for your users.

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 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Switch Function

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Generated Statements

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Pie Chart Total

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

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Most standard financial reports round to some form of a large value. For example, the report may show numbers in millions or rounded to the nearest 100,000.

This is done in Excel via the ROUND function. The function has two parameters:

=ROUND(number, num_digits)

  • The number defines the initial value to be rounded
  • The number of digits determines how many digits to round the number

Here is an example of a large value with various rounding results:

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But did you know that you have a variety of options for the number of digits?  

  • A positive value rounds to the nearest applicable decimal
  • A zero value rounds to the nearest integer
  • A negative value rounds to the left of the decimal point

Here is the same example using negative rounding:

Graphical user interface, table, Excel Description automatically generated

This approach could also be used to round to the nearest thousand (-3) or the nearest million (-6).  

In addition, Excel offers two other options: ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN.  

  • ROUNDUP will always round away from zero (e.g., round up)
  • ROUNDDOWN will always round toward from zero (e.g., round down)

By using a combination of the appropriate ROUND function and a positive/negative number, you can ensure that all your reports show the values you want users to see.

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 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Switch Function

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Generated Statements

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Pie Chart Total

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Switch Function

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The SWITCH function in Excel evaluates a condition and then provides a result based on that condition. This function is similar to a SQL CASE statement and allows for up to 126 potential results.

The syntax of the SWITCH function is:

=SWITCH(expression, value1, result1, value2, result2, …, no match value)

  • The Expression is the value to be analyzed. This can be any formula, including another Excel formula.
    • The resulting value can be a text string or a decimal.
  • Result1 is the value to be referenced/matched.  This is the result of the expression.
  • Value1 is the replacement (switch) value.  
  • The “no match value” is the result if no matches are found.

Here is an example of the formula:

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This example returns the month short name for January and February but will return ‘Qtr1-End’ for March. If no match is found, the text value “No Match” will be returned.

This approach will allow you to merge IF statements and LOOKUP statements into a single command.

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 about visualizations in IBM Planning Analytics:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel TEXT Function

Top Three IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Posts – 2023

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using the Subset Editor in Planning Analytics Workspace

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Offsite 2024: Investing in Our People

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Each year we bring our team together for our corporate offsite. This year Revelwoodians came from near and far – from the Tri-State area near our New Jersey-based headquarters to the Greater Boston area, the West Coast (specifically, California and Washington), Florida and even Scotland. 

Offsite gives us an opportunity to learn, share, bond and have fun with each other. While the content varies year-to-year, the objective of our offsite stays the same – to reinforce our culture and create an environment to work better together.

“On one hand, offsite can be costly,” said Ken Wolf, CEO, Revelwood. “That includes not just direct costs, but the opportunity costs of taking two full billing days out of our monthly cycle. On the other hand – offsite is priceless. It serves as a time to bring together a largely remote organization, get the team away from the day-to-day work, and help them learn, help our clients and get to know each other better. We reinforce our core values, and most importantly, we have fun together.”

This year’s offsite included bringing a guest speaker from Princeton University to share his thoughts on Generative AI (artificial intelligence), the team meeting our new managing director for Europe, Jonathan Dunn and our new director for Latin America, Hector Osuna.  

“This was my first offsite,” said Shammah Momplaisir, FP&A consultant, Revelwood. “I really enjoyed it. It was a great balance of meetings, planned activities for bonding, and time to ourselves. One of the fun events was our AMBA (mini-basketball) tournament. I didn’t make it to the playoffs, so I sat with the scorekeepers. To make it even more fun, I decided to serve as the commentator for the tournament. It ramped up the energy – even though it was late at night.”

Mary Luchs, a senior consultant at Revelwood, enjoys the mix of work and fun. “Offsite reminds us to rely on each other,” commented Mary. “The informal aspect of offsite provides some of the most value – you get to talk to and hang out with people you don’t work with on a day-to-day basis. You can carpool to activities with other Revelwoodians you might not know well. It helps to create a sense of team purpose.”

One highlight of the annual meeting is our Core Value Awards ceremony. Our core values are a fundamental part of Revelwood’s culture, and we talk about them every day. Each and every Revelwoodian lives our core values. 

Before offsite, our leadership team identified individuals who stood out with respect to our core values. This year’s Core Values Awards ceremony recognized our team members who embody these values. Our Core Values are:

  • Be Passionate
  • Do the Right Thing
  • Take Initiative
  • It’s About the Team
  • Take Pride in Your Work
  • We Care

Some years – such as this year – the leadership team decides to recognize one individual as the Ideal Revelwoodian. This award is not given out every year – it’s for when someone goes far above and beyond expectations. This year we bestowed the award on Dave Miersch, our Workday Adaptive Planning practice leader.

“Our investment in offsite creates magic,” added Ken. “We come out of offsite with a better, smarter, more connected team. They are passionate about helping to make our clients successful, to grow our business, and to help us achieve our goals.”

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