IBM

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Upcoming Changes to Planning Analytics

October 29, 2024 by Revelwood

In a recent webinar, Understanding the Migration from Legacy TM1 to Planning Analytics, we dove deep into some significant upcoming changes in IBM’s Planning Analytics environment, focusing on how these changes will affect both cloud and on-premise users. Here’s a breakdown of the key points discussed:

Why are these changes happening?

IBM is evolving its Planning Analytics ecosystem, with a primary shift coming for cloud customers. IBM has stated that, effective November 16, 2024, the Rich Tier desktop will no longer be accessible to Cloud Modelers.

If you’re on-premise, the current version (2.0.9.x) has an end-of-support date in April 2025. The supported versions beyond that will no longer include these legacy tools, aligning on-premise with the changes in the cloud environment.

Planning Analytics Legacy Tools

The legacy tools, as described in the webinar, include familiar names like Architect, Perspectives, and Performance Modeler, among others. These tools have been integral to the work of many organizations for years. However, due to the evolution of the technology and the shift to new REST API calls (which aren’t fully compatible with the older APIs), these tools are being deprecated.

The Shift to New Tools: Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) & Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE)

As IBM phases out these legacy tools, they are being replaced by PAW and PAfE (formerly PAx).

PAW: This is the new web-based interface that will handle everything from reporting and input to development and administration. It’s a one-stop-shop for users in the new environment.
PAfE: If you’ve been using Excel for your reporting and input, you’ll transition to PAfE, a tool that’s deeply integrated with Excel but supports the new Planning Analytics features.

What does this change mean for you?

The removal of the legacy tools is not just a cosmetic change. It will fundamentally alter how users interact with IBM Planning Analytics. While the tools themselves are being replaced, the approach you take will also shift:

1. Legacy Environment: In the old setup, web tools (like TM1 Web) were mainly consumer-based—used for reporting and data input—while Perspectives and other Excel tools were multipurpose, handling reporting, input, development, and administration.
2. New Environment: In the new world, IBM flips this model on its head. Excel/PAfE will now be used primarily for reporting and input, while PAW will handle everything, including developer tasks and administration. This shift in usage may feel daunting, but it centralizes more complex tasks into a powerful, web-based interface.

Cloud vs. On-Premise: What’s the difference?

Cloud users will experience the most immediate and direct impact. Since IBM controls cloud infrastructure, the transition will be more abrupt—“deprecated” in the cloud means these tools will be removed entirely.
On-premise users will also need to make the switch but can do so at their own pace. While the tools will no longer be supported, you’ll still have access to them for a while. However, it’s worth planning for the future, as staying on unsupported versions isn’t sustainable.

What’s Next?

While change is always challenging, this transition brings many advantages. The newer tools (PAW and PAx) are better integrated with modern technologies, offering greater flexibility, improved performance, and a more seamless user experience.

For organizations, the key takeaway is to start planning now. Whether you’re on the cloud or on-premise, this shift is coming, and adapting early will ensure a smoother transition. Understanding the new tools, retraining staff, and updating workflows will be essential to staying ahead of the curve.

The deprecation of legacy tools in IBM Planning Analytics marks the end of an era, but it also signals the start of something new and more advanced. While the transition might seem overwhelming at first, these updates position your organization for a more scalable, efficient, and future-proof analytics environment.

Stay tuned for further announcements and updates from IBM and consider reaching out to us at info@revelwood.com for personalized guidance on how to best prepare for these changes.

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.

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.

Recommendations from the 2024 CFO Study

October 25, 2024 by Revelwood

The IBM Institute for Business Value states, “CFOs must be both guardians of stability and agents of transformation …CFOs supercharge technology as the transformative force in their organization.” It found that “some CFOs are leaping forward, while others are being cautious.”

What should a CFO do? The report makes several recommendations. These are the ones that stand out to us:

Apply FinOps across the enterprise to make technology more valuable
- Modernize budgeting, forecasting and chargebacks to reflect costing, agile scenario planning and incentives for shared objectives
- Implement a cost estimation and tracking framework that can help your team understand the costs associated with technology projects
Foresee possibilities
- Assess, forecast and communicate economic factors, industry-specific competitor actions and geopolitical trends that could impact the organization
- Adapt financial strategies in response to changes in the external environment of shifts in company priorities
Achieve impact
- Determine the data sources and leverage financial management systems, analytics tools and business intelligence platforms to track your outcome indicators
- Prove business value during regular reviews and report on financial metrics, operational efficiency indicators and market performance measures
Cultivate a future-focused perspective
- Create dynamic, longer-term forecasts on future cash flows to educate employees on how the market recognizes value creation over time
- Provide long-term guidance to your stakeholders and share the progress toward achieving long-term goals
View spending through a wide-angle lens
- Invest in the initiatives (for example, sustainability, GenAI) that align with your long-term goals
- Prioritize technology applications that accelerate the transition from piloting to gaining efficiency to driving new growth
- Evaluate and quantify the opportunity cost of borrowing from tomorrow to pay for today.
Fund the future – flexibly
- Avoid static capital allocation – use a fluid portfolio with each investment focused on outcomes
- Conduct regular investment evaluations to drive capital redeployments and resource reallocations

The 2024 CFO Survey explains the whys and hows of these recommendations, along with other recommendations we did not highlight. It also features the six power moves CFOs must make. Download your copy today.

About the 2024 CFO Survey

In Q1 2024, the IBM Institute for Business Value, working with Oxford Economics, surveyed 2,000 CFOs. The survey respondents span 26 industries and 34 locations worldwide. The organizations also engaged a small group of these executives for in-depth qualitative interviews.

Revelwood is dedicated to helping the Office of Finance succeed through the strategic use of technology. We have a nearly 30 year history helping CFOs and FP&A leaders modernize and transform the Office of Finance. Our approach is to focus on your success, speak business first and to leverage best-in-class technology that suits your organization’s unique needs. Contact us at info@revelwood.com to start a conversation on how we can help your Office of Finance be thes best it can be.

More from our FP&A Done Right Series:

FP&A Maturity Assessment: Where Do You Rank?

Solving Financial Reporting Challenges

The Promise of AI in Finance

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Explorations and MDX

October 22, 2024 by Lee Lazarow

Have you wanted to learn how to use MDX to create a VIEW, but are not sure where to start? A great way to learn is by looking deeper into one of your PAW explorations.

The “Edit MDX” button can be used to show the expression associated with your PAW view.

In addition to using the resulting screen to see the expression, PAW allows you to edit the expression … and therefore change your view.

For example, I can update the last line of the expression below to change the EUR result into a USD result.

A screenshot of a computer code

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Not only will this approach help you learn MDX, but it will allow you to easily change the results without having to use the subset editor.

Interested in learning more about using MDX? Watch our webinars:

How to use MDX in your Planning Analytics Environment, Part 1 (for beginners)

How to use MDX in your Planning Analytics Environment, Part 2 (for advanced users)

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: New Videos

October 8, 2024 by Revelwood

This summer we released several new IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos. Here’s a recap of those videos and what you can learn from them.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: ASCIIOUTPUT

IBM Planning Analytics version 12 lets you use a file manager to export files using ASCII output. One of the biggest benefits of exporting files using ASCII is reduced code complexity. In this video, Lee Lazarow, Revelwood’s IBM Planning Analytics Practice Lead, shows you how to do this.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Create Database

IBM Planning Analytics version 12 has a database creation wizard that makes creating new Planning Analytics databases very simple. All you need to do is fill out a couple of parameters. Watch Ivan Cepero demonstrate how easy it is to create a database.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: High Availability

IBM Planning Analytics version 12 has a concept called high availability. This is a way to have the engine manage multiple replicas of the database all in parallel. High availability works when a user sends in a request, changes a data point, runs a TurboIntegrator script, or does some processing. The request is sent to a replica of the database. The replica is called the leader. The leader makes all the changes. The other replicas apply the changes. Learn more from Lee Lazarow about high availability.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Backups

This tip & trick video explores how backups work in IBM Planning Analytics version 12 in the cloud. In version 12, backups only run on active databases and cannot be performed on stopped ones. This applies to manual backups as well. Watch Ivan Cepero explain more about backups in version 12.

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!

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Process Indent Script Button

September 24, 2024 by Lee Lazarow

One of my favorite development quotes is from a man names Martin Fowler. He said, “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.”

There are many ways to approach the definition of “understand.” One of my favorite ways is to use a simple indenting approach. Specifically, when writing IF statements and WHILE loops I like to indent the code within the section. A few spaces of indentation will allow you to quickly scan sections to determine where an area starts and ends.

But what happens in a situation when you inherit someone else’s TurboIntegrator process, and the original coder did not use this approach? IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) offers a one-click solution that will insert the applicable indents for you.

The “Indent Script” icon will make your code more readable by indenting IF statements, nested IF statements, and WHILE loops.

Here is some sample code that does not include any indenting:

This code is somewhat hard to read since you cannot quickly define where the IF starts and ends. A single click of the “indent script” button changes the code to look like this:

Not only did PAW automatically indent the components of the IF statement, but it also created a second level of indentation associated with the nested IF.

This simple approach will allow you to make your rules easier to navigate and read when scrolling through many lines of code.

Meet Lee Lazarow, Revelwood’s IBM Champion

June 17, 2024 by Revelwood

If you are one of Revelwood’s clients using IBM Planning Analytics, you are likely familiar with Lee Lazarow, our IBM Planning Analytics Leader. You’ve probably read some of his blog posts, attended some of his webinars, and learned from his Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos.

Here’s your chance to learn a little more about Lee. Here’s a recent interview between Lee and IBM.

How long have you been an IBM Champion?

Since 2022

What is your favorite IBM product and why?

I have been implementing Planning Analytics (and TM1) solutions since 2003 –and I cannot say enough great things about it! Every aspect of my career has entailed a combination of business and technology, and PA fits perfectly into that mix. In 20+ years, I have yet to find an FP&A challenge that can’t be solved with the tool.

What’s your favorite type of “advocacy” – blog? Community? Speaking? and What drives you to give back to the technology community and led to your becoming an IBM Champion?

I don’t have a single favorite type of advocacy. Those who know me know that I love to speak (maybe sometimes too much!) and I also love to write. I am truly a fan of Planning Analytics and will gladly talk about this to anyone who wants to listen and will gladly write about this for anyone who wants to read. This approach led me to begin posting weekly “Tips and Tricks” blogs which has expanded into a full Revelwood team effort. In the past 5 years alone, we have published over 200 blogs with topics including Planning Analytics tips, general Excel tips, and Financial Planning concepts.

What is one accomplishment you’re proud of or a story about your success that you’d like to share?

We recently worked with a customer that expressed a simple concern of “our system is slow.” While many companies may look at this as a technical issue, we expanded our approach to also look into the customer’s business process. Once we learned what the customer was trying to analyze, we found that the customer was performing millions of unnecessary calculations. After modifying the model to match their business goals, we were able to shrink their model by more than 99%!!! The full case study can be found here.

If you didn’t work in technology what would your dream job be?

I would be a teacher. I fully believe in the Whitney Houston lyrics of “I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.” This is why most of my non-work activities entail coaching or leading various activities for kids.

Share your viewpoints/ experience/ future plans about IBM’s AI capabilities and watsonx!

A few months ago, I led a webinar that talked about AI as one of the big trends impacting PA. The community had a lot of questions and we were able to share our thoughts about both the future of AI and PA’s use of AI. Some of the points that I covered included Gartner’s assessment that financial planning software (like Planning Analytics / TM1) is at the forefront of finance modernization efforts, how to write code with the help of AI tools, and how to use PA’s Forecasting feature that allows customers to use time series modeling to discover trends, seasonality, and time dependence in their data.

Any upcoming events/conference that you will be speaking at?

I recently hosted a webinar that discussed and analyzed the new IBM Planning Analytics Engine (also called v12). The video replay can be found on our YouTube channel.

What would be your superpower and why?

Batman has shown me that anything can be done with planning and preparation, even without powers. With that said, it would be nice to have super speed so I can get my kids to their activities without getting stuck in traffic.

Lightning Round:

Ice cream or cake? Cake with lots and lots of frosting!

Cats or dogs? Dogs, of course. They are not afraid of a squirt gun.

Summer or winter? Winter. The polar bear swim isn’t as challenging in the summer.

Morning or evening? Morning. It’s nice to be ahead of the day before 8am.

eBook or paper book? Paper so I can hear the sound of the pages turning.

TV shows or movies? Movies. Once I start something it’s hard for me to not finish it, and a good TV series can go on for many seasons.

A night out or a night in? A night in, although I might change my answer if I ended up getting the super speed!

Cannonball into the pool or dip a toe in first? Cannonball. Why delay?

Go-to karaoke song? I’m more of a shower singer, so only a few people have heard me sing. However, I was in a 5th grade select chorus … but it’s been downhill since then.

Drive or fly? Fly, even though my 6’1″ 225-pound frame doesn’t always fit so well.This post was originally published on the IBM TechXchange Community.

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

March 5, 2024 by Lee Lazarow

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:

Table

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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

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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 Tips & Tricks: Excel Substitute Function

October 31, 2023 by Ivan Cepero

Are you familiar with the SUBSTITUTE function in Excel? The SUBSTITUTE function in Excel replaces one value with another. This is similar to the REPLACE function, but SUBSTITUTE provides more flexibility.

The syntax of the SUBSTITUTE function is:

=SUBSTITUTE(text,old_text,new_text,instance_num)

Text: This is the text to be evaluated and changed
Old_text: This is the subtext to be replaced.
New_text: This will be used as the replacement.
Instance_num (optional): This defines which occurrence of old_text to replace. If this value is blank then all occurrences of old_text will be replaced.

Here are two examples of the substitute function:

Example 1:

This formula removes the second dash from the account string.

Graphical user interface, application

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Example 2:

To count the number of dashes in a cell, this formula subtracts the length of the cell without dashes from the original length of the cell.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Upcoming Changes to Planning Analytics

Why are these changes happening?

Planning Analytics Legacy Tools

The Shift to New Tools: Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) & Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE)

What does this change mean for you?

Cloud vs. On-Premise: What’s the difference?

What’s Next?

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Recommendations from the 2024 CFO Study

About the 2024 CFO Survey

More from our FP&A Done Right Series:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Explorations and MDX

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: New Videos

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: ASCIIOUTPUT

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Create Database

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: High Availability

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Backups

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: PAW Process Indent Script Button

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Meet Lee Lazarow, Revelwood’s IBM Champion

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

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Excel Substitute Function

Example 1:

Example 2:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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IBM

Why are these changes happening?

Planning Analytics Legacy Tools

The Shift to New Tools: Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) & Planning Analytics for Excel (PAfE)

What does this change mean for you?

Cloud vs. On-Premise: What’s the difference?

What’s Next?

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

About the 2024 CFO Survey

More from our FP&A Done Right Series:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: ASCIIOUTPUT

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Create Database

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: High Availability

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Backups

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

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