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Revelwood’s Top 15 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks of 2018, Part 3

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Today’s post is the last in a series of three reviewing our top 15 most popular blog posts covering a number of  IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks and the benefits of migrating from TM1.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: TurboIntegrator Logging

Read this post to learn how to easily control your logs, while also making them easier to navigate.  Your TM1 server tracks data transactions made in the system. When a cube value is changed, TM1 records the change in a transaction log file named Tm1s.log. The values in the log can be used as an audit trail and can also be used as part of a data restoration approach in the event of a server crash. While logging is a great auditing tool and an excellent point of reference, these logs can quickly become large and hard to navigate. This post shows you various ways to control your logging approach and offers some recommendations on when to disable it.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Displaying Data in Maps

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 map.  The only requirement for mapping is to ensure that your geography dimension includes recognizable place names.  IBM defines “recognizable” to include items such as countries, states and provinces and offers a list of acceptable items on their website. Read this post to learn the three easy steps for creating a map in PAW.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Making Default Cube Views Dynamic with MDX

You can use MDX to easily update a cube value to control the period elements that will display in a subset used in views. This blog post details a scenario on why you may need to do this, and then how to do it.

Here’s the challenge: It’s the end of a quarter and the VP of Sales wants to look at the projected financials for her department. You’ve already built a view that she can open to see the financials, but you just remembered that you forgot to change the period subset to display this quarter’s results. You’ve also just received an email notification from an annoyed VP of Sales. Despite the quarterly reminders that you’ve set for yourself, you forgot to update the default views in various cubes to reflect the current quarter’s plan.

This blog will show you a solution that will allow you to simply update a cube value to control the period elements that will display in a subset used in views.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Performance Monitoring

There are easy ways to address resource issues in order to have a finely tuned IBM Planning Analytics environment. This is the second in a two-part series about monitoring the performance of your server to maintain a working TM1 system. In the first post, we reviewed several methods for monitoring the resources available on your system. Here, I’ll go over some ways to address resource issues you may see. Whether you notice a problem related to CPU, RAM, or disk space, there are short-term and long-term solutions for each.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Installing Samples with Cognos Analytics

There are many sample files available for Cognos Analytics. In order to better experience and understand new features in releases of Cognos Analytics, it is recommended that you install the sample databases, models, dashboards and reports.

Installing the samples involves the following four steps:

  1. Installing the samples
  2. Importing the sample content from its archive
  3. Restoring the sample databases from backups
  4. Creating data source connections in Cognos Analytics to the databases

In this blog post, we will setup the Go Sales and Go Sales Warehouse samples and restore the databases into Microsoft SQL Server.

Thanks for reading the final installment of our Top 15 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks of 2018.  Missed the earlier posts on our Top 15 blogs? Click through to read the first in the series, covering posts 15 – 11 and the second, covering posts 10 – 6. We publish a new IBM Planning Analytics/TM1 tip every Tuesday morning so please come back an visit our Knowledge Center again.

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FP&A Done Right: Finance as the Conductor

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Music has been a large part of my life for many years now. I have played drums and percussion in multiple bands, orchestras and jazz ensembles, and I have sung in several choirs and barber shop quartets. The one constant through all of them has been a talented conductor or director at the helm. A band doesn’t simply get together and decide to play a famous concerto. The conductor chooses a piece that speaks to him or her, works with each section of the orchestra on their specific notes and rhythms and ensures that each part fits seamlessly together to make beautiful music. Your Finance department should be no different.

Finance should be at the center of your planning, analysis and reporting processes and solution. You need to direct the process so you can craft and tell your “story.” Picture a hub and spoke model which has Finance in the middle so all roads lead to FP&A. To be clear, every function (Sales, Marketing, IT, HR, Shared Services, Operations) needs to have a seat at the table so you all stay aligned and support the overall story while each group writes its own chapter. You need to make it a priority to reach out to all groups and understand what their needs are and learn how they operate. Ultimately, however, you own the overall three statement reporting (P&L, BS and CF) and you need to make sure that the functions support your story.

FP&A Done Right: Finance as the Conductor

As you become more sophisticated, your journey will take you into the other functions. Follow every number/metric back to its source and work with that group to create a better, more inclusive process.  If you make them part of the process, you will gain their buy-in and ownership. In the past, I have worked in an organization that had Finance Business Partners embedded in each function. Those resources reported directly to FP&A but had a dotted line to the functional leadership. You may not have the luxury of additional headcount so just make sure to create a structure that includes everyone in the process.

As each section (department or function) improves, you will be able to play increasingly more difficult compositions and songs. The end product will be more concise and accurate and your entire organization will be aligned. Good luck and enjoy the music!

Did you miss previous posts on FP&A Done Right? Check them out:

FP&A Done Right: Introduction

FP&A Done Right: You Can’t “System” Your Way out of This

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BPM Partners Predictions for Performance Management in 2019

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BPM Partners, a privately held advisory services firm with an exclusive focus on business performance management, recently released “Predictions for Performance Management in 2019.” Among those predictions are two that stand out to us.

Prediction: Many More Companies will be Upgrading from Legacy Systems

BPM Partners writes, “We have seen a recent surge of companies looking to replace their legacy on-premise performance management systems with a more modern version and this will continue to grow.” This is something we are certainly seeing as most TM1 users are upgrading to IBM Planning Analytics over the next few quarters. Much of this is due to support for TM1 10.2.2 ending on September 30, 2019.

As TM1 users upgrade to Planning Analytics, they are taking the time to evaluate their current environments, and assess if they want to remain with an on-premise version, move to the cloud, or select a hybrid environment.

Prediction: Company-wide Planning will Gain Traction

BPM Partners writes, “Integrated business planning has been a goal for many years. Most organizations have fallen short when it comes to achieving this goal because of two issues: difficulty in coordinating major cross-functional initiatives and lack of technology support.

“Who drives and oversees this cross-functional initiative (integrated business planning) and makes sure the company doesn’t end of up a collection of disconnected point solutions? … The consensus seems to be that it is the CFO who should oversee coordinated and connected company-wide planning.”

We’ve long seen performance management solutions such as TM1 be used for both financial and operational planning and analysis. Our partner, Adaptive Insights, offers a range of solutions for integrated planning throughout the enterprise. While we focus on Adaptive Insights for Finance, Adaptive Insights also provides Adaptive Insights for Sales and Adaptive Insights for Workforce Planning.

Regardless of whether a company is upgrading from TM1 to Planning Analytics, or looking to expand planning beyond finance, the picture looks bright. As BPM Partners says, “In 2019, there will be more reasons than ever for those that have remained on the sidelines to get on board with performance management.”

Read additional blog posts discussing industry analyst reports on performance management:

BPM Partners Vendor Landscape Matrix for Financial, Strategic, and Operational Business Performance Management

Home » Planning & Reporting » Page 15

Revelwood’s Top 15 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks of 2018, Part 2

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Last week we published the first in a series of three blog posts highlighting our most widely read blogs of 2018. In today’s post, we showcase five more posts that were extremely popular with TM1 users & those Planning Analytics users who have already migrated from TM1.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Year-to-Date Hierarchies

Learn how to create a single hierarchy that contains all year-to-date-values within an entire year. As you know, TM1 is a consolidation tool which is designed to sum together a series of values.  There are many ways to create the consolidations using a combination of grand totals and sub totals.  This blog post specifically addresses the year-to-date (YTD) hierarchy associated with a time dimension.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: How to Make Action Button Messages Dynamic

Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) and Perspectives allow you to customize action button messages. In fact, you can go further and make those messages dynamic. Read the full blog post to learn how to:

  • Set up cells in a PAx workbook for the custom messages
  • Edit an action button to use thee custom messages.
  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Using MDX to Compare Dimension Hierarchies

Learn how to use MDX to compare dimension hierarchies. Planning Analytics dimensions often have multiple hierarchies that should all roll up to the same total. Said another way, these separate hierarchies should all contain the same set of n-level elements below them. For example, a customer dimension may have a hierarchy for rolling up the “All Customers – by Type” and another for “All Customers – by Region.” A TurboIntegrator process can be used to maintain the elements in the dimension and these two hierarchies, but sometimes the two hierarchies may become out of sync. MDX can be used to see if both hierarchies contain the exact same number of n-level customers and, if the two hierarchies are out of sync, identify the elements causing the problem.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) Chart Types

Charts and graphs are an excellent way to illustrate relationships in data and highlight trends. Planning Analytics Workspace allows end users to quickly analyze a large amount of data. To make the biggest impact, it is important to choose the right chart for the use case of the data. Read the full post to learn the different chart types available within Planning Analytics Workspace, and when one type might be better than another.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) VBA API Calls

IBM Planning Analytics lets you make API calls through VBA in Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel (PAx)? You probably know that action buttons can be used to refresh or rebuild reports in PAx. But what if you want to refresh the data in your report as part of a VBA routine? Maybe there are more tasks you want to perform through VBA and then you want to refresh the data as the last step. IBM offers the ability to make API calls through VBA in PAx with just a few steps.

Check back next week for the last five most popular blog posts of 2018.

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Revelwood’s Top 15 IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks of 2018, Part 1

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Every Tuesday we publish a new IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks blog post. Today’s post is the first in a series of three highlighting our 15 most popular blog posts of 2018.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Ranked Report

IBM Planning Analytics for Microsoft Excel (PAx) provides several tools to view, maintain, and report on your Planning Analytics data. Dynamic Reports, one of the PAx reporting tools, allows you to create flexible reports with personalized formatting. An example of this is a ranked report, which will display and sort the top set of rows. Read the full blog post to learn how to insert a TM1RPTFILTER formula into a cell on the Excel worksheet containing the Dynamic Report.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Asymmetrical Axis in PAx

IBM Planning Analytics for Excel (PAx) gives you the ability to use an asymmetrical approach that allows you to display combinations of elements without the repetition. IBM Cognos TM1 and IBM Planning Analytics gives you the ability to quickly create views of your existing data.  The views are symmetrical, which means that any rows or columns that contain multiple elements will include all possible combinations of the selected elements.  But sometimes you may not want to see all combinations.

Read the full blog post for an example of a symmetrical view that will be converted into an asymmetrical view.  The example will use a Financial GL cube.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: New Parameters for TurboIntegrator

IBM Planning Analytics enables you to create a temporary VIEW or SUBSET TurboIntegrator function. This blog post explains why you may need to, and how to do so. IBM has gone to great lengths to ensure that the transition to Planning Analytics is a seamless process and has added some new functionality to help make your system more efficient.

Two commonly used TurboIntegrator (TI) functions are SUBSETCREATE and VIEWCREATE.  These processes are used to create a new component in your process, but they sometimes can cause an issue.  If you create a new subset or view in the prolog but then have the process fail with the DATA tab then the process will end without removing the new components.  This is most likely because VIEWDESTROY and SUBSETDESTROY are most likely within the Epilog.

There are ways to code around this in the existing version of TM1, but Planning Analytics now offers the ability to create a temporary VIEW or SUBSET as of version 10.2.2 FP4.  This is done by adding a flag at the end of the command.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Ensuring Cube Logging is Reset in TM1

Did you know you can easily reset cube logging in TM1? A previous tech tip was written to discuss when to enable and disable logging. As stated in that posting, it is best practice to turn cube logging off while processing TurboIntegrator processes. Typically, logging is turned off in the Prolog and turned back on in the Epilog. But if an error occurs when the process is run, it never reaches the Epilog and logging never gets turned back on.

  1. IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: TM1 Web Write-back Protection

There are several ways to prevent data entry to TM1 in TM1 Web websheets. The first approach can be used for input templates. Use this approach when you want your users to be able to enter data for certain cells/columns, but not others. By default, every cell in an Excel worksheet has the ‘Locked’ property set. This property has no effect on the cell unless the sheet or workbook is protected. In this example, we can select certain cells of an input template to be enterable and certain cells to be locked down or protected. To unlock certain cells in the template, right click the cells and select Format Cells. In the Format Cells dialogue box, select the Protection tab, uncheck the Locked checkbox, and select OK. Read the full blog post to learn the details.

Come back next week to read about the next five most popular blog posts of 2018.

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FP&A Done Right: You Can’t “System” Your Way Out of This

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Are you preparing to move from Excel to a new planning and reporting solution? Perhaps you are changing to a new solution or simply upgrading the current one you have. Are you planning to implement your current process in the new system or are you going to take this opportunity to make changes and updates? I can help with that last one!

Avoid the dreaded “lift and shift.” It will always be easier to recreate the same processes, templates, schedules and reports in your new solution but you will be cheating yourself. When we do this, we often place a governor on the new software and we implement processes that make it impossible to get all the benefits from the latest system functionality. Opportunities to change the way we do things do not come up often and you need to take advantage of this while you can.

It’s all about People, Process and Technology. While very important, the Technology component is simply an enabler to support your People and Process. Technology does not create or drive process, you do. Implementing a “best in class” system is not a cure-all. You need “best in class” people following “best in class” processes to get the true benefit from your FP&A solution.

I challenge you to make the time to rethink your processes. If you are anything like I was during my FP&A days, you make constant “quick fixes” to your files so you don’t get burned in the immediate fire. Of course, I always planned on going back to update the file to include those changes. Sound familiar?  (I didn’t go back to make the changes either!) That pile of “fixes” on the corner of my desk continued to grow. Wait until the next person inherits that gem of an Excel file…good luck.

We continue to circumvent the process until the workaround becomes the process. Don’t carry that over to your new solution. Take a holistic look at your processes and decide what to keep, what to throw away, and what to improve. Spending the requisite time upfront to improve your processes will pay back a multi-fold dividend in the future. You can’t system your way out of this.

Read more blog posts about FP&A Done Right:

New Blog Series: FP&A Done Right

Are you Ready for your Finance Transformation?

Home » Planning & Reporting » Page 15

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Navigate Back to the Source

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Have you ever been in a situation where you are looking at an IBM Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) view and quickly want to go back to that view? Did you know that PAW allows you to quickly navigate back to the source with a single click?

PAW allows you to easily define the database and cube associated with a cube view by pointing to the top, left corner of the view.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Navigate back to the source

Once the view is selected, you can then click on the corner to go directly to the source cube.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Navigating back to the source

This approach allows you to quickly navigate through your Planning Analytics environment with a single click.

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!

Read more blog posts in the IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Series:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Buttons in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW)

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Customizing Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) Directory Installation on Windows Server 2016

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Hiding Dimensions in Planning Analytics Workspace

Need more help? Learn about our Customer Care options for IBM Planning Analytics & TM1 users. 

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IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: The Collect Feature in Planning Analytics Workspace

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Did you know that you can easily copy Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) components across sheets or books?

PAW allows you to use a feature called “Collect” that serves as the equivalent of copying. You can collect an item by selecting the item and then choosing the Collect option on the shortcut bar.

Learn about the collection feature in Planning Analytics Workspace

This option is available for views, visualizations, selectors, images, videos and other items on your PAW sheets.

Once collected, Planning Analytics will give you quick access to use the item again. You can view the items in your collection by selecting the collection button at the top, right corner of your screen and then choosing the option for Collection.

Understanding the collection feature in Planning Analytics Workspace

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 Planning Analytics & Planning Analytics Workspace:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Hiding Dimensions in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Creating Selectors in Planning Analytics Workspace

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Video Demo – Hierarchies in Planning Analytics Workspace

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New Blog Series: FP&A Done Right

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I am an “FP&A guy.” I love this stuff. I love every part of it – from the last-minute changes to the long range planning sessions and everything in between. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of global FP&A and want to share some of my insights and tips and tricks with you all. It has certainly not always gone as planned and I have had my share of missteps. At times, I was convinced that we simply swapped the “What Not to Do” page with the “What to Do” page! That of course, is one way to learn and I will definitely share some of those stories with you.

When colleagues or clients ask questions about best practices or want me to give them some advice on their processes, I have been fond of saying, “Well, FP&A done right is…” So, I thought I would pull together a series of blog posts to share with you several ways that you can do FP&A right. This will include stories from my past experiences, tips and tricks that you can use with your FP&A teams, thoughts on how to organize your department, ways to prepare for a new implementation and other miscellaneous topics.  It will focus primarily on People and Process, as I feel those should be the key areas of focus for every FP&A team.

Hopefully, my thoughts will strike a chord with you and you will find something that you can use immediately in your job or it will cause you to take pause and rethink your process to see if there are different actions you could take. As we move through the series, I would love to hear you about how you do FP&A right. What do you think are the keys to success for FP&A? What mistakes have you made that others should avoid?  What tips do you have that we could all learn from? If you have a question or a topic for my next blog, please reach out to me.

Read more about FP&A:

My Mission to Transform FP&A

Why Revelwood is Known as the FP&A Experts

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