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Planning & Reporting

Revelwood Offers Adaptive Insights Training Online

April 16, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

News & Events

Get the most out of your Adaptive Insights implementation by taking Adaptive Insights training from our award-winning team. Our seasoned, Adaptive-certified instructors ensure you get the technical skills you need to excel with Adaptive Insights.

We offer a range of courses – for the new Adaptive Insights user to experienced Adaptive Insights users looking to take the next step in planning and reporting.

Our current Adaptive Insights training courses are:

Introduction to Adaptive Planning & Reporting

This course introduces new users to Adaptive Planning. You’ll learn Adaptive basics, including:

  • How to navigate throughout the application
  • Structure design element basics
  • How to create an Operating Expense sheet and enter a budget into it
  • Models & Cubes, Users & Roles, Basic Formulas, Basic Reports, and more

Adaptive Reporting

We’ve designed this course for both new users and intermediate users who want to learn about the reporting features in Adaptive Planning. You’ll learn:

  • How to use the matrix report builder
  • How to design a P&L report
  • How to create a version comparison report
  • How to use conditional formatting and display options, and more

Introduction to Office Connect

If you have minimal experience with the Office Connect application, then this is the course for you! You’ll learn:

  • Office Connect terminology and navigation
  • How to create an Office Connect report that is dynamically linked to Adaptive Planning
  • How to work with relative and static time-elements, enabling the creating of rolling period reports
  • How to link selected elements from an Excel report to matching Adaptive Planning data, and more

We offer two different options for these online courses. The first option is a four and a half hour long, fully interactive course. In order to participate in this, your company must have access to the Adaptive Insights eLearning program. The second option is an online, three-hour, view-only course. This course is open to everyone.

Check out our class schedule to find a convenient time for you to hone your Adaptive Insights skills!

Home » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, Adaptive Insights training, adaptive planning training, Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, Revelwood

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Formatting Views in Planning Analytics Workspace

April 14, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

Video

In today’s IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks video, Lee Lazarow, our PF&A Technology Director, demonstrates how to format views in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW). By using formatting, you will make your views easier to read so your users can spend more time focusing on their data.

Watch the video to learn how to manipulate your views by:

  • Making your columns wider
  • Changing rowing heights
  • Changing fonts and text styles
  • Adding shading, and more.

You’ll also learn how to start over if you want to change your formatting. Taking the time to format your views makes it much easier for your users to home in on the data and the meaning behind that data.

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 Tips & Tricks videos:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: Creating Multi-Level Dimensions

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: The Hold Feature

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

Home » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks, Videos Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, lee lazarow, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks, planning analytics tips & tricks video, Planning Analytics video, Revelwood, TM1

Webinar: The Value of Long-Term Planning

April 9, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

News & Events

The value of long-term planning can’t be underestimated. When you have a long-term plan, you have a better understanding of your income and cash flow. This enables you to plan better for resource needs such as personnel, equipment purchases, expansion opportunities and more. Improving your planning process will help you to define your future business strategies and provide a path for achieving your goals.

Join us on Tuesday, April 21, 2020 at 4pm EDT for a live webinar on long-term planning with IBM Planning Analytics. Attendees will learn:

  • Different approaches for short-term versus long-term planning
  • The reasons why you should do long-term planning
  • Factors to consider when defining the long-term planning process

Attendees will also see a live demo of IBM Planning Analytics, which includes two different approaches to long-term planning: driver-based and growth percent planning.

Now is a great time to think about how you approach planning and to learn the benefits of long-term planning. Join us on Tuesday, April 21st.

Register today!

Home » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, planning analytics webinar, Revelwood, webinar

Webinar: How to Reforecast Effectively & Quickly in Uncertain Times

April 3, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

News & Events

These are uncertain times. All but essential businesses in many parts of the U.S. are now working from home. Retail establishments have closed. Manufacturing plants are being re-worked to adapt from making car parts and sneakers to manufacturing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Some industries are booming. Some are busting. And most just don’t know what the future holds.

Unfortunately, from a financial standpoint or an operational standpoint, you can’t ignore the changes that are happening to your business. The question is: how easily can you adjust your forecast to reflect these changes?

Join us on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 at 4pm EDT for a live webinar on agile forecasting. Lee Lazarow, our FP&A Technology Director, will present examples of how our clients use IBM Planning Analytics for forecasting and what-if scenario planning. You’ll hear how:

  • A retailer/manufacturer used a percent approach to adjust numbers while dealing with a shut down in production
  • A financial services company, which uses driver-based planning, updated their plan by changing their starting assumptions
  • A medical not-for-profit created a new high-level, driver-based model to reflect decreased donations of supplies and money

Whether you are looking for a better planning solution, or if you are already an IBM Planning Analytics client, you will learn something from this webinar. Our goal is for you to come away with an understanding of different approaches for more nimble and efficient planning.

Register today!

Home » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, planning analytics webinar, reforecasting, Revelwood, scenario planning, TM1, what-if planning, what-if scenarios

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Video: The Hold Feature

March 17, 2020 by Lee Lazarow Leave a Comment

Videos

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 » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks, Videos Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, lee lazarow, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, TM1

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

March 3, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

Video

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 » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks, Videos Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, planning analytics tips & tricks video, Planning Analytics video, TM1

Adaptive Insights Scores Highest in Gartner 2019 Critical Capabilities Report in Three Use Cases

March 2, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

News & Events

Adaptive Insights earned the highest scores in the Gartner 2019 Critical Capabilities for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions report for lower midsize organization use cases, upper midsize use cases and for business unit use cases.

Gartner’s Critical Capabilities for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions report examines the strengths of different vendors offering financial planning and analysis solutions as it relates to specific use cases. The goal of the research is to help organizations assess products and compare products that most closely meet their business needs. Overall Gartner found that many of the vendors covered in the research “improved year-over-year scores in critical capabilities.” The report continues, “this indicates that maturity levels and satisfaction associated with cloud offerings in this market are rapidly improving.”

Gartner’s assessment of Adaptive Insights includes the following highlights:

  • Top quartile scores for ease of implementation
  • Top quartile scores for ease of use and maintenance
  • Top quartile scores for financial budgets and plans

Additionally, Gartner writes “Adaptive Insights improved its scores across all capabilities this year, with financial budgets and plans and IFP/modeling showing the largest improvements.”

Adaptive Insights Scores 4.40 out of 5.0 in Lower Midsize Organization Use Case

Gartner defines “lower midsize organization” as “small public or private organizations between $50 million and $250 million in annual revenue.”

Adaptive Insights Scores Highest in Gartner 2019 Critical Capabilities Report in Three Use Cases

Adaptive Scores 4.32 out of 5.0 for Upper Midsize Organization Use Case

An “upper midsize organization” is defined as “midsize public or private organizations with $250 million to $1 billion in annual revenue.”

Adaptive Scores 4.32 out of 5.0 for Upper Midsize Organization Use Case

Adaptive Insights Scores 4.34 out of 5.0 in Business Unit use case

This category is for business units in large organizations.

Adaptive Insights Scores 4.34 out of 5.0 in Business Unit use case

According to Gartner, the research “analyzes how successfully the selected vendors support FP&A processes, as well as the successes of their respective solutions in terms of use and adoption.” In addition to Adaptive Insights, the report includes Anaplan, BOARD International, CCH Tagetik, Host Analytics (now Planful), IBM, Jedox, Kaufman Hall (Axiom Software), Kepion, OneStream Software, Oracle, Prophix, SAP, and Vena Solutions.

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Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, Financial Performance Management, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting

FP&A Done Right: The Path to Great Reporting

February 28, 2020 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

FP&A Done Right

This is a guest blog post from our partner Workday Planning, written by Gary Cokins. Cokins discusses some of the challenges with traditional financial reporting processes.  

For FP&A, financial reporting is a tricky balancing act.

If you share too many reports, business leaders may give up reading them all together. They are saturated. In a study by the American Institute of CPAs and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, 32% of C-level executives said more data has made things worse, not better, for decision-making.

But if you offer bare-bones financial reporting, stakeholders scream for more relevant data and timely information. Case in point: That same survey found 70% of C-level executives saying at least one strategic initiative failed in the last three years due to delays in strategic decision-making. So how do you find the balance of not overwhelming your business partners while still getting them the information they need?

They need facts because in the absence of facts, anybody’s opinion is a good one. And usually the biggest opinion wins, which is likely managers at the top of the org chart. So to the degree they are making decisions on gut feel, intuition, flawed and misleading information, or office politics, an organization is at risk.

Here are three proven steps:

Step #1: Survey users

Your CEO needs access to different data than the manager of HR. Yet there’s also a good chance that they may be interested in some of the same information. And even within the same departments, managers may seek different information. Managers have varying requirements and goals; some prefer a very high-level overview, while others want specific information and a lot of granular details.

So what’s a finance team to do?

It sounds simple, but it begins with good communication. Talk to users and find out what they want and why they want it. Ask what types of decisions they will make with better information. Delve into how they would like reports presented and how often they need them. From time to time, follow up with a brief meeting or a simple survey to ensure that managers are using reports and if there is any new information that would be useful.

Of course, it’s essential to continue to make ongoing investments in technology that ensure you can deliver the reports that business partners are looking for in user-friendly formats. Technology investments not only save FP&A time—which allows for a more thoughtful and strategic approach to generating relevant reports—they also have a measurable impact on the bottom line. A study conducted by Nucleus Research found the average return from each dollar spent on analytics technology was $13.01.

Step #2: Customize dashboards

A key strength of technology investments is dashboard technology. Dashboards have revolutionized reporting, dramatically reducing the mountains of spreadsheets with racked-and-stacked tables that find their way to managers and department heads via email or hard copy. So make sure you are making the most of the technology by working with users to customize dashboards so they can access the reports they want and in a format that is most useful to them.

A customized dashboard allows managers to do a better job by measuring and monitoring performance as well as proactively shaping business outcomes through real-time awareness of financial and sales data. Dashboards are also a powerful tool to track your company’s actual broader performance against your planned expectations and goals, year to date.

When it comes to dashboards, a quick demo can go a long way. You can show users the power of data visualization presented in a range of formats from standard bar, column, or doughnut charts to more engaging funnel, waterfall, and bubble graphics. And you can demonstrate how they can generate their own reports to gain even further insight into their team’s performance and how it impacts the entire organization.

These visualization tools have proven to be game-changers in terms of making reports accessible and understandable to a wide range of users. As a TechTarget writer recently pointed out: “Without (data visualizations), analytics teams are engaging in a nearly impossible task that’s tantamount to flying an airplane while blindfolded.”

Step #3: Track results

It’s often said that what gets measured gets done. It’s also often said that if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it, and if you cannot manage it, you cannot improve it. With that in mind, one way to ensure that relevant reports are being generated is to assess whether they are leading to measurable results.

Have reports resulted in greater efficiency, changes in behavior, or an uptick in sales and profits? Internally, are the reports helping drive collaboration and more insightful conversations? If not, why? You may need a deeper dive into whether the right information is getting into the right hands at the right time.

Opening lines of communication with business partners is key. Discuss targeted outcomes and then identify the reporting—or tweaks to reporting—that will provide the real-time data and insights to drive better results. Adaptive Insights customer Cumulus Media successfully applied this approach, instituting self-service reporting so users across the organization can create and run reports on demand. The result: It now takes just seconds—not days—to access and analyze business performance data relevant to each manager.

Finally, celebrate and highlight success. If a certain department is delivering big wins by leveraging insights from the reports it is receiving and generating, then promote and broadcast that throughout the organization. Success will breed success.

Good reporting leads to better results

Of course, it’s important to remember that when it comes to reports, finance should be a facilitator and strategic partner, not a hand-holder. Managers need to be self-sufficient. But it’s important to put the relevant information in their hands so they don’t have to track down finance every time they have a question.

Ultimately, good reporting leads to better results. By identifying and delivering the reports that leaders and managers throughout your organization need, FP&A can make a big impact and solidify its role as a strategic business partner. Finance has the opportunity to expand from bean counters to bean growers.

Gary Cokins is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, and author in enterprise and corporate performance management (EPM/CPM) systems. He is the founder of Analytics-Based Performance Management LLC. Gary can be reached at gcokins@garycokins.com

This blog post was originally published on the Workday Adaptive Planning blog.

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Filed Under: FP&A Done Right Tagged With: Adaptive Insights, Analytics, Budgeting, Budgeting Planning & Forecasting, dashboards, Financial Performance Management, financial reporting, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting

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

February 24, 2020 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

News & Events

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 » Planning & Reporting » Page 8

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Budgeting, budgeting software, Cognos TM1, Financial Performance Management, Forrester TEI report, IBM Cognos TM1, IBM Planning Analytics, Planning & Forecasting, Planning & Reporting, TM1

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