TM1

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Adding Images to Charts

September 12, 2023 by Ivan Cepero

Charts are an excellent way to use visuals to convey information. Did you know that you can increase the effect of charts in Excel by adding custom images?

Consider this plain pie chart.

Chart, pie chart

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We can insert a corporate logo to give the chart a greater visual appeal and branding.

1 – Click on the chart to select it

2 – Right click and select “Format Chart Area”

3 – Select “Picture or texture fill”

A screenshot of a phone

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4 – Select “Insert” to insert an image from your computer or “Clipboard” to insert a previously copied image

When clicking “Insert” you will see a pop up letting you pick various image sources.

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5 – You can further refine the options by having the image tile, offset or scale.

Here is the updated chart with the Revelwood logo applied, tiled and set with transparency level 80%:

You can also apply custom images to a specific data point (e.g. a pie slice in this example) by initially selecting the data point instead of the entire chart, then following the steps outlined above.

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: Popular Video Tips, Part 3

August 29, 2023 by Ivan Cepero

Here are two more popular IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks videos. Did you know we have an entire library of video tips & tricks for IBM Planning Analytics?

The Aggregate Function

In this video, Revelwood’s FP&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, demonstrates the aggregate function. The aggregate function allows you to summarize values that cannot be added up or averaged.

Creating Multi-Level Dimensions

Watch this video to learn how to create multi-level dimensions in Planning Analytics. This approach will let you create brand-new dimensions by simply dragging a file onto the screen. You’ll learn how to create a brand-new dimension using a file created in Notepad. See how Planning Analytics recognizes that the list is more than a list of leaf levels and more than just a parent/child relationship. You’ll also learn how to map the levels and add attributes.

Navigating the BPM Vendor Landscape: Key Insights from the 2023-2024 Report

August 25, 2023 by Revelwood

Business Performance Management (BPM) is a critical aspect of modern organizations, helping them streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and achieve their strategic goals. In the fast-paced world of BPM, choosing the right vendor and solution can be a daunting task.

The Vendor Landscape Matrix 2023-2024 Edition by BPM Partners provides a comprehensive overview of various BPM vendors, their capabilities, and customer satisfaction ratings, enabling organizations to make informed decisions. The Vendor Landscape Matrix, an annual report by BPM Partners, offers a comprehensive view of the BPM vendor landscape. The report delves into the specifics of various BPM vendors, highlighting their strengths, core capabilities, customer satisfaction ratings, and more.

According to the most recent report, “In the past 12 months, with a somewhat uncertain global economy, the need for performance management systems has continued to grow … The focus this year for companies looking for new or replacement systems are offerings that are integrated, intelligent, and intuitive.” The report also highlights that as extended planning and analysis (xP&A) grows into other areas of operations, “so does the need for seamless integration with a growing list of financial and operational source systems.” As a result, “the vendors are upgrading their data integration capabilities to keep up with this need.”

BPM Partners notes that “the next area of focus is intelligent performance management solutions. This includes both artificial intelligence (AI), as well as financial intelligence.” The report states that “the latest iterations of AI capabilities in most products are aimed at business users, not data scientists.” They define “financial intelligence” as the system “natively understand[ing] income/expense, asset/liability and balance/flow.”

BPM Partners Vendor Landscape Matrix is designed to provide “a point-in-time snapshot of all the core players, their status in the market, and the focus of their offerings.” The 2023-2024 Matrix covers the following BPM vendors: Aceterys, Anaplan, Board International, Centage, Fluence Technologies, IBM, JustPerform, OneStream, Pigment, Planful, Prophix, SAP, TalenTia, Unit4, Vena, Wolters Kluwer CCH Tagetik and XLerant.

Revelwood partners IBM (IBM Planning Analytics) and Fluence Technologies were named a Premier Leader (IBM) and a Leader (Fluence) in the 2023-2024 report. IBM received an Overall BPM Pulse rating of 4.14 (Very Good), while Fluence received an Overall BPM Pulse Rating of 4.67 (Outstanding).

IBM Planning Analytics

The BPM Partners report states that, “IBM Planning Analytics is designed for integrated and extensible planning and offers a unified set of capabilities for budgeting, planning, forecasting, analysis and reporting for financial as well as operational data.” The solution has an 82% recommendation rate. Recent developments include a new SaaS option for IBM Planning Analytics with AWS and IBM Envizi working with Planning for ESG reporting.

Fluence Technologies

According to BPM Partners, “The Fluence Close-to-Disclose platform is a cloud-based, consolidation-first solution that includes Fluence Account Reconciliation, Fluence Consolidation with out-of-the-box consolidation models and calculations, close management, Fluence Disclosure Management” and more. The solution has a 95% recommendation rate.

BPM Partners’ Vendor Landscape Matrix 2023-2024 Edition is a valuable resource for organizations seeking a comprehensive guide to BPM vendors. It offers detailed insights into vendors’ capabilities, customer satisfaction, and strengths, making it an indispensable tool for anyone embarking on their BPM journey. In a world where informed decisions drive success, this report empowers organizations to select the right BPM solution with confidence.

More from our FP&A Done Right Series:

Navigating Economic Volatility: Insights from CFOs

Workday Adaptive Planning Recognized with the 2023 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Financial Planning Software

No, Artificial Intelligence Will Not Replace Finance Jobs

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Counting Hidden Rows in Excel

August 22, 2023 by Ivan Cepero

With a clever combination of formulas, you can have Excel calculate the number of hidden rows in a data set. This trick will work on both manually hidden rows and autotfilter hidden rows.

There are two ways to count hidden rows, depending on how your data is structured. Both methods use the AGGREGATE function.

The syntax of AGGREGATE is:

=AGGREGATE(function_num,options,array)

Where

Function_num is one of the following:

Function_num	Function
1	AVERAGE
2	COUNT
3	COUNTA
4	MAX
5	MIN
6	PRODUCT
7	STDEV.S
8	STDEV.P
9	SUM
10	VAR.S
11	VAR.P
12	MEDIAN
13	MODE.SNGL
14	LARGE
15	SMALL
16	PERCENTILE.INC
17	QUARTILE.INC
18	PERCENTILE.EXC
19	QUARTILE.EXC

And options are one of the following:

Option	Behavior
Default	Ignore nested SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE functions
1	Ignore hidden rows, nested SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE functions
2	Ignore error values, nested SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE functions
3	Ignore hidden rows, error values, nested SUBTOTAL and AGGREGATE functions
4	Ignore nothing
5	Ignore hidden rows
6	Ignore error values
7	Ignore hidden rows and error values

We will be leveraging option 5: Ignore hidden rows

Consider the example data set:

Application, table, Excel

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Blank cells merit special treatment and will determine which method you use.

No Blanks in Data

If your data will have no blank (zeros are ok) like column D in the sample data set, you can use this formula to count the hidden rows:

=AGGREGATE(2,4,Table1[Feb])-AGGREGATE(2,5,Table1[Feb])

Blanks in Data

Table

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If there are blanks in the data (as in column C), you will need to add a helper column in Excel. The helper column will use AGGREGATE for the cell in the same row and this converts a blank into a 0. Use the same formula as the first method but use the helper column instead of the original data.

=AGGREGATE(2,4,G3:G7)-AGGREGATE(2,5,G3:G7)

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Popular Video Tips, Part 2

August 15, 2023 by Revelwood

We’re continuing to highlight some of our most popular video tips & tricks for IBM Planning Analytics.

Creating Buttons for TI Scripts

In this video, Revelwood’s FP&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, demonstrates how to create a button in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) for a TurboIntegrator (TI) script. Creating buttons like this will simplify tasks for your end users and create a much better end user experience.

You’ll learn how to go into properties, determine the button target, make that into a process, and then select and choose that process. The features in PAW allow you to select if you want prompts to appear and what controls you have over those prompts.

Formatting Views in PAW

Watch this video to see Lee demonstrate how to format views in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW). You’ll learn how to manipulate your views by:

Making columns wider
Changing row heights
Changing fonts and text styles
Adding shading, and more

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Performance Monitoring

August 8, 2023 by Andrew Chaves

IBM Planning Analytics contains a series of Performance Monitoring Control Cubes that let you record performance statistics for various aspects of your environment.

In Perspectives, this feature was enabled by right-clicking on the name of the server. But did you know that you can also control this in Planning Analytics Workspace via the tm1s.cfg control settings?

To enable the monitoring, go to the Administration area and then select the option for Databases. Once you have selected your database, click on “configuration.”

The performance monitor settings are found within the Administration settings and the Default sub area.

Once enabled (be aware that there may be an impact on performance when you use this), you will be able to use the results to help analyze your server performance.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Popular Video Tips, Part 1

August 1, 2023 by Revelwood

Did you know we have a library of video tips & tricks for IBM Planning Analytics? Over the next few weeks we’re going to highlight some of our most popular videos for IBM Planning Analytics / TM1.

Filtering in IBM Planning Analytics

In this video, Revelwood’s FP&A Technology Director, Lee Lazarow, demonstrates how the Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) interface enables you to manipulate elements in your subsets. The PAW interface allows for wild card searches and attribute searches. You’ll learn how PAW takes this a step further so that you can make your search criteria more structured, enabling you to filter by name, level, attribute and more.

Formatting Views in PAW

Watch this video to see Lee demonstrate how to format views in Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW). You’ll learn how to manipulate your views by:

Making columns wider
Changing row heights
Changing fonts and text styles
Adding shading, and more

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Expanding Sections of Stacked Dimensions

July 25, 2023 by Marc Assenza

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.

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

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.

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 Tips & Tricks: Creating Charts in Planning Analytics Workspace

July 18, 2023 by Revelwood

Charts can be an incredibly powerful tool for communicating complex data in an accessible and visually appealing way. In the world of enterprise planning, IBM Planning Analytics provides users with the ability to create detailed and informative charts through its workspace interface, Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW).

This blog post is based on a recent webinar on creating PAW charts in the New Experience. We explore some of the key features and techniques for creating charts in PAW and how they can help your organization make more informed decisions.

Getting Started: The Basics of PAW

Before getting into creating charts, it’s worth taking a quick look at the basics of PAW and how it works. PAW is a web-based interface that allows users to easily access and analyze data stored within IBM Planning Analytics. It includes a range of features and tools for exploration, analysis, and reporting, with the ability to create custom dashboards, reports, and visualizations.

PAW offers two different versions, Classic and the New Experience. While the Classic version is still available, the New Experience offers a more modern and intuitive user interface, with added applications and plans, Watson-related components, and changes to administration and charting functions.

Types of Visualizations

Once you have a basic understanding of PAW, it’s time to start exploring the different types of visualizations that can be created. PAW offers a variety of chart types that can help you visualize your data, including comparison, composition, and trend charts.

Comparison charts are useful when you want to compare two or more data series side-by-side, such as comparing actual versus forecasted revenue. Composition charts, on the other hand, are used to show the composition of a single data series, such as the breakdown of sales by product category. Trend charts are ideal for highlighting trends and patterns over time, such as changes in website traffic or sales revenue.

Creating a Chart: The Three Approaches

When it comes to creating a chart in PAW, there are three main approaches you can take. The first is to convert an existing Exploration to a chart, which can be done using drag-and-drop functionality and a subset editor. This approach is great when you already have an Exploration with the data you want to visualize.

The second approach is to duplicate an existing chart and make tweaks to it as needed. This is useful when you want to create multiple similar charts quickly without having to start from scratch each time.

Finally, the third approach is to manually create a visualization from scratch in a book. This approach allows for the most customization, as you can define the axes, filters, and formatting of the chart yourself.

Once you’ve chosen your approach, it’s time to start customizing your chart. PAW provides a range of options for bars, length, start, target, repeat, and filters, allowing you to fine-tune your visualization to best suit your needs. You can also add value labels to the chart to provide additional context and make it easier for viewers to understand the data being presented.

Tips for Effective Chart Design

While creating a chart in PAW is relatively straightforward, there are some best practices to keep in mind to ensure your chart is as effective as possible. Here are a few tips to consider:

Consider your audience: Who will be viewing your chart? Make sure the design and content are appropriate for your intended audience.
Keep it simple: Don’t try to cram too much information onto one chart. Focus on the key data points and keep the design clean and uncluttered.
Use the right chart type: Make sure you choose the chart type that best suits the data you are presenting and the story you want to tell.
Label everything: Be sure to label all axes, data points, and categories to ensure your chart is clear and easy to understand.
Use color wisely: Colors can be a great way to highlight important data points, but be sure to use them sparingly and consistently across all your charts.

Conclusion

Creating charts in PAW can be a powerful way to communicate complex data in a clear and accessible way. With a range of chart types and customization options, PAW provides users with the tools they need to create informative and visually appealing visualizations. Keep these tips in mind as you start experimenting with creating charts in PAW, and you’ll be on your way to creating clear, compelling reports that drive informed decision-making.

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Adding Images to Charts

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks:

IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: Popular Video Tips, Part 3

Read more IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks: