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TM1

QUBEdocs Streamlines TM1 Documentation

June 24, 2016 by John Pra Sisto Leave a Comment

Tips & Tricks

Understanding and documenting existing IBM® Cognos® TM1® models can be a time-consuming process. When making changes to complex models, it is challenging to fully understand the implications of these changes to ensure issues or inaccuracies won’t arise. Having made the changes, documentation must be also updated.

I recently sat down with our partner, Scott Felten, General Manager of QUBEdocs, to talk about the benefits of using QUBEdocs for TM1 documentation.

Q: What is QUBEdocs?
Scott: QUBEdocs is a proven solution for addressing the everyday challenges of TM1 analysts, developers and administrators. By delivering meaningful documentation of TM1 models, it virtually eliminates many of the time-consuming tasks associated with managing and making risk-free changes to TM1 models.

Q: How does it work?
Scott: QUBEdocs automates and centralizes the documentation of TM1 models, by allowing you to tag model constructs such as business rules, models, processes and applications. Integrating closely with TM1, it pulls information from vast numbers of underlying TM1 source files enabling you to organize your model and delivering an otherwise-unavailable consolidated view:

  • Depicting models visually
  • Delivering hard to find information to developers, administrators and end users in a meaningful way
  • Displaying comprehensive model dependencies
  • Enabling impact analysis of proposed changes
  • Highlighting errors through integrity checks
  • Tracking changes to meet corporate governance requirements
  • Capturing and reporting on changes over time or between environments
  • Maintaining documentation as changes are made

Q: What benefits can an organization expect from using QUBEdocs?
Scott: QUBEdocs significantly decreases the cost of managing your TM1 implementation, adding significant value to your business. QUBEdocs automatically generates documentation for TM1 models and uses a simple framework for translating the technical aspects in TM1 into your own business language ‘as you go’ resulting in time and resource savings. Presenting comprehensive TM1 model information in a meaningful way, QUBEdocs empowers users to logically and visually interrogate their model – making them less likely to make errors that result in support costs. Users and developers can clearly see dependencies within complex models, depict the models visually and search entire models. This allows them to effectively anticipate the impact of changes before making them.

Want to learn more about QUBEdocs? Contact John Pra Sisto.

Read other Tech Tips blog posts:

IBM Planning Analytics: Using the Full Power of MDX

Important Things to Consider When Changing your COA Structure

Securing Data from IBM Cognos TM1 On-Prem to IBM Planning Analytics

How to use IBM Planning Analytics Workspace

Home » TM1 » Page 37

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Financial Performance Management, QUBEdocs, TM1

Cash Flow Modeling with IBM TM1

March 15, 2016 by Don Cole Leave a Comment

Tips & Tricks

As a senior consultant with Revelwood for nearly seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to design and develop a large number of TM1 models for various aspects of budgeting, planning and forecasting. Some client engagements are very straightforward – simply transition the business from spreadsheet-based budgeting to TM1. This gives them greater flexibility and visibility while significantly reducing the amount of time spent on the budgeting process. All good and necessary stuff to properly manage an organization’s finances in today’s fast-paced business environment.

But every now and then, I’ve also had the opportunity to design and develop a TM1 model that’s completely new – not just a “standard” financial accounting activity, or a modification required for a specific industry. And that’s when my job is really fun.

One recent client engagement is a perfect example of doing something new in TM1. We developed a cash flow model designed specifically to reflect the reality of the business situation along with addressing the complexity of a multi-billion dollar business. Often, finance executives and analysts look at a forecast and focus on net income, sales or profitability. But what’s equally important is the impact those variables will have on cash.

On one hand it’s pretty simple. The more net income you have, the more cash you are going to have. However, our client wanted to say, “Based on our forecast, if I keep $100 million in cash, how much will I need to borrow or repay on my debt?” To get to this, we needed the model to reflect the entire business, including the forecast net income, capital expenditures and shareholder dividends. It needed to include everything we know about all the transactions, and how they impact the end result.

This may sound very different from “traditional” forecasting, but in fact, it’s just taking it one step further. At its simplest, it’s about taking all the known information and modeling that information so that the client can look at it in a different way. And that, to me, means there is always something more we can do with TM1. It’s not limited to basic budgeting and forecasting. In fact, operationally, you can measure any metric or KPI and create dashboards for them. Projects like this one – ones that push TM1 past the basics – are fun and engaging to work on.

Home » TM1 » Page 37

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Financial Performance Management, Planning & Reporting, TM1

Working with TM1 in the Cloud

January 19, 2016 by Revelwood Leave a Comment

Tips & Tricks

This is a guest blog post by Revelwood’s Susan Musselman.

As a senior consultant with Revelwood, I’ve had the opportunity to work on many different implementations of IBM Cognos TM1. But last year I was able to tackle a very cool project – one of the first implementations of TM1 in the Cloud (now IBM Planning Analytics). This wasn’t just one of the first Revelwood implementations—it was one of IBM’s first implementations. It was all new territory.

Our client was a leading direct marketer of apparel and accessories. They were looking to have a budgeting and reporting application that would significantly reduce the amount of effort required by their spreadsheet-based planning process, and to have the ability to perform ad hoc analysis to satisfy immediate inquiries from senior management. They also wanted to be able to more easily create cash flow statements, monitor the budget submission status of budget contributors and give their end users the ability to perform their own ad hoc analysis.

These are pretty standard activities for TM1. So one might wonder why this company opted for TM1 in the Cloud. They felt their geographically diverse user base would best be served by a cloud implementation. In fact, their IT department had set a corporate strategy to move all its applications to the cloud. The company no longer wanted to invest in solutions that required data center space and extensive IT support.

Because it was a cloud implementation, we only had two methods of delivery—either TM1 Web or TM1 CAFÉ (Cognos Analysis for Microsoft Excel). We opted to use CAFÉ, which was brand-new at the time. Working with new technologies can be challenging, but as a result of our long-term relationships with IBM and participation and attendance at IBM Vision, we had developed relationships with the TM1 in the Cloud developers and the CAFÉ developers. These connections ended up being critical to the implementation’s success. We ended up in some very interactive meetings with the IBMers, which enabled both our client and our team to provide input on future product directions for CAFÉ.

Phase one was completed last year, and the client is very happy with their decision. Now we’re focused on building cash flow models and a budgeting application for their retail store sales. It felt really great for both the client and our Revelwood team to be early adopters for how TM1 will be used in the future.

Home » TM1 » Page 37

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Financial Performance Management, Planning & Reporting, TM1

Roundtable Recap: The Most Important Things to Know Before, During and After a TM1 Implementation

July 10, 2015 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

News & Events

One of our clients, Orchard Brands, recently participated in an IBM virtual roundtable, and we thought it would be useful to share our recap of the major themes and notable points that each panelist had to offer. The panel included four different IBM clients – Orchard Brands, Logistics AG, Jabil, Inc. and Mueller, Inc. What made this roundtable particularly unique was that every client is currently in a different lifecycle stage with their TM1 product. Some are approaching just a year post-implementation, while others are going on 10-15 years. Here is a recap of the common questions and answers from the roundtable.

What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned after implementing TM1?
“The people,” culture, listening and preparedness are the most important components to having a successful implementation. Knowing from the beginning who is going to run the tool, who will maintain it and planning for change management are all aspects that need to be carefully and thoroughly reviewed. Also, the employee’s jobs that included consolidating spreadsheets become obsolete – how to transform these employees from data crunchers to business people is really important to a company’s culture. Another vital aspect of preparedness includes having the right documentation and reference materials in place. In the case of Orchard Brands, they were the first ever to implement TM1 on the cloud, so a lot of their documentation was being developed as they implemented, which made it a learning experience. Lastly, it’s important to listen to your employees and team members to understand what they’d like to get out of the tool and what is important to them in their day-to-day process. This understanding helps shape the most effective setup and configuration of TM1 from the beginning.

Which new capabilities do you have now, that you didn’t have five years ago?
Visualizing the data in a manner that allows for speed, scalability and volume all at once is key. This has allowed for more data to be thrown at the system and new ways to test TM1. As soon as someone makes a change in the system, it’s immediately visual in their BI system, which previously, had taken hours to update. TM1 has also opened doors, where never thought possible, to other areas of the business like supply chain management, long term planning, pricing, workflows, marketing and sourcing. Although TM1 is a finance-built tool, its interface easily allows for integration across multiple departments, creating a more diverse platform. The other areas of the business (where no ROI was anticipated) has actually been the biggest value.

What is the most important business value improvement you’ve seen from TM1, or anticipate seeing?
Time is of the essence and time is money. TM1 has sped up forecasting, analysis and reacting to sudden changes. This decrease of time spent crunching numbers and consolidating spreadsheets has widened the opportunity to develop new capabilities focused on revenue-generating analysis that help companies grow. Being able to make a decision quicker and with more confidence is a HUGE cost saver. The cost of making a decision a day earlier can save thousands of dollars. Those things add up. This freed up time has also opened doors for exploring how TM1 can impact other areas of the business. Also, TM1 can provide a “500 page level data” or a “20 page level data.” One element can provide for multiple constituencies by displaying the relevant analysis as high-level or as in-depth as you need. Figuring out how to consolidate these lengthy reports to deliver to senior management had previously been a huge time consumer.

What are your thoughts on TM1 Cloud and what steps are you taking in evaluating cloud options?
Orchard Brands is currently running TM1 on the cloud, while the other three clients are running TM1 on-premise. There are mixed reviews about cloud, but it all comes down to if it’s a right fit for your company or not. One huge benefit of cloud for Orchard Brands is that the system is completely contained in finance, with little to no involvement in IT. This separation allows for finance to wholly own and understand the system. Cloud is also a strategic move for most companies considering ease, security and flexibility. Some clients currently aren’t considering cloud because they have recently invested in infrastructure to get new servers, but may consider it on their next go-around. Another panelist viewed that cloud solutions are the future and they can’t wait for it. It’s talked about and considered on a daily basis. Cloud makes your IT department “lean” if you can eliminate infrastructure, maintenance upgrades and migrations. It all comes back to being fully educated about the pros and cons of cloud, and understanding how it would positively or negatively affect your business, and weighing those factors against each other.

What’s your best advice for selling the business case for TM1 to senior management?
It’s important to put your people and process above the technology. Prepare the business case for the positive impact of your people and process, and put that above simply your technology upgrades. Paint a picture of good, concrete examples of “where we are now, and where we can get to in the future.” Focus on the time you’re going to save with this new tool and how this corresponds to “X amount of dollars over the next X amount of months.” Use the concrete examples of new reports, capabilities and hours spent to show how specific applications of TM1 can provide tangible results going forward. Understand your company’s vision, mission and objectives and present your case in a business-focused manner, directly related back to the company’s long-term goals. With this approach, you can’t go wrong.

Home » TM1 » Page 37

Filed Under: IBM Planning Analytics Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Financial Performance Management, Planning & Reporting, TM1

A Strange Journey from Hospitality to TM1 Consulting

May 6, 2015 by Nicole Frigo Leave a Comment

News & Events

Just about a year ago I joined Revelwood as an associate consultant working on client implementations using IBM Cognos TM1 and IBM Cognos ICM. It was a great move for so many reasons, but also a surprising one in the context of a career path.

Ten years ago I started my professional life as a reservations agent with Starwood Hotels & Resorts. In those intervening ten years, my jobs transitioned from guest relations roles to operations roles, where I analyzed sales revenue. Most recently, I was the manager of sales analysis for Starwood, working on the standardization and development of analytical tools for system reporting and sales trend analysis. During that time I worked on a web application and relational database for complex performance compensation plans and developed a property-level scorecard for key reporting metrics. Oh, and I was a TM1 administrator.

While I loved working in the hospitality industry, the opportunity with Revelwood meant I’d be able to expand my technology expertise and work in a number of different industries. To date I’ve worked on TM1 and Cognos ICM implementations for businesses in the media & entertainment and financial services industries.

One of the things I love about working with TM1 is that it’s both “like and unlike” working on one of my hobbies. During my free time, I love doing artistic things – creating art, painting, refurbishing furniture. It both fuels my creativity, but also forces me to focus on small details. And there’s nothing like the feeling of seeing the finished product – especially if the “before” required a lot of work to get to the “after.” It’s a huge payoff.

Some might argue that working with TM1 is not really a creative exercise. That might be true, but I do see a creative angle to it. TM1 offers so many ways to get something done, there’s room for creativity. And the software has so many pieces to it that working in it requires great attention to detail. I love that TM1 provides an almost limitless opportunity to learn and do different things. I get the opportunity to build a model or create a piece of code, go back and improve it, and then see the results.

Just as I enjoy the diversity of working with different businesses, I also like the opportunity to work on not just TM1, but also Cognos ICM. And those technologies are very different from TM1. The approach is quite different from that of TM1. There’s more building and putting together of “pieces” in Cognos ICM. Once you’ve built, say, a report, if there’s an error, you have to go back through those pieces to find where the break is.

Even though I never imagined my career would take me from a reservation agent at a hotel chain to working with the latest in analytics technologies, it’s been a great journey. And as I mark my first year at Revelwood, I’m looking forward to the new clients and new projects I get to jump in to in 2015!

Home » TM1 » Page 37

Filed Under: News & Events Tagged With: Analytics, Financial Performance Management, Revelwood, TM1

Revelwood’s BPM Suite Named Best FP&A Technology Tool

September 11, 2013 by Lisa Minneci Leave a Comment

Awards & Recognition

We’re pleased to share that yesterday the Revelwood BPM Suite (now called Lightspeed) was named Best FP&A Technology Tool at the Financial Forecasting & Planning Innovation Conference!

The BPM Suite is an out-of-the box implementation accelerator for mid-market and enterprise financial planning, reporting and analytics. It is the first and only fully developed application accelerator for planning, reporting and analytics on the IBM Cognos TM1 and IBM Cognos Express Xcelerator platforms.

The judging panel that selected the BPM Suite over competing products was made up of financial planning and analysis practitioners from Papa Murphy’s, Skype, Newell Rubbermaid, Siemens, Actavis and Carters. They evaluated the BPM Suite based on the quantifiable benefits it delivers to Revelwood clients.

For example, the BPM Suite has enabled Revelwood clients to:

  • Cut the amount of time they spend on monthly budgeting by 50%
  • Perform the monthly close five times faster
  • Reduce the time for the reevaluation process from “hours on end” to 30 minutes

“Revelwood’s BPM Suite accelerated our implementation by giving us a starting point for financial and staff related planning and reporting,” said Dimitrios Misantonis, director of financial systems, Madison Square Garden.

The award was one of seven given out at this week’s conference, which drew more than 200 FP&A professionals from across the world. Our fellow award winners included Louisville Slugger, Zipcar and The Boston Globe.

We’d like to thank The IE Group, who organized the conference and gave out the awards, and the judges who took time out of their busy schedules to evaluate the BPM Suite. And congrats to our fellow award winners!

Home » TM1 » Page 37

Filed Under: Awards & Recognition Tagged With: Analytics, Budgeting, Financial Performance Management, Lightspeed Planning & Reporting, Planning & Reporting, TM1

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