IBM is the safe choice if your planning needs are complex and detailed
Overall Satisfaction with IBM Planning Analytics with Watson
My organization is both a customer of IBM Planning Analytics, and an implementation Services provider. Internally we use it for financial planning and analysis (revenue & expense planning including workforce and capacity planning), management reporting, sales forecasting, cash forecasting and bonus & commissions calculations.
Pros
- Loads large volumes of data very quickly from external sources
- Scales to support very detailed models - e.g. SKU level products or many years of history
- Has very powerful and feature-rich Excel integration
- Powerful calculation engine that can be used for complex allocations (for example)
Cons
- It's very flexible, so it is possible to use it incorrectly
- Even though PA can be owned by the business, it requires a little investment to learn
- The new Workspace-based modeling UI does not (yet) have all the features needed
- Automate direct data connections to multiple data sources
- One secured version of the the truth (for data and formulas)
- Ability to scale to much more detailed planning with option to create predictive forecasts at detail
- Business user friendly with powerful Excel integration
- Very flexible and powerful modeling, can handle custom modeling needs at scale
- Can make the same data available across finance and ops, but at the level of details and timeline that makes sense for them
Scenario planning and what-if analysis are critical capabilities for any business to help manage uncertainties such as supply chain issues, inflation risk and the like. With IBM Planning Analytics you can build integrated models of different parts of your business at scale and then use those models to explore the impact on possible futures on cash, demand, capacity and so on. The ability of IBM Planning Analytics to support greater levels of detail without sacrificing performance enables companies to do things like use SKU level demand planning to drive the revenue forecast, or accommodate many years of detailed historical data to support a predictive forecast. And of course this scalability also supports being able to store and compare unlimited scenario snapshots.
IBM Planning Analytics with Watson will be up and running more quickly and be easier to maintain if modeling flexibility, scale, and the ability to plan at greater levels of detail are important requirements.
Do you think IBM Planning Analytics delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with IBM Planning Analytics's feature set?
Yes
Did IBM Planning Analytics live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of IBM Planning Analytics go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy IBM Planning Analytics again?
Yes
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