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How to utilize TM1 Planning Analytics functionality for your Technology Allocations

Allocation Technology and other Service charges back to the departments is typically a difficult exercise for most organisations. There is a large amount of different data sources , data mapping, calculations and reporting capability required. This is just for the actuals – forecasting accurately is usually a bridge too far for most organisations. It does not have to be this difficult!

Why do we need to allocate charges – It largely influences the behavior and ensures that departments incur appropriate level of expense based on their usage. With larger enterprises it also has tax implications when service provider and receiver are in different countries or jurisdictions. (Transfer pricing is high on radar of most governments and the largest of our corporations)

Accurate allocations also provide transparency to both the department heads and the CIO’s on the cost base and its distribution. It is crucial in planning supply and demand of IT services.

As the CFO of your company, your organisation relies on you for more than just numbers. Yes, spreadsheets and financial reports are the hallmarks of your profession.

But what about business intelligence and forecasting?

Today, the explosion of data available in business matches the explosion of competition in today’s markets and CFOs need to harness that wealth of data to compete. CFOs need better business intelligence tools to identify upcoming opportunities and grab them before their competitor does. They also need to foresee potential losses and advise on how to mitigate risk. In short, they need to focus on analytics to be able to predict the future so their business owners can react quickly.

IBM Cognos TM1 supported by Planning Analytics is the ideal technology for making Excel-centric budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and any spreadsheet-based analytical application scale to the enterprise.

Is your organisation not realising the full potential of your IBM TM1 implementation?

Balancing Flexibility and Standards - IBM Cognos TM1 Govern Data Discovery

The world of data has infinite variety…and infinite requirements. No single analytics solution will please everyone. But it is possible to combine the strengths of complementary solutions to help meet the needs of both enterprise IT personnel who crave data governance and the end business users who are hungry for self-service. IBM offers different flavors of analytics to bring you the best side-by-side experience.

In today’s blog, I would like to focus on IBM Cognos TM1 Planning Analytics - a unique union of data governance reporting and dashboards coupled with smart data discovery that just about anyone can use. With self-service, cognitive insight, visualisation, data governance, reporting and sharing, this blended analytics solution is bigger than the sum of its parts.

I have been closely following and writing about trends in the business intelligence market over the past three years. During this time, I can’t say that we’ve seen any “radically new” trends, and I don’t expect any to emerge in the second half of 2017. What I have seen, so far in 2017, is the “evolution” of the dominant trends driving a dynamic BI market. The global business intelligence market is expected to reach USD 26.50 billion by 2021, growing at a CAGR of around 8.4% between 2016 and 2021 (Zion Market Research).

This may be the most cost effective and scalable method to take your TM1 application to the next level.

There are many reasons why outsourcing your TM1 support and development could be the right solution for your organisation:

- Access to highly skilled TM1 developers on demand in a cost effective way

- Models built a couple of years ago haven't evolved with the business

- Lack of ownership within the organisation

- Shortage of skilled TM1 specialists capable of managing the application

In today's blog, we would like to list and discuss the five key benefits of outsourcing your TM1 support services rather than managing them in-house.

Budgeting and Forecasting is a key function provided by the Finance team. Its no secret that most of the teams dread the budgeting period. Not only it ends up being a manual data crunching and bogged down in spreadsheets it also is a soul destroying exercise as many Finance professionals go through the motions knowing that the numbers they are generating are not relevant and cannot be reliably used to make key enterprise decisions. 

Organisational complexity is growing. Business demands more insights, better granularity and driver based projections. With evolving business environment ability to react and predict internal and external factors is key to keeping your edge. It is impossible to cater for these needs using just excel. You simply cannot have a accurate forecasting done in a timely manner and cater for functionalities like what if scenario at granular level, driver based forecasting, divisional forecasts rolling up to group level  and be able to bring in actual an re forecast at a frequency that is demanded.