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A complete practitioner's guide to IBM Planning Analytics Workflow — how it works, how to build one from scratch, and what's coming next that will change the game entirely. WHAT YOU WILL TAKE AWAY ✓ Why IBM Planning Analytics Workflow exists — and what problem it solves for FP&A teams ✓ The difference between Plans and Applications — and when to use each ✓ A step-by-step playbook for building a production-grade custom workflow ✓ Every confirmed update and upcoming feature on the 2026 roadmap Why Planning Cycles Break Without Workflow Every quarter, finance teams across the world do the ...

Agentic AI Acceleration in Finance: From Pilots to Execution in 90 Days The Answer that most CFO’s are looking for, AI in Finance, is to redesign finance as a governed, autonomous execution system, and we prove it in 90 days CFOs don’t have an AI problem. They have an execution problem. Across most enterprises, AI is being deployed at the surface—copilots, chat interfaces, and isolated automations—while the core execution layer of finance remains fragmented. The result is predictable: stalled initiatives, unclear ROI, and growing skepticism at the executive level. What users see is ...

If you are a CFO or finance director at an Australian mid-market company, you have spent the last 18 months watching every vendor on the planet tell you that AI will transform your function. You have sat through the demos. You have seen the slide decks. You have heard the promises. And you have probably noticed that most of it does not address the two questions that keep you up at night: Where does my data go? Can I trust this thing to make decisions on my behalf: legally? This guide is written from the perspective of a firm that has been doing enterprise finance technology in Australia for ...

If you are comparing TM1 and Power BI, you are asking the wrong question. These are not competing products. They solve fundamentally different problems. TM1 is a planning engine, and Power BI is a visualisation platform. Comparing them is like comparing an engine to a dashboard: one produces the power, and the other displays the information. The real question is: when do you use each, and how do you connect them? The Core Difference in One Sentence TM1 writes data. Power BI reads data. That is the entire architectural divide in eight words. IBM Planning Analytics (TM1) is a database where ...

IBM Planning Analytics (TM1) is a powerful enterprise planning and analytics platform used for budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. This premium roadmap is designed to take you from beginner to job-ready TM1 developer with practical skills, real-world use cases, and interview preparation. Phase 1: Fundamentals (Week 1–2) Understand OLAP concepts (Dimensions, Cubes, Measures) Explore TM1 Architecture (Server, PAW, TM1 Web) Install and navigate Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) Understand basic cube and dimension structures Phase 2: Core TM1 Development (Week 3–5) Create Dimensions, ...

IBM TM1 models can get messy fast, especially when you use alternate hierarchies and elements show up in multiple places. That's where the TM1DISTINCT MDX function quietly saves the day. Instead of blindly stripping out anything that "looks" duplicated, it understands TM1's hierarchies and only removes true duplicates – the exact same member in the exact same context The Problem: Why Regular DISTINCT Isn't Enough Imagine you're building a dynamic subset of Products. You pull all products under All Products, then union it with a special "Focus Products" consolidation. Now some products appear ...

Over the past two years, enterprise conversations around AI have been dominated by one theme: “We need a chatbot.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth, Most AI initiatives don’t fail because of poor models. They fail because the data behind those models is not trusted. Before organizations can scale AI, they must solve a more fundamental challenge: Can your business trust the data driving your decisions? The Illusion of AI Readiness Many enterprises believe they are AI-ready because they have: Data warehouses BI dashboards Reporting tools Multiple versions of the same KPI Manual data ...

Not all financial close platforms are equal. Here's exactly what to look for, what questions to ask, and why most vendors will struggle to answer them. The financial close software market looks more crowded and more confusing than it did five years ago. Task management tools, RPA platforms, ERP-native modules, AI copilots, and now agentic AI systems — all claiming to solve the same problem, all using similar language to describe very different capabilities. If you're evaluating options in 2026, you need a way to cut through the noise and ask the right questions. This guide gives you exactly ...

The difference between a chatbot, a copilot, and an agent isn't just technical. It changes everything about what AI can actually do for your close. If you've spent any time around technology in the last two years, you've heard the word AI used to describe everything from a spell-checker to a tool that can apparently run your entire finance operation. Most of it is noise. But underneath the noise, something genuinely significant is happening — and if you're a CFO, Financial Controller, or finance leader, it's worth understanding what it actually is, because the practical implications for your ...

The close has a structural problem. Here's what it actually is and why the solution isn't what most finance leaders think. 6–10 Business days lost to close every month 67% Of finance leaders cite close as their #1 stress source 30+ hours/month spent on manual reconciliations Let's be honest about something. You've probably tried to fix the close before. Maybe you hired more analysts. Maybe you invested in an RPA tool that automated a handful of repetitive tasks. Maybe you tightened up your close calendar, sent the chasers earlier, and ran a post-mortem after every painful period end. And yet. ...

When the Room Agrees: AI is Reshaping Finance — But Only If Your Foundation is Ready There are conferences where you hear ideas you've never encountered before. And there are conferences where the room puts language to things you've been seeing in practice — where the conversations happening on stage mirror almost exactly what you've been building with clients behind the scenes. Today's Gartner Finance & Accounting Symposium in Sydney was firmly the latter. I attended a standout panel session that brought together three of the sharpest finance leaders in the room: Matt Clifford, GM ...

Here’s a scenario I see playing out across organisations right now. Finance teams have invested significantly in TM1 — IBM Planning Analytics — but somewhere along the way, the platform stopped feeling like a competitive advantage and started feeling like a liability. Excel is creeping back in. Enhancements are taking months. The system goes down at the worst possible moment. And in many cases, the entire environment is held together by one or two people who are a single resignation away from becoming a crisis. I’ve spent the last twenty years working with TM1 environments across every size ...