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December 13, 2023
5 min
With the holiday season just around the corner, the air is buzzing with excitement as individuals eagerly anticipate spending quality time with their loved ones. As companies prepare for the annual shutdown, employees are gearing up for some much-needed rest and relaxation. However, amidst the festivities, it's essential to ensure that business operations continue to run smoothly, especially for ...
With the holiday season just around the corner, the air is buzzing with excitement as individuals eagerly anticipate spending quality time with their loved ones. As companies prepare for the annual shutdown, employees are gearing up for some much-needed rest and relaxation. However, amidst the festivities, it's essential to ensure that business operations continue to run smoothly, especially for those facing month-end reporting obligations.
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The holiday season is a time to unwind, reflect, and connect with family and friends. However, in finance, the show must go on. As your key personnel take time off the forecasting and reporting must continue. This is where you can lean on us to ensure that your models and users are supported throughout this period. There is always an errant data load or a report that does not work the way it is meant to. Our Octane Blue TM1 team are an expert consultant and would be able to track issues and fix them. And yes we are available 24/7.
Key man risk is the phenomenon of placing knowledge, skills, and important relationships in the hands of one or a few staff members. If this key man is to leave the business, they take their knowledge with them, leaving the business open for risk. This is a position that even most key persons hate as it limits their ability to progress within the organisation or get a promotion. This key person also wants to take a longer break and holidays. When this key person decides to move on from the role there is a mad scramble to do knowledge transfer. We walk into this scenario all the time to pick up the pieces and take over support. And in all the cases the model documentation is non-existent.
Your TM1 requirements are not static - You have busy months, unplanned outages, and a business that keeps evolving requiring your tools to keep up to pace. However, most of our support models are stuck in the past in a static mode. You can scale up or down based on what activities are happening in your application. During peak periods your users would appreciate having someone that can fix any data load and reconciliation issues that could suck up valuable hours waiting around. A lot of our clients also like having active monitoring during peak periods. On the same token, you can always scale down your usage of Octane Blue when there are no active support requirements or enhancements pipeline. Being a Pay as you go support you only pay for what you use.
We have a 100% client retention rate. There is no need for us to bind you to a 12-month contract or any other mechanism to keep you as a client. We believe our service and expertise are enough. Therefore we have removed the need to sign a 12-month contract. You can use us as a once-off or ongoing. We will take the burden of ensuring you are happy with the service and keep using us. We also don't ask you to break up with your existing vendor.
Octane Blue is a 40-hour unit of octane services. We do not differentiate between Support and development. You can buy however units you need per month. No need to stress if you don't end up using the hours as we will roll it over for another month. You can utilize these hours for any support tickets, enhancements, or mini-projects. For larger projects, we recommend Octane Projects as that gives you a higher level of governance.
We also open up our training portal for your users so they get access to unlimited free TM1 training. As you and us both know a trained user means a reduced number of tickets.
This client is the leading steel supplier and manufacturer for the building and construction industry in Australia. They have been using TM1 for over 10 years. They started using Octane Blue for their support and enhancements in one of their divisions. 12 months on Octane has transitioned into supporting all divisions. In their quarterly TM1 User Forum, the team reflected on the benefits Octane Blue has delivered for them:
This organisation is a unique mix of agribusiness and processing operations across multiple countries. They are the largest grains and oilseeds storage, handling, and processing assets in eastern Australia. They offer a global end-to-end supply chain. They have been using TM1 across the organization for their financial reporting and Budgeting. Due to M&A activity, their in-house team was at capacity and they started using Octane Blue. Initially, it was for End User support but has morphed into Development, Enhancement, and support streams.
What they love is :
All our clients are happy to provide a reference so we can facilitate a call with them.
We ensure that onboarding you as a client is a seamless and easy exercise. We have our onboarding checklist that the team will use to ensure we have the correct level of access and work with your IT teams to get this organised. Post that we will go through model understanding and set up ticketing systems. All our services are SLA based so you have full transparency on tasks and status.
You can start assigning us support and/or enhancement tickets. We recommend you get us to do a Flight check with you so we can gather a full understanding of the model very quickly as well as identify bottlenecks and complications built into it over the years.
See here for more details. Octane Blue
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July 31, 2024
3 min
Effective management of Planning Analytics (TM1), particularly with tools like IBM’s TM1, can significantly enhance your organization’s financial planning and performance management.
Here are some essential tips to help you optimize your Planning Analytics (TM1) processes:
Before diving into the technicalities, ensure you have a clear understanding of your business requirements. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that are critical to your organization. This understanding will guide the configuration and customization of your Planning Analytics model.
TM1 cubes are powerful data structures that enable complex multi-dimensional analysis. Properly designing your cubes is crucial for efficient data retrieval and reporting. Ensure your cubes are optimized for performance by avoiding unnecessary dimensions and carefully planning your cube structure to support your analysis needs.
Automating data integration processes can save time and reduce errors. Use ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools to automate the extraction of data from various sources, its transformation into the required format, and its loading into TM1. This ensures that your data is always up-to-date and accurate.
Data security is paramount, especially when dealing with financial and performance data. Implement robust security measures within your Planning Analytics environment. Use TM1’s security features to control access to data and ensure that only authorized users can view or modify sensitive information.
Regularly reviewing and optimizing your Planning Analytics models is essential to maintain performance and relevance. Analyze the performance of your TM1 models and identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies. Periodically update your models to reflect changes in business processes and requirements.
Incorporate advanced analytics and AI capabilities to gain deeper insights from your data. Use predictive analytics to forecast future trends and identify potential risks and opportunities. TM1’s integration with other IBM tools, such as Watson, can enhance your analytics capabilities.
Ensure that your team is well-trained in using Planning Analytics and TM1. Comprehensive training will enable users to effectively navigate the system, create accurate reports, and perform sophisticated analyses. Consider regular training sessions to keep the team updated on new features and best practices.
Encourage collaboration among different departments within your organization. Planning Analytics can serve as a central platform where various teams can share insights, discuss strategies, and make data-driven decisions. This collaborative approach can lead to more cohesive and effective planning.
Regularly monitor the health of your Planning Analytics environment. Keep an eye on system performance, data accuracy, and user activity. Proactive maintenance can prevent issues before they escalate, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted operation.
Sometimes, managing Planning Analytics and TM1 can be complex and may require expert assistance. Engaging with specialized support services can provide you with the expertise needed to address specific challenges and optimize your system’s performance.
By following these tips, you can effectively manage your Planning Analytics environment and leverage the full potential of TM1 to drive better business outcomes. Remember, continuous improvement and adaptation are key to staying ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of financial planning and analytics.
For specialized TM1 support and expert guidance, consider consulting with professional service providers like Octane Software Solutions. Their expertise can help you navigate the complexities of Planning Analytics, ensuring your system is optimized for peak performance. Book me a meeting
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November 3, 2022
3 min
One of the interesting things about Octane Red and Blue is that there is no onboarding you can start to ticket on the first day of your subscription. Over time, we are studying tickets that the user creates and anticipate that the user will have the same ticket for the next month so we will create it in advance so that users will no longer make one, that is what we call recurring tickets.
There is a lot of automation that we can introduce, and this will no longer require any human intervention needed during the process, and tasks that are ticketed will be automated.
Preventative maintenance is where we take a lot of responsibility in TM1 to make sure that it is running lean, running clean, and running smart. If you don’t have a ticketing system within their organization, don’t worry because we will introduce you to a ticketing engine instead of sending emails, we will set up a ticketing app and the users can use this. This will help us track the ticketing hours we have every month and track the number of tickets made every month and if the volume of tickets reduces over the months passed.
In one of our client’s scenarios when they started with us, they were able to have 200 tickets, and then over time, we were able to reduce the tickets by 20% every 3 months. They just started with 3 units of Octane Blue and by the time with 6 months of engagement with the clients, we were able to reduce it to 1 ½. One of our KPIs with this product is the number of tickets, we want the volume of tickets to drop every month.
This ticketing application we use will help us read that to see how well we are on track. Once, the ticketing app is set up we are going to give the finance officer a chance to become the ticketing board leader, with this he gets to decide the priority tickets. The users then begin the ticketing on the board and the finance officer will be the one to decide what ticket to prioritize.
The process that happens between the finance office and the users is important because this is where preventive maintenance takes place. This is where we will take responsibility for how well your TM1 is running.
Let’s say you have opted in for the 40 hours of Octane blue, and you are already at the end of the month and there are 10 hours left. An octane (that is one of us) will ticket to themselves – “Preventive maintenance”, which means that they discovered something in the system like a bug or an issue that if eradicated will give ROI to make running TM1 easier in the consecutive months.
A finance person will have an opportunity to do two things, it is to roll the remaining 10 hours forward for the next month or have the 10 hours remaining to do preventive maintenance. Either way, we will take the responsibility to drive down the tickets that have been generated from month to month.
Before subscribing to Octane Red or Blue, you need these three factors ready;
Without those 3, it will cost you more dollars and we don’t want that to happen. Spending 16 hours on development only is not recommended because you will need to add more hours to keep your TM1 running.
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October 17, 2022
6 min
If you are a TM1 user then you would have surely come across times when you required assistance in support or Development (DevOps) for your implementation. Thousands of companies use TM1 globally for financial and business performance reporting, calculation and presentation of KPIs, allocation, and apportionment, and as a tool for data collection. While having all that factors, a company may also experience pain points like costly consultants for TM1 Development and the struggle to hire a TM1 developer. We have released Octane Blue and Red which allows you access to TM1 developer and support resources on demand.
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Your resident TM1 developer is getting bogged down in BAU tasks and unable to focus on Projects. This is a very typical scenario for mid-size TM1 shops. Your prized TM1 developer who understands business is not being utilized for Projects. This person also is responsible for keeping the lights on in the TM1 Planning Analytics and doing tasks like investigating data load issues, mapping mismatch, adding users, and answering small queries. Is this the best use of their time? Does this create a risk of the developer moving to another company where he can better utilize his skills and feel more valued? This is where Octane Blue would be ideal where all the support tasks can be ticketed to the Octane team. This creates capacity in your TM1 capability to allow your internal teams to focus on bigger ticket items. Octane Blue is a cost-effective and professional approach to supporting your team. Octane Blue would provide you with seasoned DevOps staff who would be able to take on support and enhancements. Find out more here Octane Blue
With the current turbulence in the skilled market, we have seen many instances where companies have had their TM1 resource leave and there is great difficulty in hiring another resource. The cost of resources has gone up significantly which means the budget has to be increased or compromises have to be made on the skill level. There have been times when Finance staff have been pulled into TM1 admin roles and expected to manage development and support. This is usually not sustainable, and you end up eventually losing your finance staff! Octane can step in into this situation and take over the TM1 Support and development while you source your TM1 resource. The beauty of the Octane Blue service is that there are lock-in contracts. Use it for as long (or short) as you need us.
You don’t need a full-time TM1 resource. Many sites don’t require a full-time TM1 resource. You may only need a TM1 expert when there is an issue or when you need some enhancements or development. This makes Octane Blue ideal as you only call upon our team when you need us – and we only charge for hours you consume! We also have a lite version which is Octane Red. It's quite comforting to know that you have experts on hand – it could be just using the service during peak periods around month end and budgeting period. All our services are backed with SLA and response times.
No separation between the developer and support team – you will no longer have separate and different prices for development and support and talk to different people. You will no longer care whether you have co-development support because all you wanted at the end of the day is to have your cube built and want your reporting ready and done. But, with Octane red and blue you will no longer experience this problem from month to month on your plans because the price will be constant over the period of those months.
Rolling forward of the unused hour – some months are not so busy and you don’t really wanna pay for the months that don’t have much work that happened. With Octane red and blue you can roll forward those hours that you have not used up to one month. If you have used more hours that month you simply start working fewer hours the next month achieving the same equilibrium in your pricing.
We have removed any friction from engaging our services. It’s simple to engage and there is no lock-in contract so you can stop the services easily as well. We have an onboarding checklist and we go through the documentation to get us the right level of access. We have security protocols around data access and access review. We take the privacy of your data seriously.
Our team is all IBM-certified TM1 developers. You can start ticketing issues and support tasks from Day 1. It may take us a bit longer in the early days to resolve some of the tickets but as we build our understanding of your environment these times will reduce. We hold monthly meetings with you to go through the tickets and any outstanding issues. We also take this opportunity to suggest changes that may help eliminate issues.
There are no limits to what you can ticket – it can be a development task, support task, or monitoring task. However, we may steer you to use our Projects mechanism for larger projects to ensure an appropriate level of governance is applied. You can also get more details on Octane blue here TM1 Developers
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