Planning Analytics Consulting
Financial Planning & Analysis: In the Beginning…
Ever since the dawn of the computing age, businesses of all sizes and industries have relied on spreadsheet-based financial reporting and budgeting. Team members would cobble together piles of completed spreadsheets and compile a monthly reporting booklet or annual budget. Cycle times were long, cell errors were pervasive, version control was laughable, and weekends were sacrificed. Sound like you? Please read on!
Improved Technology and Better Tools
The integration of database technology with financial processes brought a welcomed change to reporting and FP&A. Issues with data accuracy were resolved as reporting could be performed from a centralized data repository. While transactions were best housed in relational database management systems (RDBMS), it was multi-dimensional reporting applications that could extract this data for analysis by a multitude of different descriptors: Account, Department, Cost Center, Region, Channel, Product, etc. The standard x and y P&L spreadsheet could now be sliced and diced into reports for a sales plan by region, departmental comparison, product performance analysis, or rolling 12 month forecast with a few clicks of the mouse.
Planning Analytics: A Comprehensive Solution
IBM’s TM1 technology has long been the best performing multi-dimensional data engine in the industry. TM1 was rebranded as Planning Analytics and paired with brand new interfaces a few years back. Planning Analytics incorporates a web portal for easy reporting, planning and collaboration across the organization with zero local installation. In addition, this new Planning Analytics Workspace (PAW) incorporates a dashboarding interface where end users can easily build and synchronize visualizations of their data alongside traditional tabular numeric displays. These visualizations are the key to unlocking insights not easily visible among 1000 cells of numeric data. While there are still throngs of Microsoft Excel fans out there, IBM also retooled their Excel add-in and now offers Planning Analytics for Excel (PAX). PAX is a lightweight add-in that allows the end user to interact with and writeback to the centralized data repository directly from the comfort of Excel.
Planning Analytics: Quick Hits
In-Memory Database Architecture: Data is uploaded into RAM for lightning fast access, as opposed to traditional query-based architecture of the RDBMS
Single Source of the Truth: All data is sourced from a centralized repository which alleviates key errors and inaccurate cell calculations
Writeback Capability for Integrated Planning: Users can input budget data directly to the plan while GL Actuals data is synched and displays alongside as read-only
Version Control: Multiple iterations or scenarios of the plan can be produced, adjusted and evaluated without the proliferation of separate files and workbooks
Self Service Dashboarding: End Users can produce dashboards that bring together tables of data with synchronized graphical displays for quick insights on performance
Microsoft Excel Add-In: Die Hards can still rely on spreadsheets as their weapon of choice; centralized Planning Analytics data can be viewed, analyzed and modified in Excel
Why not reach out for a quick chat?
Contact us today to review your current pain points and strategic goals. No matter what stage you are at in your analytics journey, we are happy to provide our perspective and insights we’ve gathered in working with hundreds of customers of all industries and sizes. Or, just use the chat option in the bottom right to chat immediately with an analytics professional in the PMsquare offices.