Integration

[shravan_dwh]

Hi frds,

Please let me know is it possible with Cognos TM1 following things. Please respond as earliest.

1 )Ability to integrate financial plan/budgets to operating plan/budgets

2) Ability to graphically depict various models and interrelationship between different budget models

3) Ability to integrate financial plan / budgets to operating plan/budgets

4) Ability to support Strategic Planning in arriving at initial PCU/CFU funding requirement, Policy guidelines numbers etc.

5) Ability to have multiple revisions for budget review and maintain versions for budgets

6) Ability to add commentary to the data values entered
7) Ability to view/edit commentary added to the data values during review cycle

8) Ability to add commentary/annotations to budget data
9) Ability to link one budget template to another template for dependencies

10) Ability to add line item level breakup ( supporting detail breakup) for any budget data.

Many thanks in Advance.
Shravan

[jim wood]

1 )Ability to integrate financial plan/budgets to operating plan/budgets

Yes

2) Ability to graphically depict various models and interrelationship between different budget models

Yes, via excel

3) Ability to integrate financial plan / budgets to operating plan/budgets

Same as 1)

4) Ability to support Strategic Planning in arriving at initial PCU/CFU funding requirement, Policy guidelines numbers etc.

Yes, if you write the rules to do so.

5) Ability to have multiple revisions for budget review and maintain versions for budgets

Yes

6) Ability to add commentary to the data values entered

Yes

7) Ability to view/edit commentary added to the data values during review cycle

Yes

8) Ability to add commentary/annotations to budget data

Yes

9) Ability to link one budget template to another template for dependencies

Yes, via excel or TM1

10) Ability to add line item level breakup ( supporting detail breakup) for any budget data.

Yes. May need a move in to 64-bit. I guess this would depend on the number of granular items.

As TM1 is effectively a blank canvas you can pretty much do what you like with it (Calculation wise). It holds text as an element in the last dimension of the cube. These text elements (and any numeric for that matter) can be locked down and re-opened at any time.

[shravan_dwh]

Thanks a ton Jim.

[belair22]

Just looking at that list - I'd almost swear stand-alone Excel could perform every single requirement you have. Just noting this b/c the original requester never asked 'how well TM1 works with each list item'.

[shravan_dwh]

Hi,
Please let me know if these all possible. I didn't find anywhere.

Ability to add comments to Reports?

Ability to support report busting (same report sent to multiple users with only their relevant data over mail) ?

Ability to share common master data between SAP?

Ability to define forecasting models over browser?

Ability to track budget status as "Planned", "Committed", Pooled" ?

Ability to handle multiple levels of allocation without any limitation ?


Thanks In Advance.
Shravan

[shravan_dwh]

Jim,

could you u assit me ?

Shravan

[jim wood]

Ability to add comments to Reports?

Same principle as the first comment questions so yes

Ability to support report busting (same report sent to multiple users with only their relevant data over mail) ?

This one is a little more complicated. It can be achieved (I think) but it may require a little work.

Ability to share common master data between SAP?

Never connected to SAP so can't help you there.

Ability to define forecasting models over browser?

Yes using TM1 web

Ability to track budget status as "Planned", "Committed", Pooled" ?

Applix...I mean Cognos.... I mean IBM have a work flow add on that can de used with TM1.

Ability to handle multiple levels of allocation without any limitation ?

Not sure what you mean by this one???

[shravan_dwh]

Many thanks Jim.

Shravan.

[lotsaram]

It might be worth your while letting people know what the intended application is and what other software is being evaluated as this will allow more meaningful responses versus glib.

1 )Ability to integrate financial plan/budgets to operating plan/budgets

Big Yes. Plus unlimited versions, rolling forecasts (actual/budget), and integrate data from other external sources and non-financial data.

2) Ability to graphically depict various models and interrelationship between different budget models

I'd have to say "not out of the box" but it depends what you mean by graphical depiction. You could create a model architecture or data flow diagram with any number of flow diagram charting tools but it's going to be a manual exercise. I think this would be the same for pretty much any other tool out there.

I think 3 is the same as 1.

4) Ability to support Strategic Planning in arriving at initial PCU/CFU funding requirement, Policy guidelines numbers etc.

Yes, ... this will all depend on the setup of the model, depends what you want to achieve.

5) Ability to have multiple revisions for budget review and maintain versions for budgets

Yes. No limit to number of versions and no loss of data.

6) Ability to add commentary to the data values entered

Yes TM1 can hold string data (comments). Usually this is better done in a separate cube to the budgeting cube holding values but it can all be presented in the same interface.

7) Ability to view/edit commentary added to the data values during review cycle

Yes, goes without saying.

8) Ability to add commentary/annotations to budget data

This is getting repetitive, can't see how this is any different from 6 & 7.

9) Ability to link one budget template to another template for dependencies

Yes, ... this will all depend on the setup of the model, but calculations can "flow right through a model"

10) Ability to add line item level breakup ( supporting detail breakup) for any budget data.

Yes. Probably not on the fly by users, but definitely possible for administrators/developers.

Ability to support report bursting?

Manual report bursting is out of the box, automated bursting isn't. This is easy enough to set up with TI and 3rd party email applications. A couple of specialist TM1 consultancies also offer turnkey automated report bursting products

Ability to share common master data between SAP?

Yes of course. It would be very uncommon to make everything up in TM1 or re-enter master data. Usually the vast majority of TM1 meta data and data is sourced from ERP or GL systems (or POS or CRM, etc. depending on the situation.) In the case of automating building TM1 dimensions from SAP data there are several options, the TM1 SAP connector, Cubeware Importer SAP connector or custom ABAP programs

Ability to define forecasting models over browser?

Enter and modify forecasts from a thin client browser, yes definitely. If you are talking about the actual development phase or "building the model" then no, a thick client interface is needed to build OLAP cubes and dimensions, modify ETL script, etc.

Ability to track budget status as "Planned", "Committed"?

Yes, a workflow module is available and it does this.

Ability to handle multiple levels of allocation without any limitation

Not sure what you mean exactly but TM1 will handle data entry via spreading at any level of a hierarchy. In other words "top down, middle out or bottom up planning." With business rules calculations driver based planning is also possible. Most effective planning models would use a combination.

[jim wood]

Not sure how much more you covered there lotsaram but there we go.

[lotsaram]

Not sure how much more you covered there lotsaram but there we go.

Oh you know giving that extra 10% and all. Whether it was worth it is a moot point.

[shravan_dwh]

Many Thanks for all your quick responses.

Shravan