Booking System developed with Perspective/Xcelerator

[danakiguy]

Hi,


I was wondering if I could get some advice/thoughts. I'm new to TM1 and we have just had TM1 released in our company.

A consultant has a developed a full blown Booking System using Perspective/Xcelerator for the GUI and the cubes/dimensions to store the data for about 30-40 users. The system has gone live but it has not been stable at all. It seems that it is not the ideal product to use for Transactional System. Here are the issues we are experiencing:

- There's a chore that runs every hour to update elements in Dimensions from an external Database source, freezes the front end for a few minutes while the chore runs. All users experiences the issue and gets frustrated.
- The application GUI just seems clunky. Transitions between different screens in the application is not smooth, laggy when scrolling.
- In other web applications, there are parameters that allows you to multi select all options or other combinations in the drop down box but this seem to be not possible with this product.
- There is no proper validations such as if a field is missing or if illegal characters are used in the data entry. There has been occasions when errors have occurred due to invalid character was entered. This seems ridiculous. Is it because this is the limitation of using Excel to create the GUI?
- Also, users are required to enter the correct name of the new entry as it cannot be changed once the entry has been created (because it is created as element). This name is use to refer to this data entry in the system. But if the user has accidentally entered the wrong name, it cannot be changed unless a completely new entry is entered instead.
- Users are not able to delete any entries. It would have to be done by the Developer/Administrator. If deleting an option from a drop down box (so it can no longer be picked), it is not easy as you could delete entries that are using that options. The options from the drop down are usually sourced from meta data from Dimensions.
- It just seems like it is not as flexible as systems that are developed using other web programming languages like ASP .Net, HTML, Javascripts, etc.

I have to admit though, I like the reporting part of TM1. It is very flexible and you can give the user the power to produce reports that caters there needs. This part is amazing!

It would be great to have your opinions on this please. I would really appreciate it as we are spending a lot of money on the booking system that may never achieve what we really want.


Thanks,
Danaki

[karkea]

Hi Danaki,

I believe you have already catch the idea of TM1 pretty well.

TM1 is not really a platform for transactional solution and it seems that someone has managed to sell you wrong solution for your needs. I've seen TM1 used for transactions but typically this ends at some point when the limits of TM1 are reached. As an example if you want to store all the history (e.g. journal entries) in the system you must also store all the elements of dimensions (e.g. all old accounts).

Maybe there is some reasoning why TM1 was chosen originally, but I would suggest consider replacing with it some out-of-the-box booking software or building new with full-blown programming languages like .Net, Java, etc. combined with transactional database.

Regards,
Kimmo

[declanr]

Danaki,

I would start by saying that most consultants/developers in the TM1 field would probably recommend not using TM1/Cognos Express as a transactional system (myself included); this isn't because it can't do it but simply because there are other options available that would be cheaper and supported as pretty much out of the box products; which would mean that you wouldn't need any particular skill/experience in house etc.

If ever going down the route of anything transactional I would primarily use TM1 as a nifty interface to deal with a SQL database underneath; a lot of people would just say "never" to the thought of TM1 as a transactional database but there are some aspects of the product that when combined with a knowledgeable developer can actually produce an excellent system; sadly for you - 95% of Developers/Consultants probably wouldn't have experience going much further that using it as a bog-standard financial planning tool.

That being said if you were to go down this route (as you have) the issues you are concerned about suggest a model that is lacking in good design as opposed to something that sits outside the bounds of TM1:

- There's a chore that runs every hour to update elements in Dimensions from an external Database source, freezes the front end for a few minutes while the chore runs. All users experiences the issue and gets frustrated.

Locking is an issue that can have an impact on most models but with careful design there are certainly ways to get it down to a negligible level that most users shouldn't notice; without seeing the code of the processes that is causing it and/or knowing about the data source etc it is hard to specify exactly what should be looked at.

- The application GUI just seems clunky. Transitions between different screens in the application is not smooth, laggy when scrolling.

You've mentioned that Perspectives/Xcelerator has been used as the interface; this is just one of many (probably too many) interfaces available with TM1; it is a great front end for advanced users who are wanting to do ad hoc analysis etc but when it comes to a transactional system that should be very much locked down as to what you need to see... it would be pretty much at the bottom of the list for me.
If you looked into one of the web based front ends you can create screens that are much more intuitive to users; look nicer and with a bit of clever design give an "out of the box" style reporting system that would let users easily get at any data they may need out the back of it.

- In other web applications, there are parameters that allows you to multi select all options or other combinations in the drop down box but this seem to be not possible with this product.

Again; this is all about design. It is possible.

- There is no proper validations such as if a field is missing or if illegal characters are used in the data entry. There has been occasions when errors have occurred due to invalid character was entered. This seems ridiculous. Is it because this is the limitation of using Excel to create the GUI?

Again; a web based front end in combination with conditional formatting and reasonable simple TI scripts would solve this - no developer/consultant should ever trust a user to enter data correctly!

- Also, users are required to enter the correct name of the new entry as it cannot be changed once the entry has been created (because it is created as element). This name is use to refer to this data entry in the system. But if the user has accidentally entered the wrong name, it cannot be changed unless a completely new entry is entered instead.

This is quite simple to solve; a front end that allows you to highlight incorrect entries and enter a new name into an alias (the user wouldn't know they are doing this but instead just see it as a from that says: "What was it called" and "What do you want it to be called") they then hit a button that runs a TI which just uses one simple line of code that swaps the Principal Name with the Alias Name; all your data then stays associated with the new name.

- Users are not able to delete any entries. It would have to be done by the Developer/Administrator. If deleting an option from a drop down box (so it can no longer be picked), it is not easy as you could delete entries that are using that options. The options from the drop down are usually sourced from meta data from Dimensions.

Not sure exactly what you mean by this one but I very much expect it could be easily overcome with a simple front end adaptation.

- It just seems like it is not as flexible as systems that are developed using other web programming languages like ASP .Net, HTML, Javascripts, etc.

There are some aspects where this is probably true but I don't think any issues you are having are a result of the toolset as such but rather poor design and truth be told poor design can and does happen regardless of the tool you are using.

All in all; since you are already invested in this as a product my recommendation would be searching for a reputable consultant who could come in and at least give you a "health check" of the system and either provide some quick simple fixes or based on what you have said possibly more... and then obviously based on what they say you can either choose to cut your losses and go with something more accessible to your company or roll the dice and hope you get some decent support.

[danakiguy]

Hi,

These are comprehensive replies. Thank you much for taking the time and effort. I really appreciate and will definitely take your advice on board.

Thanks,
Danaki