September 2019 Newsletter

This quarter's QueBIT happenings, delivered straight to your inbox.

Welcome to QueBIT's Quarterly newsletter! The goal of this communication is to highlight events & technical developments, while promoting education & best practices to enhance your Analytics investment. We would love to hear your feedback on our newsletter and share any ideas you have for topics to be covered in upcoming editions.

Feature Article 

Finally, the day is here: IBM is ending support for IBM Cognos TM1 10.2.2 on September 30, 2019. Even though IBM Planning Analytics continues to be “powered by IBM TM1” it’s a bitter-sweet moment. The good news for the many fans of TM1 is that IBM Planning Analytics is not a replacement, but an evolution. A welcome evolution.

If you have not yet upgraded, don’t worry. There is still time to plan your upgrade:

• End-of-support does not mean that TM1 will stop working on September 30
• You can still start with a “minimal upgrade” to get to a supported version of what you have today. In most cases it can be done in a few days, and it will not require end-user training if you are not using any new features. We wrote two blog posts to guide you:
  1. What you need to know about upgrading TM1 to Planning Analytics
  2. What you need to know about Planning Analytics System Architecture
• QueBIT is always here to help: if you have a question, just email support@quebit.com!

We strongly recommend that you DO upgrade, and start exploring the new features that only come with Planning Analytics. If you don’t upgrade, you are running a risk and missing out on an opportunity!

1. RISK: Running outdated or unsupported software of any kind carries significant risks, including
   1. security vulnerabilities that grow over time,
   2. software incompatibility risks (one day there may be a version of Excel or Windows that does not work with TM1 10.2.2),
   3. compliance risks (especially for regulated industries),
   4. high operating costs (for example if you run into problems that IBM can no longer help you with) and
   5. performance and reliability issues.
2. OPPORTUNITY: Planning Analytics is a huge step forward in terms of usability and experience. While the old TM1 Perspectives interface is much-loved by Excel-centric Finance people, many of our customers have struggled to broaden engagement among sales and front-line business users. It turns out that grids of numbers are not everyone’s cup of tea! Here are just a few of the new features that you can start to use when you embrace Planning Analytics:
   1. Planning Analytics Workspace – a free form canvas dashboard design that let’s you add calculations on the fly! This 5-minute video demonstrates some of these capabilities.
   2. Attribute driven hierarchies – enables you to do analysis by attribute value, without adding additional reporting dimensions. Here’s a 3 minute video to see how it works!
   3. A range of performance and maintainability improvements including multi-threading improvements (load and calculate faster), support for newer operating systems and Excel versions, Git integration for developer change management (watch our webinar), and much more!

Furthermore, the innovation will continue! For example, the Cognos Analytics and Planning Analytics Workspace development teams are now closely integrated, and augmented Artificial Intelligence features already present in the Cognos Analytics self-service BI tool will eventually be available in PAW as well.

If you are analytics-curious, IBM has created FREE interactive Hands-on Labs that you can access from the Free Trials and Hands On Labs button at quebit.com, or by clicking here. Just click on the tab for the product that interests you!

Podcast 

QueBIT launched a podcast series “Ask QueBIT about Analytics” to share what we have learned with real life stories and practical advice which will help you on your analytics journey.

Have a good analytics story that others could benefit from? Share your story on our on our next podcast? 
Email us at info@quebit.com.

Upcoming Events 

Tips & Tricks

Dynamic Planning Analytics Server Names in PAX

The main difficultly when migrating a Planning Analytics for Excel (PAX) report or input template from one Planning Analytics (PA)/TM1 Server to another is making sure it will work across both servers. Every PAX function, like a DBRW or SUBNM, requires the cube name or dimension name be prefixed with the Server name that is being called.

Check out the askQueBIT Knowledge-base to learn more.

Blogs

• Prototyping Best Practices for IBM Planning Analytics (TM1) Development
• Plan to Win with Planning Analytics, Report it to the World with Cognos Analytics
• Cognos Analytics beyond Business Intelligence
• Five Steps to make your planning models ready for ASC 606!

Customer Spotlight 

Software Lifecycle Updates

Cognos TM1 10.2.0 reached End of Support on 2018-09-30.
Cognos TM1 10.2.2 reached End of Support on 2019-09-30. 
Cognos Business Intelligence 10.2.x reached End of Support on 2018-04-30.