Modern finance and planning teams are under constant pressure to move faster, reduce manual effort, and improve decision accuracy. While IBM Planning Analytics (PA) is a powerful engine for enterprise planning and allocations, interacting with it has traditionally required technical expertise or direct access to PA interfaces.

This is where IBM watsonx Orchestrate changes the game.

With the Planning Analytics Allocation Agent, business users can now trigger and manage PA allocation-related activities directly from the watsonx Orchestrate chat interface—while technical teams retain control over governance and configuration.

WHAT THE AGENT CAN DO

Once connected, the Planning Analytics Allocation Agent enables users to:
- Create a new allocation
- Apply an allocation
- Make an adjustment
- List all cubes
- Retrieve all dimensions
- Get adjustment values
- Commit adjustments

WHY THIS INTEGRATION MATTERS

For Business Users:
- Interact with Planning Analytics using natural language
- Reduce dependency on technical teams
- Speed up planning and allocation cycles
- Improve productivity without learning PA internals

For Technical Teams:
- Centralized authentication and access control
- Environment separation (Draft vs Live)
- Secure, API-based integration
- No custom code required

CONFIGURING THE BASIC AUTHENTICATION CONNECTION

Navigate to:
watsonx Orchestrate → Manage → Connections

Locate:
ibm_planning_analytics_basic_ibm_184bdbd3

Steps:
1. Generate a new API key in watsonx Orchestrate
2. Edit the connection and enter:
   - Username: apikey
   - Password: Generated API key
   - Server URL: Planning Analytics server URL (mandatory)
3. Click Connect

Repeat the same steps for both Draft (Dev) and Live environments.

CONFIGURING THE KEY-VALUE PAIR CONNECTION

Locate:
ibm_planning_analytics_key_value_ibm_184bdbd3

Steps:
1. Edit the connection
2. Enter:
   - PA Tenant ID
   - Planning Analytics Model Name
3. Click Connect

Repeat this for both Draft and Live environments.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Both the Basic Authentication and Key-Value Pair connections must be configured for the agent to work. If either is missing or incorrect, the agent will not function as expected.

VALIDATING THE SETUP

Navigate back to the Planning Analytics Allocation Agent and enter:
"List all cubes"

If configured correctly, the agent will return all cubes available in the connected Planning Analytics model.

CONCLUSION

The Planning Analytics Allocation Agent brings conversational AI to enterprise planning, enabling faster execution, reduced manual effort, and secure integration. It empowers business users while maintaining technical governance, making it a strong foundation for intelligent planning automation.