Hi Mark
I am unclear as to how the Group submission works. We have security groups controlling access, however, a security group can give access to a number of cost centres. We need to control workflow at the cost centre level, not just at group level. There needs to be the ability to see how many cost centres have been submitted. We have all of this at present as well as forecasts and budgets being made read only on submission, which is very important.
The proposed workflow only seems to have submission and reset. We have multiple review stages. We operate on the principle that figures can only be changed in the initial contribute state but once submitted various groups are responsible for approving or rejecting the submission. Typically there is a peer level approval and then a central approval before the workflow reaches the finalised state. That does not appear to be catered for in the proposed workflow.
The main difference for us between reset and reject is that reject will generally require an explanation to be entered, whereas, reset is more usually where the submitter has realised that they need to make a change and they have asked the reviewer to reset their workflow back to the initial contribute stage so that changes can be made.
There also appears to be no way to define a progressive series of workflow, eg to require users to first update Local Chart of Account to Central Chart of Account mappings prior to entering Forecast numbers.
Other facilities that we have that are not currently proposed are facilities to skip steps, eg some partners do their initial budgeting in Local Chart of Accounts but make later in year adjustments directly in Central Chart of Accounts. We therefore needed to provide a facility to allow them to skip the Local CoA stage during monthly budget adjustments.
IBM need to realign PAW and TM1 Groups. I am not sure why they were allowed to diverge in the first place.
It would be useful to have the facility to be able to create groups of groups. That would give the benefit of being able to have Groups of user based groups and additional group hierarchies.
I am not clear as to whether the planning manager is expected to set up a separate set of steps for each cycle. I don't think that is typically the case. Most cycles follow identical steps. There therefore needs to be an ability to reset workflow across all cost centres.
There does not appear to be the concept of a planning month as opposed to the effective month for which the forecast is being predicted. Many organisations that I have worked for want the ability to compare the forecast they made last month with the revised forecast this month, and also with the forecast they made 6 months ago. This typically requires a two dimensional matrix of planning and effective month. This also applies a month end rollover process to copy forward certain information from one planning month to another but with the ability to change that data, eg a different rate.
It should be possible to tune the workflow by cost centre, eg to say that some cost centres can omit steps that are not relevant to them, for example, only certain cost centres may hold fixed assets. Another example is that some of our partners only submit at interim and year end, not monthly.
Regards
Paul Simon
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Paul Simon
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Original Message:
Sent: Wed November 11, 2020 01:42 PM
From: NICKOLUS PLOWDEN
Subject: What's new in IBM Planning Analytics Applications, Plans & Workflow
Hello everyone,
You can watch the on demand recording here and download the slides from here.
Please include your questions below.
Thanks,
------------------------------
NICKOLUS PLOWDEN
Check out the Cognos Analytics Webinar Series: https://bit.ly/2M7sciX
Original Message:
Sent: Tue November 03, 2020 03:12 PM
From: NICKOLUS PLOWDEN
Subject: What's new in IBM Planning Analytics Applications, Plans & Workflow
Join us to learn more about the new plans and application capabilities in IBM Planning Analytics. In this session, we'll introduce you to guided planning – an entirely new way of creating customized applications to manage, facilitate, and increase participation in your company's budgeting, forecasting and reporting processes. Guided planning allows Budget and Planning Managers to create plans with multiple stages, and multiple steps within each stage. Once created, Planning Managers can then invite participants, outline submission requirements, assign due dates and monitor the progress of plan activities.
Want to love planning again? We'll show you how to provide a guided planning experience for your planning participants that is easy navigate and easy to complete with IBM Planning Analytics.
Tune in with @Mark Kiel in this on demand webinar, What's new in IBM Planning Analytics Applications, Plans & Workflow.
Share your questions below and you can watch the on demand recording here.
Thanks,
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NICKOLUS PLOWDEN
Check out the Cognos Analytics Webinar Series: https://bit.ly/2M7sciX
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