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  • 1.  Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Thu February 18, 2021 02:56 PM
    Hello everyone, 

    Please join me and the Planning Analytics Offering Management team on Thursday, April 8th at 11 AM ET for our monthly "Ask me Anything" session, designed to answer all of your burning IBM Planning Analytics questions from product roadmap to upgrades. 

    Share any of your questions below and register to join here. 

    Thanks, 



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    Michael McGeein
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    #PlanningAnalyticswithWatson


  • 2.  RE: Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Thu April 08, 2021 03:57 PM
    Hi,

    I was wondering if you have come to the point where you can share some information regarding the new Workspace cube viewer (timeline, new capabilities)?

    The current limitations are forcing us to use quite a lot of websheets. It was the same with visualizations but the new visualizations capabilities in the new experience allow us to build visualizations directly in Workspace. Would be great if the Workspace cube viewer also would be enhanced to the point where it can replace websheets. 

    Below I list some functionality which we are missing in the Workspace cube viewer. Hope some of it will be addressed.

    1. Color format column and row headers.
    2. Level formatting.
    3. Show "row headers" (see Mark's post PAW Row Headers).
    4. Set fixed column width (see Mark's post Planning Analytics Workspace Column Widths).
    5. More advanced conditional formatting capabilities, e.g in a rolling forecast the possibility to dynamically color code the actuals or forecast month (something like if month > 6, then color yellow).
    6. Add a selector outside the cube viewer for the row dimension and use the active selection in a MDX in the row dimension (e.g. show the children of the selected element in the rows). With the new button synchronization functionality there is a workaround for this by using a button and storing the selection for the user in a cube, then using the stored information in the MDX. But it would be desirable to be able to skip the step with the button of course by directly referencing the active selection in the MDX. 
    7. Show / hide (sub)totals for each dimension when having more than one dimension stacked in the rows.
    8. Possibility to use attributes as the display name. I know it's possible to show attributes in addition to the element name or alias but I mean the possibility to replace the element name or alias with an attribute.
    9. Set default color for updatable cells.
    10. Change the green default color for calculated cells.
    11. Not sure if this is a valid point but make the cube viewer responsive so it sizes with different screens just like visualizations. 

    Some other points not related to the cube viewer but quite important in my opinion. 
    1. Hide the black widget frames (see my post)
    2. Percentage formatting in visualizations, both axis and data values (see Mark's and Mirjam's posts PAW Visualisation Axis values, Workspace: Percentage in bar-chart)
    3. Data formatting in visualizations (see Mirjam's post Workspace: Rounding numbers in charts)
    4. The selector widget (can be added with right click on dimension) lacks formatting capability. We would like to be able to adjust the size of the widget. 
    Regards,
    Mario



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    Mario Hasler
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Mon April 12, 2021 08:44 AM
    "The current limitations are forcing us to use quite a lot of websheets. It was the same with visualizations but the new visualizations capabilities in the new experience allow us to build visualizations directly in Workspace. Would be great if the Workspace cube viewer also would be enhanced to the point where it can replace websheets. "
    @Mario Hasler (and others) - may I enquire why you think websheets should be avoided? They are far and away the most functional tool for both reporting and data capture, especially when leveraging action buttons. Of course IBM have not prioritised adding support for named hierarchies to dynamic and classic reports, but they do keep saying (pardon my scepticism) that this will be done. Fundamentally PAW briefings are grids with the inherent limitations of grids, however pretty the visualizations     ​are. Let's keep the pressure on IBM to complete a crucial feature which has been in the hopper for just short of five years.

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    David Usherwood
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Mon April 12, 2021 11:30 AM
    Edited by System Fri January 20, 2023 04:20 PM
    Hi David,

    It should be noted that this is not really a question of reducing the need for websheets but increasing the functionality of PAW.
    The happy by-product would be less reliance on websheets, meaning more and more can be achieved in one tool.

    So if IBM can increase PAW functionality, why would you think that this isn't a good idea? Seems obvious to me that if I see a flaw in the product, I raise it and request the flaw is addressed.

    For example, We can now synchronise dimensions to TI processes, if we had taken the view that this could all be done in websheets we still wouldn't have that functionality.

    I personally don't think that websheets should be avoided, but I want to build as much as possible in one tool because:

    It is more convenient.
    It is easier to get a consistent look and feel if building applications
    Dynamic reports can be quite labour intensive.
    At least if I am using one tool I, in theory, only have one set of bugs to deal with, bugs that can appear and disappear as new versions are released.
    PAW can easily control columns as well as rows, not so easy in Dynamic reports.

    So I want websheets, i.e. PAX sheets that are intended to be used somewhere outside Excel and in PAW, to be for those very special cases.
    At the moment the term special, in the PAW/PAX context, seems too wide.

    90:10 would seem like a fair PAW/PAX split in my mind, at the moment it almost seems 60:40, or if column widths/headings are important 10:90.

    I would still expect to see development in PAX, none of the requests I have made should be taken as otherwise.

    regards,

    Mark

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    Mark Wragg
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Mon April 12, 2021 03:20 PM
    Hi David,

    Maybe I did not phrase this well. I don't think that websheets are a bad thing. I have built many solutions in TM1Web and almost every requirement can be met with the flexibility of websheets. 

    However, if I did not understand IBM's communication completely wrong when it comes to PAW, the long term goal with Workspace is to provide a single web based and modern interface for
    • development / modelling
    • administration
    • data entry
    • dashboarding / reporting
    In my opinion this would include the possibility to create data entry forms and reports with "native" PAW widgets. At the moment I cannot meet the requirements from clients with the Workspace cube viewer. This is why I listed the functionality which - from my personal point of view - is missing in order to be able to create data entry forms and reports directly in PAW and meet most of my clients requirements.

    I could of course be wrong and IBM sees the Workspace cube viewer only as a self service slice & dice / analysis / data browsing widget. In this case websheets would be the way to go. I really do not hope that this is the case because I also want to build as much as possible in one tool for the same reasons Mark already posted. This is why I asked the question if IBM could share some information about the new cube viewer. I want to know if it only gets an updated design or if new functionality will be added.

    All this is strictly from a PAW point of view. PAX (and websheets) should not in general be avoided. 

    Regards,
    Mario

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    Mario Hasler
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Fri April 09, 2021 08:35 AM
    Hi,

    just to add to excellent points raised by Mario:

    Two crucial features which still require the use of PAX worksheets are:

    The inability in PAW to easily add a one row total to any given view, as I outlined here

    Adding elements from different cubes within the same view

    I imagine the latter is not really feasible any time soon but I would really like the first one looked into.

    regards,

    Mark

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    Mark Wragg
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Ask Me Anything: Planning Analytics - April Edition

    Posted Sat April 10, 2021 06:50 AM
    Edited by System Fri January 20, 2023 04:27 PM
    Thanks Mark!

    Totally agree with your point "The inability in PAW to easily add a one row total to any given view". This functionality would be included in my point number 7.

    Regarding "Adding elements from different cubes within the same view". This would be fantastic but I don't see that coming any time soon either. There is one other tool I know which has this functionality but in this case the approach to cubes, measures and views is a different one which allows for adding measures from different cubes to the same view.
    A way around this would be the possibility to synchronize views with the same dimension(s) in the rows. With synchronize I even mean synchronizing the scrolling. If you scroll down in the first view, the other view which has the same row dimension also moves down so the rows are on the same level. If you hide the row headers in the second view it would almost feel like one view.     There are many use cases for this. However, if you want to create a visualization you still would need to have everything in one cube / view. 

    I really do hope this is part of the "Workspace Synchronization Enhancements" targeted for Q3 as mentioned in the roadmap.

    Regards,
    Mario

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    Mario Hasler
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    Original Message