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Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

  • 1.  Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Wed July 08, 2020 03:04 PM
    Hello group, 

    As many of you know, we are working on the new version of Planning Analytics Workspace UI. With this transformation comes opportunity to rethink certain features.

    I am trying to get a feel for the usage of the Chats functionality in PAW. Are you using it today? Yes? No? Why not? What other collaboration tools are you using?

    Please feel free to respond here, or email me directly: taisias@us.ibm.com

    Cheers!

    Taya

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    Taya Shcherbakova
    Offering Manager
    Planning Analytics Workspace
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    #PlanningAnalyticswithWatson


  • 2.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Thu July 09, 2020 06:09 PM

    Hi

     

    We are not using PAW at all, and will not until IBM provide fundamental things such as the ability to pass current selections as parameters to a TI Process in an Action Button. That should be where your development effort is going.

     

    Once you fix Action buttons, the next thing on the list is probably to make Formula based reports support Named Hierarchies.

     

    Every user already has chat functionality provided by someone other than IBM. We use MS Teams. Even if it was available in PAW we wouldn't use it.

     

    Regards

     

    Paul Simon




    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Fri July 10, 2020 12:46 AM
    +1 on Paul's comments. I've been hanging around for over three years waiting for formula based reports to support named hierarchies, something which is vital. Chat? Not so much.

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    Paul Segal
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Fri July 10, 2020 01:23 AM
    +1 Agree, focus on the things that add value. There are better ways to enhance collaboration than chat.





    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Fri July 10, 2020 12:21 PM

    Hi Paul, thank you for your response, I totally agree.

    What you listed, are exactly the sort of features we want to spend time on instead of  the Chat. Our feedback from the market is that the Chat is not a feature that's widely used. New UI for PAW gives us an excellent opportunity to weed out features that are not used and remove them going forward. 

    I just want to make sure that there aren't silent users out there and give them an opportunity to speak up. 

    kind regards, 

    Taya



    ------------------------------
    Taya Shcherbakova
    Offering Manager
    Planning Analytics Workspace
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Fri July 10, 2020 02:37 PM
    Edited by System Admin Fri January 20, 2023 04:37 PM
    I also echo the sentiment here.  Honestly there are other issues far greater than chat that need to be addressed first (Hierarchy formulas in excel, action buttons able to at least use the selections from dimensions, charting in PAW is way behind all other visualization tools, setting the number of rows to render without paging in grid views, true code tracking with git integration but built into PAW and not a custom one off with very little documentation, The ability to create custom templates for PAW, the snap to grid in PAW needs work as it constantly won't snap all the way to the edges, etc. etc..

    If anything you could maybe allow integration of slack or microsoft teams but TM1 already allows text input which many clients already use for variance analysis.  I would rather see better formatting around the text entry to cells than chat functionality.


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    Robby Meyers
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Fri July 10, 2020 03:29 PM
    Edited by System Admin Fri January 20, 2023 04:33 PM
    Hi Robby, 

    Nice to hear from you and thank you for your response, I can not agree more.

    From your list many things are already in flight (custom templates, grid based dashbaord, new charting etc) Many others will be following shortly (improved action buttons as an example). 

    So far, the feedback from the market is pretty consistent, the Chat is not a feature that's widely used. New UI for PAW gives us an excellent opportunity to weed out features that are not used and remove them going forward. 

    I just want to make sure that there aren't silent users out there and give them an opportunity to speak up.

    kind regards, 

    Taya



    ------------------------------
    Taya Shcherbakova
    Offering Manager
    Planning Analytics Workspace
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Fri July 10, 2020 03:41 PM
    Edited by System Admin Fri January 20, 2023 04:31 PM

    While chat in its current state is not that important. I would say an expansion of the annotations/text editing capability would be a great place to focus on. For example, I would really like annotations/string cells to offer rich text support. Things like text formatting, hyperlinking, and images would be great additions. Even better would be the ability to reference TM1 numeric values in these cells, even if they are static. For example if I was to leave a comment that said "Revenue grew from x to y due to changes in marketing" An easy way to quickly grab the values of x and y from the cube would be great.




    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Sun July 12, 2020 05:43 PM
    Hi Taya

    While some of the things mentioned like better charting and formatted annotations would be nice, we personally don't have any immediate need for that. We want to be able to do the basics of any Planning application, and that is to capture data in a managed way which leads the user through the process. There are typically many more users entering data than there are analysing it, and charts tend to only be of use at that later stage. Users can enter text to explain unusual planning numbers, but we tend to discourage people from going in to too much detail. The main use for text is in the Financial Accounts which we use CDM for that, which IBM sold.

    Many planning applications follow the following basic pattern.

    A screen showing the current workflow situation, where a user can select a Cost Centre that they need to work on. A button to click which then opens an entry screen relevant to the current stage and activity that needs to be carried out.

    The entry screen typically has some selectors at the top for Cost Centre, etc, The Cost Centre will be passed in from the workflow sheet, which can be done in PAW with selector synchronisation. The user will typically select other items on the entry screen such as the year, etc.
    The screen will typically have a main entry grid, perhaps a further summary grid, and some submission details.
    A 'submit' button to run a TI process which can get as parameters the Cost Centre and other items that were selected. The TI process will then do what is needed in terms of updating workflow cubes, validating the submission, transferring data, making the forecast read only so it cannot be changed unless a reviewer rejects the submission, etc.

    PAW came out quite a few years ago now, and we still cannot build a planning application in PAW, because we cannot do the basics of passing the user's selections as parameters to a TI process, something we have been able to do in TM1 Web for probably about 15 years.

    The only way to achieve this is by embedding a Web Sheet, but that is then using TM1 Web not PAW. Alternatively you can send parameters into a cube and read them in the Prolog of the process but that is a nasty kludge.

    That in my view is what needs to be fixed as the top priority.

    If I want to build fancy dashboards, then I could do that in Cognos Analytics. However, in reality in our organisation that territory has already been lost to PowerBI. 

    Please get the basics right in PAW before trying to do anything remotely fancy. I know that IBM are working on something to do with workflow but I doubt that it will meet everyone's needs. That is why you need to provide parameter syncrhonisation.

    Regards

    Paul Simon


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    Paul Simon
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Mon July 13, 2020 02:56 AM
    Hello,

    Speaking as a developer,
    I totally agree with everybody, there are vital things that stop many developers from moving to PAW. I would add that the good time dimension maintenance (with leap years and so on) is also needed (I believe that every company, like us, has it's own time maintenance TI processes. But this should be out-of-the-box)

    BUT, let me be advocatus diaboli: speaking as a seller, and trying to step into end users' shoes, chat IS needed.
    Every new client asks us the "Where can I comment?" question. We had 2 answers before: cell comment and a string cell. They both are not useful: cell comments can be lost in multidimensional cube; and string cells, um, I just hate them... We spend too much time to implement different in-string-cube-chats in different projects.
    With the new "guided planning", the chat/commentary functional will be a must. And besides, file attachment (like in TM1 Applications) is also in demand.

    Удачи :)

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    Alexander Dvoinev
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Mon July 13, 2020 03:08 AM
    Rather than build chat into PAW or any other tm1 components, I would prefer it integrate easier with other chat platforms.

    Take the time to build an open source slack and Microsoft teams plugin, the payoff will be greater. Users have too many communication platforms to manage and don't need another one.

    I do agree though, TM1 needs a modern replacement for application folders. The ability to attach documents to tm1 data is important



    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Mon July 13, 2020 04:12 AM
    Rather than chat, I would use annotations as these are linked to the relevant context and can now support multiple entries.
    Granted there may be situations where the discussion is more vague or high-level but this could be tracked in a different manner, possibly using annotations against a predetermined area.

    I also echo the sentiment of the other posters - fix the basics e.g. planning basics per Paul, user defined rollups, ability to highlight members in a view and copy to clipboard etc. etc. etc.

    And agree with Ryan and others - there are tools out there that are adopted and best of breed, integrate, don't imitate.

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    George Tonkin
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    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Mon July 13, 2020 01:39 PM
    Edited by System Admin Fri January 20, 2023 04:37 PM
    Agree with others to focus on the core components of a planning interface, which IMHO, does not include built-in chat. Like Ryan said, build integration points so TM1 can more friendly work with Slack, Teams, etc. No need to re-invent the wheel there.

    Back to the basics, I would highly recommend IBM and others look at what the Cubewise team has built with Apliqo UX for capabilities like:
    • Built-in menu system, configurable and persistent across all pages. No one wants to maintain hyperlinks in PAW.
    • Context awareness - ability to read and pass user selections as variables in MDX and in TI processes
    • Built-in workflow page templates. It's doesn't have to be fancy, but just showing 1-2-3 steps as clickable pages makes it very clear to users.
    • Truly responsive. Let's not build separate PAW books for desktop vs. mobile
    • Do more in the UI, don't do everything in TM1. Handle data validation, rich text formatting, workflow checks, formulas, etc. with Javascript, CSS/HTML. Let's leverage open source where we can.

    Just my 2 cents.

    Thanks,
    Cyrus

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    Cyrus Rashedi
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    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: Chat functionality in Planning Analytics Workspace

    Posted Tue July 14, 2020 04:48 PM

    Hi Alex

     

    I don't think that anyone is saying that improvements to chat functionality are not worth doing, but it is a question of priority, and I think in most people's view they are way down on the priority list.

     

    I tend to agree with others that it would be better to integrate with existing chat systems than to build another. The problem with user comments being lost in detail is simple to solve – Design the application so that users can only comment at an appropriate level.

     

    However, chat/commentary is no use unless users have some numbers to comment on.

     

    IBM only have so much development time.

     

    The product is called Planning Analytics. The clue is in the name. It is not a reporting tool or a chat tool.

     

    In my view PAW needs to be able to build a planning application that leads, a person, who is often an occasional user, through a reasonably complex planning process, collecting financial forecasts, staff forecasts, unit forecasts, allocation parameters, etc. This needs to be workflow driven so the users and administrators can track what has been submitted, rejected or approved. There needs to be validation that often can only be implemented in TI rather than in PAW. TI processes are needed to update workflow and manage security to prevent changes after submission, during the review phase. TI processes are usually needed to move data between cubes.

     

    For that to happen PAW needs the ability to synchronise selections with TI parameters so that there is a way to manage the planning process.

     

    Ideally for me it would also mean improving the formatting on Exploration Views or other MDX based views so that you don't need to resort to cell based reporting just to get formatting.

     

    In my view, until PAW can actually be used to build a planning application then any, requests for chat, commentary, annotations, charts, AI, Data Science, etc, are all unnecessary froth that will distract IBM from what they should be doing, and they seem to be very easily distracted.

     

    Regards

     

    Paul SImon




    Original Message


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