IBM Cognos TM1 builds powerful, flexible, bespoke applications for budgeting and forecasting. Because of its calculation and reporting capabilities it has also proved popular in complex business modelling making it a complete enterprise planning solution.
Benefits
Out of “Excel hell”
TM1 offers the same model building flexibility as Excel but takes the model to the next level, offering the level of integrity and power that you expect from an industrial database without compromising on that flexibility.
Specifically, TM1 does not suffer from a wide range of Excel’s drawbacks including spreadsheet linking, data aggregation, report updating, file locking, data auditing, security access and managing multiple users.
Reporting
Reporting and analysis are simple and powerful whether you choose to use TM1 itself or leverage Excel, IBM Cognos BI or Web front ends.
Complexity
TM1 can handle virtually any calculation you might normally turn to Excel for.
Calculation speed
The industry leading rules engine consistently outperforms its competition in independent comparisons of speed.
Flexibility and speed of development
Much like the clean slate that Excel offers, TM1 offers you the tools to rapidly build a model that reflects your business.
Big data capacity
Advanced architecture provides the capability for storing large amounts of data.
Distributed user base
Multiple users can simultaneously read and write to TM1 from all around the world – in real time
Integration
The native Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL) tool makes it easy and fast to create two way integration with other systems such as ERP and GL databases. It also natively integrates with IBM Cognos BI for system wide reporting.
Successful implementations
Below are some examples of successful TM1 implementations. They are quite diverse in application but generally have complexity and an emphasis on powerful reporting in common.
Activity Based Costing
This model accurately costs a range of products offered by a postal services organisation. This helps them with regulatory negotiations, pricing, exit decisions, long term forecasting and new product launches.
Allocations
This recharge model for an international bank allocates application development costs to multiple entities based on a mixture of variables such as size, cost type, cost ownership, activity drivers, go-live dates and different accounting treatments. The model runs quarterly and explodes a few hundred cost lines to thousands of allocated costs over a thirty year time period.
Merchandising
Stock, revenue and cost forecasting, purchase orders, supply chain and promotions are all components managed by this application for a major New Zealand retailer.
Demand planning
This model controls the forecasting of finished goods as well as the bill of materials and labour for the New Zealand branch of an international manufacturer.
Cash flow modelling
A finance firm uses TM1 to forecast the repayment of their loan book over a multi-year term. This application was built within a month in response to the 2007 global financial crisis and helped the organisation successfully navigate a particularly difficult time in the debenture funded segment of the finance industry.
Forecasting and budgeting
Many companies across the globe use TM1 for their distributed forecasting and budgeting applications including variance analysis and actuals reporting. With the addition of IBM Cognos Contributor these applications will become even more scalable.
Financial reporting
Multiple companies world-wide turn to TM1 to report their financials because of the flexibility of reporting. Users can rapidly be brought to a high level of expertise to manage their own reporting. Drill down capabilities mean that users can rapidly move between the big picture and the details of individual entities and even right down to transaction level.
Metrics
Collaborative collection and reporting of key performance indicators and other metrics is easily managed through a TM1 platform.
Summary
TM1 is a very flexible and powerful tool that is allows rapid deployment of prototypes and fine control over the design of your system to ensure that your model reflects your business. A built in extraction transformation and loading (ETL) tool enables simple connection to existing systems in order to leverage your existing data. Granular control of security allows for sensitive information to be managed at any level of detail required.