Cognos TM1 : The Future of Enterprise Planning

Contributed by Viky Maradia on 29 Nov 2013

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Most organizations in the past developed centralized computing systems for their use. This involved automating their inventory control systems using Inventory Control(IC) packages. They were based on the programming languages of the time, mostly COBOL, Fortran and ALGOL. They were simple and unorganized. It was like taking a walk in the park without your umbrella and without reading the weather report, you never knew if it would rain and you weren’t well prepared for it either!

But it wasn’t long before ERP Vendors started adding more to the ‘core modules’ creating what came to be known as ‘Extended ERPs’. Most important among these ‘add-ons’ are APS(Advanced Planning and Scheduling), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SCM (Supply Chain Management).If you are looking for an Extended ERP with myriad functions you should probably start with Cognos TM1.

What is new in Cognos TM1?

Cognos TM1 changed the landscape in which complex business organizations found themselves. They had clear guidelines on how to tailor their processes so as to advance in the market. The companies became highly adaptive and collaborative.

The Sales, Marketing and HR departments of major companies can analyze planning outcomes and explore alternative scenarios through a simple GUI. Plans can be shared via reports or dashboard amongst team members for validation and comments.

Plan models can now be made and in order to develop the model further, a financial or business analyst could present the analysis to the enterprise. The original model could then be developed further and

linked to other models to form a cohesive system. Once it is deployed to a workgroup, others could add their contributions to modify the model further.

But Cognos TM1 doesn’t stop there, it performs profitability analysis, predictive and risk analytics to obtain a clearer picture. Now you have not only read the weather report, have an umbrella but you know where it gets soggy in the park as well! Time to go on that walk in the rain on a neatly laid out stone pathway!

What are the features of TM1?

• TM1 provides you with a personal analytics workspace, which is wired to the broader enterprise. It combines in a single interface, planning, analysis, reporting etc.
• The guided modeling environment eases the development and deployment of the enterprise solutions you provide.
• Patented, 64-bit, in memory OLAP for enterprise scalability
• Data can be stored in Microsoft Excel, Cognos TM1 Web, Cognos TM1 Contributor or Cognos Insight to suit specific requirements
• Data Consolidation is done by Cognos Business Intelligence, which includes data from multiple sources such as spreadsheets, data files, ERP or other enterprise applications
• Selective Access to plans and Role-based security for multiple users
• Choice of centralized or distributed planning deployments
• Full Unicode support for string lengths beyond 255 characters
• Supports simplified Chinese and Japanese
• Extend ERP investments with the IBM Cognos data orchestration tool. Easily connect to data warehouses, MS Excel worksheets or ODBC-compliant databases.

Who uses Cognos TM1?

Cognos TM1 is presently used by higher level management like CEOs, CFOs, Directors, Planning Analysts and Business Analysts etc for analyzing and reporting purpose.

What does an enterprise need to answer while migrating/moving to TM1?

1. Are my organization’s planning requirements addressed by the solution?
2. Do I need to develop new Applications?
3. Are additional licenses necessary?

How can Neev help?

• Neev can help by analyzing the business requirements of the customer , assessing how Cognos TM1 can help, implementing Cognos TM1 and preparing reports and future enhancements

• Since TM1 is primarily intended for a very niche market, providing the best support to the customer for a long term is the primary goal of the TM1 team @ Neev

- Contributed by Viky Maradia

Visit us at Neevtech.com to know more about our offerings.

Tags: Advanced Planning and Scheduling, ALGOL, Analysis, analytics, Business Analyst, COBOL, Cognos, Cognos Business Intelligence, Cognos Insight, Cognos TM1, CRM, Customer Relationship Management, deployment, development, enterprise, Enterprise Planning, enterprise solution, ERP, Extended ERP, Fortran, GUI, Inventory Control, Microsoft Excel, modeling environment, OLAP, reporting, risk analytics, SCM, Supply Chain Management, TM1, Unicode