What about Cognos?


<soundneedle (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Anyone have any comments or suggestions about budgeting/forecasting
software vendors. My company is currently considering: OutlookSoft
Everest, Hyperion Essbase, and Clarity Systems.

We ruled out RoadMap Technologies.

So far, I think we like Everest due to its excellent Excel interaction.
Hyperion seems to have Excel add-in issues from what I've read. Clarity
is probably too far away---in Canada, we're in California.

I fear Hyperion will be too IT intensive and too costly. We currently
use an Excel-Access model for planning and consolidating.

Anyone with any tips is greatly appreciated! Also, as a future systems
admin, what kind of training might I benefit from? (any certs, etc.)

Thanks...

You ought to consider TM1 if you want Excel connectivity.

Steve, do you know how TM1 compares to OutlookSoft Everest in regards
to Excel connectivity? Everest is basically Excel with additional
features. Other vendors seem to have Excel "add-ins". My finance
analysts would rather begin and finish in the same tool (excel)...

Steve ROWE wrote:

I have used TM1 extensively.
It is great.
I recommend you look at it.

Regards,

John Keeley

www.johnkeeley.com

You may want to try o2olap as they have some great budgeting and forecasting
techniques for working with Analysis Services. The speed of development and
OLAP knowledge enabled the completion of a proof of concept for a financial
a reporting application. In a two day session our dimensions, cubes and data
were put together and catered for budgeting, forecasting and currency
translation for both the income statement and balance sheet. This was across
legal entities (50), departments(15) and accounts (1000). The product
provides more than meets the eye. I hope this helps, and yes it is all in
Excel. Reports are produced very easily and we avoided the day per report
quotes from other vendors. The latest release retrieves large data sets from
our cubes very quickly. We look forward to their latest iniatives that are
to be released and we have not seen this in any other OLAP products on the
market.


<soundneedle (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

soundneedle (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

Users can start and end their TM1 sessions from within Excel. The
integration with Excel is really excellent (if you will forgive the
pun).

I suggest that you look at the OLAP survey results (or even better get
a free evaluation of TM1 for a month (If you would like to do this
contact me if you are in Europe and I will organise it for you.)

Regards

John

Charlotte wrote:


Charlotte - you haven't seen TM1 then?

;-)

J

John, have you had an experience with OutlookSoft's Everest? If so, how
does it compare to TM1? As our systeme's future developer/admin, I'm
concerned that TM1 is not big enough in my marketplace (Los Angeles).

I have read the OLAP Survey 4, and I'm impressed with TM1s
results...but, I also see that Microsoft Analysis Services is highly
rated too. If Everest and TM1 are similar enough, I'd rather go with
the bigger of the two.

Any thoughts?


John Hobson wrote:

soundneedle (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

I don't have any direct experience of Outlooksoft so I shouldn't
comment on it.

However, as far as TM1 is concerned I wouldn't be concerned about it
not being "big enough". I believe that over 50% o the Fortune 500
companies use TM1 (you may want to check that on the Applix website)

As far as MSAS is concerned, it will give TM1 (and other OLAPs) a
pretty good run for their money as far as analysis is concerned, but
when you move on to planning & forecasting you are in different
territory altogether, not least as far as storage and recalculation
response times are concerened.

From a developers perspective TM1 is a dream compared to other products
I have used. It is one of the very few tools I have seen that gives
even non-techies the power to build real, robust and flexible
applications.

I would certainly get Applix to demo to you before committing to an
MSAS based solution.

Regards

John