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IBM Planning Analytics vs XLCubed comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Planning Analytics
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (5th)
XLCubed
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (30th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Planning Analytics is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 4.1%, down 7.7% compared to last year.
XLCubed, on the other hand, focuses on Reporting, holds 1.3% mindshare, up 0.4% since last year.
Business Performance Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Planning Analytics4.1%
Anaplan5.9%
Workday Adaptive Planning5.9%
Other84.1%
Business Performance Management
Reporting Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
XLCubed1.3%
Tableau Enterprise13.5%
Microsoft Power BI12.6%
Other72.6%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Gladys Njeri - PeerSpot reviewer
Key Account Manager at DHL
Data-driven planning has transformed financial decisions and now saves major reporting time
IBM Planning Analytics helps with collaboration between teams by allowing us to gather data from various departments, analyze it, and collaborate on the data to make data-driven decisions between different departments easily. As I mentioned previously, I mainly use IBM Planning Analytics to visualize the existing data to generate meaningful report dashboards and use it during stakeholder meetings to arrive at the right decision. The best features IBM Planning Analytics offers include budgeting, forecasting, and what-if scenario analysis. The scenario modeling feature in IBM Planning Analytics is probably the most robust planning and forecasting solution we use, especially for what-if scenarios, where we are able to forecast using Watson Studio, which helps in better prediction. I really appreciate the Excel integration in IBM Planning Analytics because it keeps things familiar and adds more power.
reviewer1489434 - PeerSpot reviewer
Junior Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Connection should be simplified, but it's priced well
For anyone who intends to implement this solution, I would recommend contacting technical support the first time it doesn't work. At this time, I cannot recommend this solution to others because I cannot connect. Because of the connection issues that we are experiencing, I would rate this solution a five out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"What I appreciate most about IBM Planning Analytics is that we no longer make mistakes when we do our forecast and planning."
"I don't think there are many tools out there that are as flexible as this solution."
"The biggest advantage of IBM Planning Analytics is that it is fully integrated with the other applications or tools that the customer is using within their environment, and they can get easy availability of local resources familiar with the tools to reap the benefits."
"This product is entirely designable and flexible, you can answer to very complex requirements."
"Some of our customers previously used Excel spreadsheets for budget planning, and the process took more than two months, however, after switching to Planning Analytics, they could do it in a week."
"I like that the solution brings together a lot of data from different platforms and it's all integrated."
"The tool is flexible."
"A lot of the platform is in-memory, so Planning Analytics can run calculations quite fast. It also offers several user interfaces. And in the newest version of Planning Analytics, there is a new one called the Planning Analytics Workspace. Maybe it could be useful for the business side."
"I am looking forward to testing their full graphics that are available, as they looked very interesting in the demo."
"The solution has great capability, performance, flexibility, visuals, everything, and we also have a very good relationship with the consultants and the solution is also very cost effective."
 

Cons

"It is a bit expensive, but it does the job."
"It would have been better if the solution was not just a tool kit. They did not embed some functionalities already developed, we are having to develop them ourselves."
"If we talk only about the TM1 engine, it's quite rich and possibly too rich, making it complex to perform simple tasks."
"The tool's transport layer could be improved when promoting development between environments."
"The disadvantage is the old-fashioned surface of IBM Cognos TM1."
"Extracting data is a little slow."
"The biggest challenge when deploying IBM Planning Analytics is the integration with other tools."
"It's highly competitive right now, and all the vendors are in a race to put out new versions with additional features. IBM comes out with new versions too often, and it has an impact on quality."
"There should be a better or an easier way to establish that connection to external sources."
"It's quite a stable solution although we sometimes encounter issues internally within our IT department with regard to the structure."
"Would like the ability to be able to benchmark."
"At this time, I cannot recommend this solution to others because I cannot connect."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Planning Analytics is priced well, and licensing costs are yearly."
"I would rate the tool's pricing a nine out of ten since it's expensive."
"IBM Planning Analytics is not the cheapest solution, but it's priced per the market standard for this type of solution. I rate the price at seven out of ten."
"It is a bit expensive, but you get what you are paying for."
"The license of this solution is paid annually. Most of my customers choose a license that includes support."
"Our licensing cost is approximately $50,000.00 per year."
"Compared with the other tools in the market, IBM Planning Analytics is a bit expensive."
"14,000 Pounds per year for licensing."
"I am still using the two-week trial, but at first sight, the price is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Retailer
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise18
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Planning Analytics?
Regarding pricing, the cost is high compared to the competitors of IBM Planning Analytics, but given that we as an organization already use IBM, we decided to go for IBM Planning Analytics. We did ...
What needs improvement with IBM Planning Analytics?
Regarding the local industry concerning IBM Planning Analytics, the first improvement I suggest is pricing, and they should focus on local training; as much as people become aware of the product, t...
What is your primary use case for IBM Planning Analytics?
Most customers using IBM Planning Analytics are from the banking industry, and some are SMEs like Honda Car and Toyota in Pakistan.
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Also Known As

Cognos TM1, IBM Cognos TM1
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ManpowerGroup, Convergys, AIG, Orchard Brands, Citibank, InterGen, Northwestern University, EF Education First, Ironside, Bazan Group, CSOB Insurance, Macquarie Group, Charles Stanley, SATO, Government of Sint Maarten, BMW Financial Services
Marshalls Ltd, BP Exploration and Production, Thorntons, Ted Baker, Bristol-Myers, Rank Group, ING Bank Genve, Cargill Value Investment, Chloride Power, Auchan, Erste, UEFA, Novartis, Porsche Informatik, Raiffeisen Bank International
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, SAP, Oracle and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: October 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.