IBM ANNOUNCE END OF SUPPORT FOR TM1 V2.0.9
WILL THESE CHANGES AFFECT YOUR INSTALLATION OF IBM TM1?
IBM have recently announced some significant upgrades and changes to IBM Planning Analytics\TM1. Version 2.0.9 will no longer be supported and the new Long Term Support version will become version 2.1.0. The main components of IBM Planning Analytics remain unchanged, but IBM will no longer support some of the legacy tools and interfaces. This may have a significant impact on some existing customers.
The impact will be different depending on whether you are on-premise customer using Planning Analytics Local\Express software or an IBM Cloud SaaS customer.
It will also depend on which user interfaces and how you are currently using IBM Planning Analytics. For SaaS customers and newer on-premise customers, the changes may be minimal.
Full details and advised next steps can be found in our blog article.
IMPLICATIONS FOR ON-PREMISE CLIENTS
This announcement will affect customers with IBM Planning Analytics Local and IBM Planning Analytics Express software licenses. In brief:
- The announcement will affect installation on both private on-site servers and public / private cloud servers.
- End of support date is 30th April 2025, but you need to prepare in advance.
- Customers with a valid support contract can download Planning Analytics V2.1.0.
- A number of legacy interfaces will no longer be supported.
IMPLICATIONS FOR IBM CLOUD SAAS CLIENTS
- We expect only clients using TM1 applications & administrators to be affected.
- Version upgrades will be carried out by IBM via cloud.
- A number of legacy interfaces will be withdrawn from 30th September 2024.
Join our webinars on 18 & 24 September for practical insights & how to manage your install.
INFOCAT PARTNER WITH FLUENCE
EXTENDING OUR OFFERING TO THE MID-MARKET
InfoCat have recently agreed a new strategic partnership with Fluence Technologies. Fluence Financial Consolidation Software is a cloud-based solution which delivers a faster financial consolidation process. It enables users to streamline the financial close and eliminate tedious data manipulation by the finance team.
Announcing the new partnership Stephen Waters, InfoCat’s Managing Director, commented “Our partnership with Fluence finally enables us to offer a sophisticated financial close management application to high-growth companies which simply wasn’t available before at this price-point. It also dovetails extremely well with our mid-market planning, budgeting, and forecasting solution from Vena Solutions and, following the acquisition of XL Cubed by Fluence, provides the facility to create powerful, interactive reports, straight from Excel in real time”.
FLUENCE IN 30 SECONDS
Fluence is a purpose-built financial consolidation system for high-growth companies which automates the whole consolidation process from beginning to end. Intercompany eliminations, currency conversions, workflow management and more, provides your consolidation accounting team with all they need to close your books accurately and early. Because it uses an Excel interface, it requires no lengthy training for users and is extremely fast to deploy.
VENA NAMED IN LATEST MAGIC QUADRANT
VENA NAMED A CHALLENGER IN THE 2022 GARTNER® MAGIC QUADRANT™ FOR FINANCIAL PLANNING SOFTWARE
12 January 2023
Vena has announced that it has been named a Challenger in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software. The Complete Planning platform has been recognised for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.
"We are delighted that Vena is positioned as a Challenger in the Magic Quadrant,” said Hugh Cumming, Chief Technology Officer for Vena. “ We believe our native integrations with Microsoft technology enable Vena customers to leverage Microsoft Excel, Power BI and Azure to gain deep insights from their financial and operational data through our advanced AI-driven analytics. We are proud of the Vena team and look forward to continuing to execute against our mission to elevate the strategic office of finance.”
As an officially accredited Vena Solutions partner, InfoCat are delighted to promote news of this award. InfoCat's Managing Director, Stephen Waters commented "When we signed to partner with Vena back in 2021, it was largely in recognition of the capabilities of the software and it is great to feel that our decision was sound!"
Vena’s financial planning software enables organisations to manage their enterprise-wide financial planning, forecasting and budgeting processes. Their software allows finance organisations to plan and analyse business financial strategy across all three financial statements - profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flows. It supports modelling, collaboration, analytics and performance-reporting capabilities, all of which enhance a user’s ability to effectively manage financial performance.
This is just the latest industry recognition for Vena. During 2022, the company was named an Overall Leader in the Dresner Advisory Services 2022 Wisdom of Crowds Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Market Study. Vena was also recognised as a major player in the 2022 IDC Marketscape Enterprise Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting Applications report and as a leader in the G2 Grid Report for Budgeting and Forecasting Winter 2023. Vena also received a 2022 Best Software award by TrustRadius, the community-driven product reviews site.
Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally. InfoCat have reproduced sections of the Vena Solutions press release her with permission from Vena Solutions UK.
VENA EMBEDS POWER BI
VENA ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENT OF THEIR PLANNING PLATFORM WITH INTEGRATED POWER BI
3 November 2022
Vena Solutions have announced a significant update to the Vena Complete Planning platform with the integration of Microsoft Power BI as an embedded component.
This new capability is seen as a major upgrade to the already impressive Vena solutions product and will provide its Insights and Analysis solution with AI-Powered insights at scale, together with guided business intelligence capabilities.
Vena’s existing platform, which already delivers a fast implementation route for complete planning using existing spreadsheet-based applications together with easy connection access to a very wide range of company databases, is now the only out-of-the-box complete planning platform which also incorporates user-guided business intelligence capabilities.
The integration with Microsoft Power BI enables the ability to obtain up-to-the-minute analytics along with the promise of sharing AI-driven insights at scale across a business organisation, and provides collaboration via visualisations and dashboards to deliver strategic planning at every level of your organisation.
Vena Solutions Chief Technology Officer, Hugh Cumming observed, “Vena with Power BI Embedded ensures our customers have all the tools and capabilities they need to drive strategic business planning and better business outcomes. Not only can organisations leverage advanced data and analytics capabilities such as natural language querying, predictive modelling and decomposition trees to drive agile decision making, they can also benefit from the latest advances in Microsoft’s Power BI cloud and AI capabilities in an embedded, no-code solution with out-of-the-box functionality.”
As a key UK Partner of Vena Solutions, InfoCat have been provided with early access to the new capabilities and will be providing our own insights via our blog shortly. In the meantime, find out more about Vena Solutions.
INFOCAT PARTNER WITH VENA SOLUTIONS
NEW STRATEGIC RESELLER AGREEMENT ANNOUNCED
InfoCat are delighted to announce a new strategic partnership agreement with Vena Solutions, a fast growing Corporate Performance Management Company based in Canada with over 800 customers, including well known names such as Nike, Nando’s and World Wildlife Fund.
Announcing the new partnership Stephen Waters, InfoCat’s Managing Director, commented “We had been looking for some time to add to our portfolio of Financial Planning and Analysis products, as we had identified a need for Finance users wishing to quickly switch to a centralised and automated FP&A solution while retaining the benefits of their existing Excel applications. Vena’s innovative approach to financial planning matches this requirement perfectly and we are excited by the opportunities this represents. InfoCat looks forward to working with the Vena team as they continue their expansion in the UK”.
Vena Solutions Vice President for Global Channels, Alex Wood, endorsed Stephen’s comments, and added “It’s an absolute pleasure to announce that InfoCat has joined Vena's Partner ecosystem in the UK. Having known Stephen Waters and Raj Kerai for over 10 years, their reputation and track record in FP&A speaks for itself, and I'm delighted to be working with them and the entire InfoCat Team once again. Big Vena Welcome!”
VENA IN 30 SECONDS
Vena Solutions provides a powerful and robust business planning platform which is intuitive to use and easy to integrate with your existing company data systems. If you already maintain an Excel-based financial planning & analysis system it can be easily re-created within Vena, transforming it into a fully centralised and automated system application which saves costly maintenance, provides full audit trail and error checking routines while delivering improved productivity. It is ideal for growing companies who need a FP&A solution which can grow into a full Corporate Performance Management system.