TM1 Applications have been around for awhile now and I first started using them in 2010 when they were called Contributor applications and it was dam buggy. At the time we started with Excel but the users clearly pushed for a web based UI and had been sold this in pre sales so we took it on, it was difficult and we felt we were given a substandard software product. I have seen it progress into something new in 10.2 where you can now add websheets and that for me improved it massively, the fidelity looks good and it adds to the visual experience and functionality with ability to run action buttons etc. Some 6 months ago worked on a project that seemed to go quite well, we were using some of the new features of TM1 10.2 and I really feel its come of age now.
Just recently I've come up against some hard opposition, some strong options against following this UI. They much prefer the "bask to basics" excel with some VBA to spice it up and install perspectives everywhere with some custom Excel Addin etc.
I agree its a case of horses for courses so i am always open to consider this, in a previous project we provided perspectives and VBA although that was much more operational, pure forecasting system not budgeting and planning, analysts needed a rich visual process that was not possible in TM1 Applications.
When I see VBA in budgeting and planning I start to question why, TM1 Applications seem mature enough to me now to recommend given the functionality and constant improvements.
Very interested to hear some comments from others and what they prefer and advise in practice for budgeting and planning.
Is it all horror stories for you or have you also found some faith in TM1 Applications ?
TM1 Applications or Excel & VBA what say you ?
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declanr
- MVP
- Posts: 1815
- Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:51 am
- OLAP Product: Cognos TM1
- Version: PA2.0 and most of the old ones
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Re: TM1 Applications or Excel & VBA what say you ?
I've always been of the opinion that using TM1 Applications (contributor) when just using cube views is rarely the best option as it just doesn't tend to be user friendly.
As such the introduction of websheets into TM1 Applications in 10.1 was a great step... but at that point it was still just too buggy. However that didn't push me down the VBA route; I tended to show customers the options of using Perspectives (with or without a load of VBA) AND the concept of using TM1 Web with a custom built workflow attached (if required - mostly just action buttons, an extra cube and a nice "workflow" websheet)... they almost always chose the web option. In general I have a found a lot of old TM1 power users wanting to get away from VBA, especially those that have been hit when either upgrading TM1 or Excel versions to see that some simple VBA stopped working.
Now come 10.2; TM1 Applications improved greatly... but TM1 Web was itself just too buggy to use inside TM1 Applications... so again we had another no go, in general I wouldn't recommend upgrading to anything until it's had a few fixpacks though.
Come TM1 10.2.2 we finally see a point where Applications works reasonably well and the bug fixing that went on between 10.2 and 10.2.2 occurred at a phenomenal rate. I am just nearing the end of a project with a company that have had TM1 via perspectives with a LOT of VBA mixed in and they (including possibly the only individual cynical enough to make me feel like an optimist - you know who you are!) are seeing the benefits of replacing a lot of that with TM1 Web and/or TM1 Web Applications. That being said for some specific applications VBA of course gives you a level of flexibility that would be hard to replace in TM1, my belief is that using action buttons and advanced modelling you can replace 100% of VBA functionality in terms of data processing BUT there are still some very specific graphical control from VBA that is hard/impossible to replace (and if an end user has already had it - they wont be happy to lose it.)
So long story short, I will definitely now be using it more and more but I don't think that's to say the old school approach is out of the running completely as yet. The big problem will be maintaining those older developed models, since most people coming through the game now hardly set foot outside performance modeler (I will leave my ranting of how someone sells their skills as a consultant; when they can only use a tool designed for end users for another day.)
As such the introduction of websheets into TM1 Applications in 10.1 was a great step... but at that point it was still just too buggy. However that didn't push me down the VBA route; I tended to show customers the options of using Perspectives (with or without a load of VBA) AND the concept of using TM1 Web with a custom built workflow attached (if required - mostly just action buttons, an extra cube and a nice "workflow" websheet)... they almost always chose the web option. In general I have a found a lot of old TM1 power users wanting to get away from VBA, especially those that have been hit when either upgrading TM1 or Excel versions to see that some simple VBA stopped working.
Now come 10.2; TM1 Applications improved greatly... but TM1 Web was itself just too buggy to use inside TM1 Applications... so again we had another no go, in general I wouldn't recommend upgrading to anything until it's had a few fixpacks though.
Come TM1 10.2.2 we finally see a point where Applications works reasonably well and the bug fixing that went on between 10.2 and 10.2.2 occurred at a phenomenal rate. I am just nearing the end of a project with a company that have had TM1 via perspectives with a LOT of VBA mixed in and they (including possibly the only individual cynical enough to make me feel like an optimist - you know who you are!) are seeing the benefits of replacing a lot of that with TM1 Web and/or TM1 Web Applications. That being said for some specific applications VBA of course gives you a level of flexibility that would be hard to replace in TM1, my belief is that using action buttons and advanced modelling you can replace 100% of VBA functionality in terms of data processing BUT there are still some very specific graphical control from VBA that is hard/impossible to replace (and if an end user has already had it - they wont be happy to lose it.)
So long story short, I will definitely now be using it more and more but I don't think that's to say the old school approach is out of the running completely as yet. The big problem will be maintaining those older developed models, since most people coming through the game now hardly set foot outside performance modeler (I will leave my ranting of how someone sells their skills as a consultant; when they can only use a tool designed for end users for another day.)
Declan Rodger