TM1 vs Essbase Comparison Of Advantages & Disadvantages

Hi,

If you already have Essbase, I am not sure why you need TM/1.

I have worked with both TM/1 (old vesion) and Essbase - from my experience there is nothing in TM/1 that you can't do with Essbase.

May be you can share what exactly are the issues that you face with Essbase that makes you consider TM/1.

We use Essbase and have not found any limitations. Is there anything that TM1 is touted to do that Essbase can't? I looked at this a long time ago and went with Essbase. I am curious if you do find any true advantages of TM1.

There's a few reasons to go with TM1 over Essbase:

1) Real-time calculation: No more worrying about what calc scripts need to be written or managed - TM1 does all calculations as requested, in real-time. If Essbase ever got dynamic-calc-and-store to actually work, it would look like TM1.

2) Ease of maintenance: In TM1, when the dimension is updated, all cubes that use that dimension are automatically updated. Coupled with the real-time calculation, this is painless. In Essbase, you'd have to add them to each cube, and if it's a dense dimension, it forces a cube restructure. In one application I managed, this took about 36 hours.

3) User interfaces: With Essbase, you need to build all of these on top; there's usually VBA involved. With TM1 you get all the same power as Essbase on Excel, but also web interfaces, Cognos Insight desktop, Contributor for planning/workflows, and Performance Modeler for easy modeling of TM1 applications.

4) Cubes vs Models: Essbase builds cubes; TM1 builds models - real-time cross-cube calculations, coupled with real-time calculation, means that users can easily look at "what-if" scenarios (TM1 also has personal sandboxes for this), as well as minimise data input (e.g. exchange rates). Throw in a super-easy modeling tool (Performance Modeler), and you've got yourself an application very quickly. Cognos Insight can also be used as a rapid prototyping tool, which can then be brought into Performance Modeler.

5) Ownership: Essbase fits in with the Oracle ethos of centralising everything in IT, TM1 fits with the Cognos ethos of self-service. Essbase is not an application that sits well with business ownership; conversely, TM1 sits just as well within IT.

Overall, I'd say that Essbase hasn't come along as far as TM1 has in the last 10 years. It's a great piece of software, but the turning point for TM1 was the emergence of cheap RAM - its in-memory capabilities, coupled with ease of use, do leave Essbase behind.

One assumes that the reason you are looking at updating your systems is that you have problems in terms of speed of close, audit/regulatory issues etc. Usually these are symptoms of changes in the business environment since the last major systems update and manifested in the creation of many operational spreadsheets.

I would therefore recommend that you seek to understand why these spreadsheets have originated within your business over previous years. This will put you in a good position to evaluate future alternatives against their ability to manage the inevitable business changes down the road.

I have worked with both systems and it really depends on your need. Both systems addressed the same reporting requirements. However, in my experience, TM1 has a lot more flexibility and easily you can train your analyst to do your maintenance and build cubes. I have implemented TM1 at a local and global level and it has been one of the best tools I have come to use from an ease and usability stand point.