Budgeting Solutions Ltd

IBM Planning Analytics with Watson

IBM Planning Analytics is a collaborative, enterprise-scalable budgeting, planning, analytics, forecasting, modelling and reporting solution helping organisations move away from Excel. Included in your subscription is IBM Cognos Analytics standard edition which offers business intelligence self-service reporting capabilities sourcing data directly from Planning Analytics.

Features

• Budgeting, Forecasting, Planning & Reporting
• Create what-if scenario modelling through sandboxes
• Top down, bottom up and driver based planning easily supported
• Enterprise Reporting
• Powerful Excel Add-In included
• Watson AI Forecasting Out of the Box
• Embedded Multi-Dimensional Workflow
• In-built Accelerators available covering Balance Sheet & Cash Flow, Consolidation
• Create highly engaging dashboards and visualisations
• Strong data governance - in-built security and audit trail included

Benefits

• Facilitates best practices; driver-based planning and rolling forecasts
• Enables finance and business users to create budgets and forecasts
• Real-time analysis of plans, budgets and forecasts
• Provides role-based security to support multiple users
• Report Distribution & Scheduling
• Out of box AI Predicative Forecasting
• Allows all geographies and departments to participate in FP&A process
• Enterprise Business Intelligence & Reporting
• Supports add-ins for MS Excel, MS Powerpoint & PDF's
• Supports natural language searching and multidimensional expressions

£700 to £2,600 a unit a year

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at james.salmon@budgetingsolutions.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

333792010248771

Contact

James Salmon
0115 958 0405
james.salmon@budgetingsolutions.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
• What software services is the service an extension to: Cognos Analytics
• Cloud deployment model:
  • Public cloud
  • Private cloud
  • Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: Yes, there is planned maintenance window every third Saturday of the month.
• System requirements:
  • Specific software licences
  • Internet connection, web browser and Microsoft Excel (optional)
  • Secure gateway client for accessing on premise data sources (optional)

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Not different at weekends.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: Web chat
• Web chat support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support accessibility standard: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• Web chat accessibility testing: Full UAT testing has taken place
• Onsite support: Onsite support
• Support levels: We provide application support to a number of clients. This goes beyond just technical support and is a customised offering whereby we manage the application that has been built. This can include running weekly or monthly updates, maintaining the application structures, making incremental changes to the model such as changing how the calculations work to general application maintenance.; ; Typically this is set up as an expected number of hours or days support per month, to be called off either on an ad hoc basis or at pre determined times. This could range from a day per month, to be used either on an as required basis or on specific tasks, through to a completely outsourced application management program to ensure all weekly, monthly and associated forecast processes are available - the equivalent of a full or part time role. The time spent can either on the client site, remote, or a mixture of both.; ; An ad hoc day per month will be priced at or below our standard daily rate, our managed application support programs are usually more price effective than using contract resource.; ; Standard Technical Support - Included in Software Purchase; Application Support - £1,200
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Onsite training, on-line training and user documentation.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: We would make the necessary arrangements with the relevant IT teams to set up the data migration.
• End-of-contract process: The buyer and supplier would have a meeting to discuss whether the buyer would like to continue with the service. If they continue then nothing changes, if they wish to move then we would set up a data migration process.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: None - the solution automatically resizes and turns buttons into swipes etc.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: To set up and update an API the users would talk to Budgeting Solutions who would assist in setup.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: We have a number of plug and play applications but we can also build models to whatever the customers specification might be. System Administrators and Users (with the right permissions) can make the necessary amendments.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: The cloud instance is capable of handling thousands of users and very large data sets. IBM set aside enough cloud memory on a case by case basis.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: How many users are accessing the system, where are they going, how long are they spending on particular pages, what changes they are making. Full auditability if required.
• Reporting types:
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: IBM

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
  • Other locations
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Data can be exported/imported using FTP and/or Secure Gateway.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • Microsoft Excel (xls and xlsx)
  • Flat Files (Via FTPeS) and ODBC 3.5 (via Secure Gateway)
  • PDF
  • MS Word
  • MS PowerPoint
  • REST API
• Data import formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data import formats:
  • ODBC connection
  • Flat Files (via FTPeS)
  • CSV, Excel - drag file directly into the solution
  • Cognos Integration Server
  • REST API

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Bonded fibre optic connections
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: The service level agreement is that IBM aim to provide availability at over 99.75%, for failing to achieve this a reduction is made to the monthly subscription charge. If the availability is between 99.0% and 99.75% the reduction is 2%, the availability is between 95.0 and 98.99% then the reduction is 5% and if the availability is less than 95.9% the reduction is 10%.
• Approach to resilience: Available on request
• Outage reporting: Email alerts.; Via the Planning Analytics website.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: IBM Planning Analytics is entirely flexible in terms of security. Therefore certain interfaces can be locked for certain user types etc.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: BVCH SAS UK Branch
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 30/11/2015
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: N/A
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: Yes
• CSA STAR accreditation date: Available on request
• CSA STAR certification level: Level 5: CSA STAR Continuous Monitoring
• What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: N/a
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications: SOC 1, 2 & 3 Certified

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • CSA CCM version 3.0
  • ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Available on request

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: IBM carry out extensive system testing
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: Available on request.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: Available on request.
• Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: There is a pre-defined procedure for incident management.; Available on request.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  At Budgeting Solutions, we have a Social Values Guide which outlines how are addressing and improving our local and national environment we work in. Please ask for guide which contains more details.

  Covid-19 recovery

  At Budgeting Solutions, we have a Social Values Guide which outlines how are addressing and improving our local and national environment we work in. Please ask for guide which contains more details.

  Tackling economic inequality

  At Budgeting Solutions, we have a Social Values Guide which outlines how are addressing and improving our local and national environment we work in. Please ask for guide which contains more details.

  Equal opportunity

  At Budgeting Solutions, we have a Social Values Guide which outlines how are addressing and improving our local and national environment we work in. Please ask for guide which contains more details.

  Wellbeing

  At Budgeting Solutions, we have a Social Values Guide which outlines how are addressing and improving our local and national environment we work in. Please ask for guide which contains more details.

Pricing

• Price: £700 to £2,600 a unit a year
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Condensed version of IBM Planning Analytics. Full functionality is available in trial version the only limitation is on the amount of data that can be uploaded.

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at james.salmon@budgetingsolutions.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.