Sempre Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics

IBM Planning Analytics is a collaborative, enterprise-scalable budgeting, planning, analytics, profitability, Modelling, scorecard and reporting solution. These applications are supported by a 64-bit in-memory online analytical processing (OLAP) server, which provides on-demand analytics of complex Multi-dimensional data with real-time analysis

Features

• Real-time reporting and Offline planning capability
• Budgeting, rolling forecasting and OLAP modelling
• Multi-dimensional reporting
• Top down, bottom up and driver based planning easily supported
• Virtually unlimited scenario capabilities
• Personal what-if capabilities using sandboxes
• High speed scalable memory resident cubes
• Choice of interfaces: web, Microsoft Excel and mobile
• Easy control of workflow with symbols and information
• Microsoft Office Integration

Benefits

• Efficient forecasting
• Control and governance with financial reporting
• Eliminate complex spreadsheets and inaccuracies
• Ability to create integrated operational and financial Plans
• Solution built and owned by line of business
• Regain control of disconnected budgeting and forecasting processes
• Real-time analysis of evolving plans
• Speed of building your solution to your requirements
• Agile ability to change and evolve your planning process
• Rich Compatibility with Excel for easy integration with existing spreadsheets

£740 an instance a month

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 commercials@sempreanalytics.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

555972579894670

Contact

Commercials
020 3137 9944
commercials@sempreanalytics.com

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: Watson Analytics, Cognos Analytics and Decision Optimisation on Cloud
• 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:
  • Internet connection, web browser and Microsoft Excel (optional)
  • Remote Desktop connection for Administrators/Modelers (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: Remote support from Sempre is offered during working hours, where the SLA is under 2 hours. On-site support is available but at an additional cost. Technical support is provided 24/7 by IBM.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Standard Support is incorporated into the fees. This includes access to our support desk and IBM 24/7 technical support. Email/Online ticketing support is provided with access via Zendesk portal. SLAs are provided to customers based upon time taken for response and the severity of the request. Priority 1 tickets have a response objective of 2 hours during weekdays.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: User Documentation
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: Users can download their data into Excel, into CSV files or directly into a database through ODBC
• End-of-contract process: There are multiple options to suit clients needs, including Auto-renew, auto termination and 12 month renewals. These are agreed in advance of the contract end date.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The mobile application is deliberately limited to end user functionality for submissions and report consumption. The remote desktop access provides full administration functionality
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AAA
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: You can use the IBM® Cognos® TM1® REST API to perform create, read, update, and delete operations on Planning Analytics data by using standards that are defined by OData Version 4
• 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: Users can provide customised models and reports, including corporate colours and logos, and the information relevant to each individual. Customisation is typically reserved for system administrators, although users can customise their own personal workspaces such as choosing charts and diagrams, colours, and report content/type. The majority of these customisations are available from the toolbar at the top, or by right clicking.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: For each customer the Planning Analytics data tier uses fixed storage and is sized on requirements. A range of techniques such as Linux container technology, dedicated instances and workload isolation avoid affects by other users of the service.; ; The architecture of IBM cloud services maintains logical separation of client data. Internal rules and measures separate data processing, such as inserting, modifying, deleting, and transferring data, according to the contracted purposes.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Modelers will have access to Performance Modeler and Operations console. In addition, as part of your SaaS contract, IBM will perform ongoing monitoring and management of the platform including network traffic.
• Reporting types: 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: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a Tigerscheme qualified provider or a CREST-approved service provider
• 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
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

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:
  • Flat Files (Via FTPeS)
  • ODBC 3.5 (via Secure Gateway)
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats:
  • Flat Files (via FTPeS)
  • ODBC 3.5 (e.g IBM DB2, Oracle RDBMS)
  • Oracle Essbase
  • Oracle Hyperion Planning
  • Oracle Hyperion Financial Management
  • SAP-BW (Via Cognos Integration Server)

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • 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: Planned maintenance outage is proposed to designated contacts via email.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: IBM maintains individual role-based authorisation of privileged accounts that is subject to regular validation. A privileged account is a duly authorised IBM user identity with administrative access to a Cloud Service, including associated infrastructure, networks, systems, applications, databases and file systems.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication: 2-factor authentication

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 1 month and 6 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: Bureau Veritas
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 02/08/2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The infrastructure and platform this offering is run on is ISO/IEC 27001 compliant. The current SaaS application is also compliant and certification can be found with this link: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/compliance/iso-27001
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: Yes
• CSA STAR accreditation date: 06/04/2018
• CSA STAR certification level: Level 1: CSA STAR Self-Assessment
• What the CSA STAR doesn’t cover: IBM publishes its CSA STAR Level 1 Self-Assessment Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaires (CAIQ) annually, including self-assessments for IBM Cloud® Infrastructure (IaaS), IBM Cloud Platform (PaaS) and IBM Cloud Services (SaaS). A broad range of IBM VPC, PaaS and SaaS services have achieved CSA STAR Level 2 certification by an external third party audit firm. Detail can be found here: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/compliance/csa-star
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: IBM has an Information Technology (IT) Security policy that establishes the requirements for the protection of IBM's worldwide IT systems and the information assets they contain, including networks and computing devices such as servers, workstations, host computers, application programs, web services, and telephone systems within the IBM infrastructure. IBM’s IT Security policy is supplemented by standards and guidelines, such as the Security Standards for IBM's Infrastructure, the Security and Use Standards for IBM Employees and the Security Guidelines for Outsourced Business Services. Such are reviewed by a cross-company team led by the IT Risk organisation every six months. IBM has a dedicated Vice President of IT Security who leads a team responsible for IBM's own enterprise data security standards and practices. Responsibility and accountability for executing internal security programs is established through formal documented policies. IBM Services teams also have dedicated executives and teams who are responsible for information and physical security in the delivery of our client services.

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 maintains policies and procedures to manage risks associated with the application of changes to its Cloud Services. Prior to implementation, all changes to a Cloud Service, including its systems, networks and underlying components, will be documented in a registered change request that includes a description and reason for the change, implementation details and schedule, a risk statement addressing impact to the Cloud Service and its clients, expected outcome, rollback plan, and documented approval by IBM management or its authorised delegate.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: With each Cloud Service, as applicable and commercially reasonable, IBM will a) perform penetration testing and vulnerability assessments before production release and routinely thereafter, b) enlist a qualified and reputable independent third-party to perform penetration testing and ethical hacking at least annually, c) perform automated management and routine verification of underlying components’ compliance with security configuration requirements, and d) remediate any identified vulnerability or noncompliance with its security configuration requirements based on associated risk, exploitability, and impact. IBM takes reasonable care to avoid Cloud Service disruption when performing its tests, assessments, scans, and execution of remediation activities.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: IBM maintains and follows policies requiring administrative access and activity in its Cloud Services’ computing environments to be logged and monitored, and the logs to be archived and retained in compliance with IBM’s worldwide records management plan. IBM monitors privileged account use and maintain security information and event management policies and measures designed to a) identify unauthorised administrative access and activity, b) facilitate a timely and appropriate response, and c) enable internal and independent third party audits of compliance with such policies. IBM systematically monitors the health and availability of production Cloud Service systems and infrastructure at all times.
• 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: IBM:; -maintains and follows incident response policies aligned with NIST guidelines for computer security incident handling, and will comply with data breach notification requirements under applicable law.; -investigates security incidents, including unauthorised access or use of content or the Cloud Service, of which IBM becomes aware, and, if warranted, define and execute an appropriate response plan.; -promptly notifies Client upon determining that a security incident known or reasonably suspected by IBM to affect Client has occurred.; -provides Client with reasonably requested information about such security incident and status of applicable remediation and restoration activities performed or directed by IBM.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Sempre Analytics are a proud partner of Sustainably Run, whose agroforestry practices, resources and training benefit the environment, counterbalancing CO2, biodiversity, employment, and community in emerging nations. This partnership is supported every time a meeting is booked with a Sempre employee. Through this successful partnership, Sempre was awarded a National Gold Green Apple Environmental Award in 2021.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Through the Sustainably Run partnership, Sempre Analytics help provide the following to families in developing communities:; - sustainable sources of food through agroforestry plots; - agroforestry education for reliable and maximum crop yields and economic sustainability; - income and infrastructure through regular crop income as well as crop surplus.

  Equal opportunity

  Sempre Analytics is committed to encouraging equality and diversity with the make-up of our workforce always being monitored in areas such as age, gender, ethnic background and disability. In addition to this, we support our charity of choice: Over The Wall, through annual charity fundraising events. Over The Wall is a national children’s charity that provides transformative activity camps to empower children with serious health challenges by using Therapeutic Recreation.

  Wellbeing

  Sempre Analytics supports the wellbeing of families in developing communities through our partnership with Sustainably Run, and the wellbeing of children (and their parents/guardians) with health challenges through our charity of choice: Over The Wall. We have also incorporated wellbeing into our culture and strategy. Examples include:; - remote/home working; - flexible hours; - annual company trips ; - regular social events; - health insurance; - mental health first aiders and professional stress counselling.

Pricing

• Price: £740 an instance a month
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: 30-day trial; Select your use case; Walkthrough pre-built planning and financial samples across use cases such as Finance, Supply Chain, Workforce, Marketing, Sales...; ; Invite your colleagues; Invite up to 4 additional users, facilitating collaboration and interaction within the platform.; ; Choose your interface; Web-based interface or desktop with Excel plug-in.

Service documents

• Pricing document

  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 commercials@sempreanalytics.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.