Cognos TM1 Planning versus Oracle Hyperion Planning

There are currently loads of discussions in the various EPM groups on LinkedIn asking the question “Which is the best software product, Cognos TM1 planning or Hyperion Planning?”

Now this might be controversial but I think it might be a good idea to round up all the guys that are asking and commenting on these subjects and put them to the firing squad.

Guys!  You lot are really missing the point!!  Rant coming……..

Thing is, it's a bit like saying BMW or Mercedes. Both are great car brands, their genetic makeup is very different but they both drive really well and you will not be disappointed with either.

Is the BMW faster than the Mercedes................I would have thought it depends on who is driving the car!

Back to Planning products, the risk of a poor implementation is not really in the software, but in how the business requirements are understood, translated to a design, built to the design, tested end to end, how the users are trained and communicated with i.e. the implementation.

You’ll spend more money on the actual implementation (including internal resource) than you will on the software so why to people get hung on what’s the best software?

If I was these guys I would be more concerned with the quality of the implementation partner:

·        Do they understand my business and process

·        Are they suitably skilled to translate this into a software solution

·        Do they know my industry

·        Do I trust them

·        Do they have a track record

·        Are they respected in the industry

There are many more consultancy companies out there who implement Cognos and Hyperion and they all face the same problem – how to attract and retain quality staff.

There are plenty of guys out there but there is a massive variability in quality………..a much wider variation in quality than there is with the two software vendors above.

Back to the LinkedIn discussion groups, everybody who worked with Cognos recommends ……….guess what……..Cognos and everybody who works with Hyperion recommends…………………guess what…………..Hyperion.  So ignore these discussions as they are totally meaningless.

One thing that REALLY bugs me is the comments from the Cognos lovers saying that Cognos is faster to implement.  Give me a gun!!!!!   Surely anybody out there that knows what they’re talking about will tell you that it’s the BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS that make an implementation simple (quick) or complex (slow) to implement!!!!!!

Trust me, it’s not the software.  I have implemented a simple Hyperion Planning implementation in a week from understanding requirements, designing, building, testing and rolling out to the end user.  Why did it only take a week – the requirement was…………………………..SIMPLE!!!!

On the software choice I always recommend the Gartner Magic Quadrants as they are well respected and as close to independent as you will get.

For the CPM quadrant (maybe I need to have a CPM Nirvana blog) Gartner have favoured Hyperion Planning consistently over many years mainly because Hyperion were years ahead integrating Essbase into Hyperion planning (way before Oracle bought Hyperion) than Cognos were integrating TM1.  In fact even now, there’s two versions of Cognos Planning out in the user base being supported.

Me personally, I love Hyperion and have never implemented Cognos so you mustn’t trust my opinion and I would give it.  Just remember, If either is built badly you'll end up with a rust bucket sitting unused in the garage.

PPS - Oracle all the way J

PPS – I love LinkedIn J