ActivTrak vs. IBM Planning Analytics

ActivTrak is useful to help keep track of your employees, and set up flags where they may occasionally go awry. I find the number of features to be adequate for monitoring our business, but would be better served if I spent time tailoring it for our unique needs. I don't think ActivTrak is great for live-views.

Incentivized

For a CFO or a COO to do budgeting and planning, IBM Planning Analytics would be essential. It is a tool that can take in multiple data sources and showcase them in a multidimensional way. If you are looking just for a BI or reporting tool, Planning Analytics would be considered "overkill".

• ActivTrak gives me a breakdown of hours during which my employees were actively working, when they were active online but unproductive, when they were inactive, and when they were not online.
• ActivTrak gives me a detailed breakdown of the software, platforms, and programs my employees worked on/in during each block of the day.
• ActivTrak provides a detailed breakdown of how I spend my time each day to help me improve my productivity.

Incentivized

• Handle very large data volumes.
• Scale to a large number of users.
• Not having to compromise on business complexity.
• It can be run by business users.
• Availability of highly qualified consultants to support businesses.
• REST API allows for an open eco system and a variety of solutions to extend the product.
• Vast integration possibilities.
• AI-infused engine with IBM Watson.

Incentivized

• A more detailed explanation is required when updating specific titles within the system. For instance, total time has recently become "screen time". An email notification of this change and its implications would have gone a long way.
• Easier to read the Activity Log in reporting. Sometimes, when downloading large amounts of reports, it can be cumbersome and challenging to navigate through them.
• Customized reports feature.

Incentivized

• sometimes it is hard to produce pixel perfect reports from the Web UI. I know it is not made for this, but still, it'll be great
• getting in e.g. an Excel file just by drag and drop, and the AI should "understand" what the data is all around

Incentivized

We have been using it for several years and find the benefits are quite excellent for the cost so we will renew again next year.

Incentivized

Since IBM Cognos Express is suitable only for medium data warehouse environment, we are not sure if this tool solves the long term need as the business keeps growing rapidly. So its a 50/50 ratio to renew Express license. But having said that, the components of IBM Cognos Express are also available in other Cognos BI suites like Cognos 10.x version. So we will probably upgrade our environment to IBM Cognos 10.x which comes with more new features.

ActivTrak is a great product that just keeps growing. Having used it for quite some time, we have been able to see ActivTrak grow and evolve as a product. The ActivTrak webinars are also helpful to get to know and learn the product. ActivTrak really just works with little effort needed after the initial installation

Incentivized

IBM Planning Analytics is generally good in terms of functionalities. It can be used reduce time for budget planning, resource planning, demand forecasting, etc. The performance of IBM Planning Analytics is acceptable, but user interface can be improved. It would be good to see new features that allow users to customise the dashboard.

Incentivized

Have not experienced any outages or application errors.

Incentivized

Some reports are a little slow to load based on the size of record sets returned.

Incentivized

Support is always fast and the agents are ready at all times to help when an issue arises, if the tier 1 agent isn't able to provide a solution to the issue they're asked about they quickly escalate the issue to tier 2 or 3 to ensure that the appropriate support is given to the issue at hand to have it quickly solved. No issue we've had so far has taken more than two days to be solved.

Incentivized

Although I find the IBM Planning analytics documentation quite time consuming, their support with email and call is something i can term as very considerate and patient, I have had few calls about the features and how i would want to implement them within my projects, and the teams have been super helpful to resolve my issues

Incentivized

There should be a way to automatically implement the system without giving users the opportunity to accept or deny the program on their computers.

Incentivized

I am unsure, to be honest. I have not had much exposure to different productivity software. I lucked out by using Active Trak first. I do not feel the need to investigate or review other productivity software. I would recommend ActiveTrak to other companies, users, or those searching for productivity software.

Incentivized

For strong technical teams and flexibility IBM Planning Analytics is the way to go. For quicker adoption and less technical teams Anaplan is the best option. If consolidation, financials, and moving from legacy tools are main focus than OneStream will be a really good choice. If deeply invested into SAP already than the SAP BPC will be the best fit to maintain the investment.

Incentivized

The product's overall scalability is good as our team grows. We would like to see updates to meet market demands.

Incentivized

• Real-time productivity metrics and detailed workforce analytics have allowed us to better understand our workforce and make adjustments for better productivity.
• Because we were able to curb bad habits, team behavior is at an optimal level.
• Since our productivity level has gone up, the return on our investment in staffing has risen.

Incentivized

• Much higher degree of accuracy in forecasting with the use of predictive analysis from historical data
• Dozens of man hours saved in routine processes that are now handled with minimal human interaction
• One system that holds the "source of truth," consolidating multiple systems together that were only accessible individually before

Incentivized