IBM Planning Analytics Workspace 2.0.64 is now available for download and installation for Planning Analytics Local (On-Premise) Customers as of Saturday 12th June.
In addition to a number of bug fixes which can be found HERE there are 4 key new features:
1. Improvements to the automated Forecasting Engine
In recent versions of Workspace we have been able to benefit from an impressive adaptation of Exponential Smoothing algorithms to use our historic data points and come up with a calculated forecast which accounts for Trend and Seasonality. Previously, we could choose to ignore single time periods (e.g. a single day, week, month or year) while still considering all historic time periods either side of it.
Now we can be much more selective about which time periods to ignore, with the ability to select multiple different time ranges through an easy to use prompt box.
Under normal circumstances, our history is one of the strongest datasets we have available when trying to produce an accurate forecast. But with recent worldwide events, there are few businesses who wouldn’t want to exclude certain time periods from their analysis. As such, this improvement will allow many more customers to make the most of the powerful forecasting feature.
2. Identical Font Size in Equally Sized Widgets
Now when placing text, cell or button widgets of the same size/shape in the same book – they will all have an identical font size by default.
Anyone who has tried to create uniform looking dashboards in previous releases will appreciate this one!
3. Apply Value Formats in Visualisations
One of the most frustrating aspects of Workspace since the “new experience” became available in 2.0.57 has been the fact that our charting and visualisation options had improved so dramatically – but we lost the ability to show percentages (and other formats) in our charts!
Now we can simply right-click on the value axis of our charts and select the format to be displayed.
For this reason alone, I will be recommending that any customers using Workspace will benefit from this update.
4. A New BETA Interface for Development
And finally, IBM have officially announced a new development interface in Workspace which allows us to get away from the “book” based modelling that we have been doing previously.
In addition to automatically being able to utilise the full screen and having simple tabbed editors for our TIs, Rules, Cube Views etc. We can finally take them out to a floating window! This allows you to easily develop in Workspace on multiple monitors.
To access the Beta release you need to use the URL: http://<your workspace address>/?perspective=modeling
We have been told a link directly to the new interface (known as Workbenches) will be available from within the Workspace Home Screen as of release 2.0.65 but for now we need to use the URL.
To see the new Workbenches please watch the short video below:
