Customer Trends in 2023

As another year draws to a close, we wanted to take some time to reflect on the conversations we’ve had this year, and if we see these conversations changing as we go into 2024.

 

Sustainability

Whilst we had a few conversations about sustainability reporting in 2022, 2023 has seen a big increase in interest. More customers are looking at how to capture and manage their data, in line with various frameworks that are currently available and coming into legislation.

We had a session on this in our September Analytics Forum, with our partner Intito, who have built their own solution in IBM Planning Analytics. We expect to be having more conversations about this next year, as more companies refine their requirements for reporting.

 

AI in Analytics

Those who were early adopters of the modernised IBM software are now looking at practical applications of the AI tools available in IBM software. These early adopters are interested in how they can use AI to support their teams and reduce some of the more manual work, so they can focus on analysis.

We’re also seeing IBM putting more development into making more practical AI functionality in their Analytics tools, and usage of these is becoming more normal than novelty for many customers.

 

Cloud Services

We’re happy to have recently completed our 30th Cloud Migration to IBM software!

We have been busy this year moving many existing and new customers to IBM’s Cloud services. More of our customers than ever before are prioritizing moving to Cloud. This is to reduce the burden on IT and mitigate the risk of security breaches and out of date software. Moving to Cloud also makes it much easier to stay up to date with latest product releases. We already have a number of migrations booked for 2024, so we don’t see this trend slowing down just yet.

 

Training Requirements

For IBM Planning Analytics, more people want access to self-service training materials to learn at their own pace in shorter periods of time.

In response to this feedback that many people have kindly shared with us, we are working on a bank of short training videos specifically for IBM Planning Analytics. We hope to add this to our recently released knowledge base. If you haven’t visited our Knowledge Base yet, you can do so here.

For Controller, we are finding that whole training days are a better fit for user training requirements.

 

Self Service Reports and Analysis

We’re seeing an increased interest for self service capability for Senior Managers and Leaders. Our customers are looking to move away from static Excel and PowerPoint reports to interactive, drillable reports and visualisations.

As leaders call for more data, tools like Planning Analytics Workspace give them greater visibility and interactivity with the data.

Let us know your thoughts here. 

Bronyck Stokes Horrigan, Customer Success Manager – 18th December 2023