With the new version of OLAPObjects Publisher, non-technical Excel users of TM1 have even more features for developing a complete and compelling budgeting application on the web using only Excel and TM1 skills. Excel outline, user driven menus, automatic row and column expansion and formula based cell suppression are all easily incorporated. Companies that need to collect large quantities of batch data from business units around the world can add on the OLAPObjects Data Pipeline product. Newer features of TM1, including data spreading and drill through to relational data sources, are also natively supported without additional configuration.
IDEXX Laboratories has been a long time user of TM1, and recently decided to deploy OLAPObjects for TM1, in large part because of OLAPObjects Data Pipeline. Jon Hansen, Senior Financial Analyst of IDEXX says, “OLAPObjects Data Pipeline made a big difference to our budget process this year. In the past our many locations in Europe, the Pacific rim and North America, would all submit batch data files for the corporate office to load into TM1 and verify—a time consuming process. With Data Pipeline, they were able to go to a secure web site, do their own submissions, and verify the data themselves immediately. By pushing responsibility for the data out to the owners, we saved on both processing and administrative time.”
With TM1 and these tools, all the pieces of a sophisticated budgeting system can be built by users to their precise specifications. “OLAPObjects for TM1 4.0 enables our customers to build secure input schedules that change dynamically depending on who is logged in, or which cost center has been selected. They can also build staffing models that allow for the addition of new employees on the fly, as well as initialize a new budget revision when needed—all from the web. The same tools can be used to implement workflow features, or to build complicated Travel & Entertainment budget models either by using Excel formulas, or TM1 rules—users even have options as to where they want the logic to be evaluated!”, says Richard Creeth, president of Creeth, Richman & Associates.
Richard Creeth adds, “This new release takes our customers way beyond Excel based reporting on the web. Because it is an easily extensible platform, we have been able to respond quickly to customer requests for new application products based on the OLAPObjects platform. Examples include OLAPObjects Journal Entry, OLAPObjects Automated Eliminations, OLAPObjects Administrator and of course OLAPObjects Data Pipeline. All of these products are now available as complete, easily configurable, pre-packaged modules.”
OLAPObjects for TM1 4.0 has been made available to select customers since July 2003, and is now available to Applix TM1 customers worldwide. Free webinars showcasing the new features during December 2003 and January 2004 are advertised at http://www.olapobjects.com.
