How Aveva transformed their TM1 model migration process

About Aveva

Aveva is the world leading engineering software provider to the plant, power, and marine industries. Their Cognos TM1 model plays a critical role in financial planning, forecasting, and reporting for the business. As the company grows, demand for better quality and more timely information continues to increase.

The Challenge

Aveva develops new models and enhances existing models in a development and UAT environment to reduce downtime risk in production. However, migrating tested models to production created significant challenges: knowing exactly which model components — dimensions, processes, cubes — were new versus already existing in production was difficult to determine manually, increasing the risk of missed or broken objects during deployment.

The Solution

Using Pulse's migration functionality, Aveva can automatically see all dependencies associated with any model object. Migration packages can be created in advance and deployed when ready, with Pulse handling the dependency resolution automatically.

Pulse also enabled separation of duties in the migration process: one administrator creates the package while another imports it after review — reducing risk and improving governance. Additional Pulse features brought further value:

• Server alerts — immediate notification if TM1 servers go offline, enabling rapid diagnosis
• Change tracking — full audit trail of changes to rules and processes, with rollback capability
• System diagrams — visualise data flows between cubes and external sources
• User management — disconnect users causing blockages without impacting others

The Results

• Full confidence that every required object is included in each migration package
• Immediate alerts when TM1 servers go offline, enabling rapid resolution
• Change tracking with rollback provides a safety net for any production issues
• System diagrams help the team understand and enhance complex data flows
• Segregation of duties improves governance over the deployment process