EP features in TM1?

[JohnBoyd2001]

I've been trying to educate myself on TM1 and haven't found a lot yet.  I may be missing something obvious, if so please give me a pointer in the right direction.

I've seen TM1 demos and they look nice, but I'm short on practical information.  Such as:

* what's the TM1 version of Analyst and CAC.
* Can you store reporting-style data separately in TM1 (I assume that's a  yes, but we'd need something like a view publish.)
* How well does TM1 integrate with Excel.  Here our users are very attached to the "batch print" functionality in the Planning Excel Add-In, which allows them to select a dimension and obtain separate Excel sheets for the components of that dimension.

[dusherwo]

I have 15 years experience of TM1, but only light contact with EP - but this would be my take:
* what's the TM1 version of Analyst and CAC.
You build TM1 systems using Perspectives, which is also the user tool - but you need an Admin license (and more $) to be able to create objects.
There is a Contributor frontend to TM1 (called, amazingly, TM1 Contributor). My take is that it is rather new and delicate, although a lot better on workflow than Applix' earlier attempt, called TM1 Workflow.
* Can you store reporting-style data separately in TM1 (I assume that's a  yes, but we'd need something like a view publish.)
You don't really distinguish reporting from planning in TM1, except as you wish to in your design - so yes. It's not tough, for instance, to pull in your GL, combine it with your budget and report the variances and % variances.
* How well does TM1 integrate with Excel.  Here our users are very attached to the "batch print" functionality in the Planning Excel Add-In, which allows them to select a dimension and obtain separate Excel sheets for the components of that dimension.
Very well indeed. Perspectives (the primary user and developer tool) _is_ an Excel addin. The best way to work is to build Excel reports linked to TM1 - try to get out of the 'run a query and download the results' mindset. Having said that, there is a report production function (called, oddly, 'Print Report') which is meant to do what you want. I haven't found it to be that good when pushed, and clients typically write small amounts of VBA instead to do this.
There are other (too many) ways to deliver TM1 data but Perspectives and Excel are by far the best, unless your users are Excelphobes.