Anaplan

Likelihood to Recommend

Well Suited

Any process that you expect to change frequently.
A process within a dynamic environment, such as high tech / the startup world, where you expect significant business process changes.
Any process that requires a significant number of collaborators.
Any process where you intend for users to update logic with Excel-like formulas.
Any process where using Google Docs has failed to accommodate your needs for data integrity.

Less Appropriate

Data visualization - Anaplan has capabilities here, but other tools are more focused on this.
Data storage - Anaplan is not a data warehouse and has limits on what you can store.

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Matthew Kuo

Senior Sales Planning Analyst

Tableau SoftwareComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Anaplan

Customizable dashboards

Anaplan

Publish to PDF

Report Versioning

Report Delivery Scheduling

Anaplan

Responsive Design for Web Access

Anaplan

Long-term financial planning

Financial budgeting

Forecasting

Scenario modeling

Management reporting

Anaplan

Financial data consolidation

Journal entries and reports

Multi-currency management

Intercompany Eliminations

Minority Ownership

Local and consolidated reporting

Detailed Audit Trails

Anaplan

Financial Statement Reporting

Management Reporting

Excel-based Reporting

Automated board and financial reporting

Anaplan

Personalized dashboards

Color-coded scorecards

KPIs

Cost and profitability analysis

Key Performance Indicator setting

Benchmarking with external data

Anaplan

Flat file integration

Excel data integration

Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

Pros

Anaplan is great for headcount reporting. We have reports by dept, office location, and subsidiary that is great for planning and also for full company reporting.
Although they can be complicated to set up, Anaplan is also great for setting up complex P&L views. For example, setting up a P&L with a combination of subs/depts., that still needs to consolidate to the total P&L.
Systems-wise, I like that it's impossible to #REF the model! Anaplan shows you where everything is referenced, so it's very difficult to break anything.
I also like that formulas copy across, so there is no chance of pointing to the wrong cell, like in Excel

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Dan Shuwarger

Finance Manager, FP&A

SplunkComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

Performance - in the case of complex business cases, the size of Anaplan is increasing drastically, and even a simple click would take more than it should.
UI - The User interface needs to be improved: group/expand hierarchy, "Ctrl " + select option to allow multi selection, Content page clean up, easier "Drag & drop" when customizing or building exports.
Review & enhance the type of security user roles.

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Szilvia Havasreti

PPS EMEA CEP Sales Coverage Program Manager

HPInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Anaplan 8.2

Based on 3 answers

I don't think we could function without the collaboration capabilities built into Anaplan that replaced disparate Excel files in the workforce planning model

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Usability

Anaplan 8.2

Based on 2 answers

There is a dependency in this rating - in that I find Anaplan extremely easy to use, but I've spent the necessary time developing a strong understanding of the platform. Once you understand how to use it, the platform is flexible, easy to use, and fun to use.

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Chris Friederich

Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Cherwell SoftwareComputer Software, 201-500 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Anaplan 10.0

Based on 1 answer

In nearly 3 years, I have only had 1 issue of being unable to access my model for an unplanned maintenance. Even planned maintenance windows are handled during low traffic hours on the weekend.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Performance

Anaplan 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Everything is calculated in memory in the cloud. It's nearly instantaneous updates when you make changes. The only time things get a little slow is when you have a massive model with very intricate calculations...but "slow" for Anaplan is not what I would call "slow" for something like Hyperion. We used to have Hyperion calcs that ran for 60 mins before you could use data. The equivalent would be 60 seconds in Anaplan.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Support Rating

Anaplan 8.1

Based on 2 answers

I feel like the support team is a little lacking in product knowledge. Several times I have contacted them to get help, and ended up finding a solution to my own problem before the team could get back to me with anything useful. I have also submitted a few bugs, and never got updates to when they were fixed in later releases.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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In-Person Training

Anaplan 3.0

Based on 1 answer

The in-person training is simply not worth the cost. After a few weeks of playing in Anaplan, I went to the basic training and knew more than the person teaching it. a year down the road, I was the first person to complete the advance training, and again could have been teaching the class better than the person running the session. Spend some time on your own trying out different things and you will get all the understanding you need to be successful.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Online Training

Anaplan 5.0

Based on 1 answer

I'm giving this a 5 simply for the anapedia outline of calculations. The online videos and trainings leave a lot to be desired, but having anapedia around to help you understand calculations has been helpful. The drawback to anapedia is the depth they go into for calculations, it is lackluster at times. Because of that, I have been working through a much more in-depth look at each calculation on my website for users to reference: http://www.anaplanguru.com/formulas/

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Implementation Rating

Anaplan 6.7

Based on 12 answers

Agile methodology and breaking the work down into sprints was very helpful. Implementation required a deeper dive into our data than expected for the consultants to be able to construct the data model. But once it was in place, the focus on knowledge transfer enabled us to be able to use the product effectively after the team rolled off.

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Steve Ridgley

Head of Sales Compensation

Robert HalfStaffing and Recruiting, 10,001+ employees

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Alternatives Considered

Anaplan was an easy choice because two other divisions in our company used it in limited ways - either only sales ops or financial reporting. In addition, it was the hands down best choice given the complexity and size of our organization. We operate in a highly matrixed organization across the globe therefore, we needed a powerful and flexible platform; not all options allowed for this flexibility nor were they suited for large multi-national companies.

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Tara Kirby

Senior Director, Planning & Analysis

Schneider Electric SoftwareIndustrial Automation, 10,001+ employees

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Scalability

Anaplan 7.0

Based on 1 answer

It's going to handle most of what you can throw at it. The problem lies in the sparsity of some datasets. When you have over 5ish dimensions of sparse data, the size of the model gets bloated for not much value. In several cases, I have had to adapt my model to account for sparsity in a way that minimized use of space, but also made interacting with the data more cumbersome.

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Joe Bradbury

Manager, Financial Systems

Research NowMarket Research, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

I'm sure the impact is positive. We have streamlined many processes and created capacity for our finance team.
It's great to have "one source of truth" and know that everyone is looking at the same metrics.

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Kelley Haghighi

Sr. Finance Director

DaVita Kidney CareHospital & Health Care, 10,001+ employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Rating Summary

Anaplan

Likelihood to Recommend

Feature Rating Comparison

Customizable dashboards

Publish to PDF

Report Versioning

Report Delivery Scheduling

Responsive Design for Web Access

Long-term financial planning

Financial budgeting

Forecasting

Scenario modeling

Management reporting

Financial data consolidation

Journal entries and reports

Multi-currency management

Intercompany Eliminations

Minority Ownership

Local and consolidated reporting

Detailed Audit Trails

Financial Statement Reporting

Management Reporting

Excel-based Reporting

Automated board and financial reporting

Personalized dashboards

Color-coded scorecards

KPIs

Cost and profitability analysis

Key Performance Indicator setting

Benchmarking with external data

Flat file integration

Excel data integration

Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

Pros

Anaplan

Cons

Anaplan

Likelihood to Renew

Anaplan

Usability

Anaplan

Reliability and Availability

Anaplan

Performance

Anaplan

Support Rating

Anaplan

In-Person Training

Anaplan

Online Training

Anaplan

Implementation Rating

Anaplan

Alternatives Considered

Anaplan

Scalability

Anaplan

Return on Investment

Anaplan

Screenshots

Anaplan

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Rating Summary

Add comparison