Anaplan vs. HCL Unica

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Anaplan
Score 8.6 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Anaplan is a transformative way to see, plan, and run your business. Using its proprietary Hyperblock™ technology, Anaplan lets you contextualize real-time performance, and forecast future outcomes for faster, confident decisions. Anaplan enables connected strategy and planning across your enterprise to move your business forward. Based in San Francisco, Anaplan has over 200 partners and more than 2,000 customers worldwide.N/A
HCL Unica
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
HCL Unica (acquired by HCL Technologies from IBM in late 2018) is a suite of enterprise marketing management tools including marketing automation with cross-channel campaign management, budgeting and forecasting, project workflow management, asset management, brand management and spend management.N/A
Pricing
AnaplanHCL Unica
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AnaplanHCL Unica
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
AnaplanHCL Unica
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
7.7
181 Ratings
5% below category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports6.41 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.1181 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
9.1
2 Ratings
9% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
8.8
188 Ratings
7% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Publish to Web9.11 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.8187 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning9.1162 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
8.2
2 Ratings
7% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics6.42 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
9.2
191 Ratings
5% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.4191 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control9.444 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
7.9
181 Ratings
1% below category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access8.6172 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application8.2161 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.2168 Ratings00 Ratings
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
9.1
293 Ratings
9% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Long-term financial planning9.4267 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial budgeting9.6272 Ratings00 Ratings
Forecasting9.2281 Ratings00 Ratings
Scenario modeling9.1283 Ratings00 Ratings
Management reporting8.3282 Ratings00 Ratings
Consolidation and Close
Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
7.2
248 Ratings
12% below category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Financial data consolidation8.6228 Ratings00 Ratings
Journal entries and reports7.0186 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency management6.211 Ratings00 Ratings
Intercompany Eliminations6.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Minority Ownership6.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Local and consolidated reporting8.5215 Ratings00 Ratings
Detailed Audit Trails8.1228 Ratings00 Ratings
Financial Reporting and Compliance
Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
8.6
265 Ratings
4% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Financial Statement Reporting8.7244 Ratings00 Ratings
Management Reporting8.4256 Ratings00 Ratings
Excel-based Reporting8.1235 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated board and financial reporting9.013 Ratings00 Ratings
Analytics and Reporting
Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
9.0
284 Ratings
11% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Personalized dashboards8.6279 Ratings00 Ratings
Color-coded scorecards8.7263 Ratings00 Ratings
KPIs9.119 Ratings00 Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis9.2241 Ratings00 Ratings
Key Performance Indicator setting9.4252 Ratings00 Ratings
Benchmarking with external data9.113 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration
Comparison of Integration features of Product A and Product B
Anaplan
8.8
290 Ratings
5% above category average
HCL Unica
-
Ratings
Flat file integration9.4280 Ratings00 Ratings
Excel data integration8.4262 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources8.6241 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AnaplanHCL Unica
Small Businesses
IBM Planning Analytics
IBM Planning Analytics
Score 8.4 out of 10
Airtable
Airtable
Score 8.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Centage
Centage
Score 9.6 out of 10
LeanData
LeanData
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.2 out of 10
Adobe Marketing Cloud
Adobe Marketing Cloud
Score 8.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
AnaplanHCL Unica
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(302 ratings)
9.0
(15 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(25 ratings)
8.7
(11 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(16 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.7
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.8
(18 ratings)
3.0
(1 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(21 ratings)
7.2
(2 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.3
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
4.8
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AnaplanHCL Unica
Likelihood to Recommend
Anaplan
Anaplan revolutionizes the planning process by standardizing it, creating transparency in data, particularly in showcasing results to the management team. By replacing Excel-centric planning methods, Anaplan not only opens the door to handling larger datasets but also enables a more intricate level of data granularity at an accelerated pace. What sets it apart is its capacity to facilitate a seamless collaboration within a cross-functional model, accommodating diverse departments and business functions in a dynamic, real-time environment.
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HCL Technologies
I think it is wel suited for a business with a lot of one on one relations in the database. For example a supermarket that sells products to a client and gives a reduction on that product. It is nice if the selection process is not to complex and does not involve to many calculations. It is also nice if it is very clear what you want to follow up. In our environment we have lots of many-to-many relations. for example one product is held by more then one client. And that client might have more of those products with other clients. These kind of situation demands for a lot of calculations with derived fields(*), and there things go far too slow. Unica is probably not such a good solution for us, because our environment is too complex, and so is to process of creating the selection, we often have to change things in the selection flows. Because of the complexity it is difficult to see what the flow is exactly doing afterwoods, it also takes to much time to modify existing campaigns. The interface is not handy to work with, if you have long lists of variables, of tables or derived fields(*) you have to scroll through trough them, you can not really search them or reorder them. You can not drag and drop fields or other objects like derived fields in the flow, what would be easy if you have to make frequent changes to the proces flow. When you copy objects something the content of the object changes because the links with other objects or lost. (*) derived field: field to calculate something
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Pros
Anaplan
  • Forcing structure and auditability to processes that used to exist in spreadsheets
  • Strong calculation engine that can account for many dimensions
  • Formula Syntax that is not overly complicated and can be learned by the business in order to have ownership of their models internally
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HCL Technologies
  • Ability to translate Multiple SQL queries into a very easy to use visual GUI.
  • Provides the ability to pre-define segments, run them once in off hours, store them in their own system tables for quick youth and a significant reduction in CPU utilization on the database.
  • It’s use of Reusable objects. Including user variables to pre-define calculations one time, macros that you can create and pass values to parameterize the SQL code And the creation of templates to easily replicate work.
  • It’s ability to bring in external data on the fly that can very easily be mapped into any flowchart.
  • It’s flexibility and creating UNIX script via triggers to automate sending of files to multiple vendors with different FTP sites
  • It’s flexibility in the output layouts that it can create.
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Cons
Anaplan
  • The "new" UX front-end offers a lot of modern and intuitive features, but it lacks the ability to view multiple "tabs" of dashboards and reports. The "classic" dashboard had this feature but now with the UX, you need to be really smart about how to design a single page where the users won't get "lost".
  • Lacks the ability to "wrap text" (similar to excel) and auto-size grid rows
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HCL Technologies
  • Greater integration of real time (Interact) capabilities with outbound channels, in particular IBM eMessage Email & SMS delivery.
  • Additional outbound channels to be integrated into eMessage, including Facebook Fanpage & Twitter DM broadcasts. At the moment these are possible only through custom additional integration.
  • Support for additional marketing database technology, e.g. MySQL, Exasol, ParAccel, WX2.
  • Provision of database technology with software purchase, as Web technology (IBM WebSphere Express) is supplied for free, but no database is supplied - since IBM also market DB2, which is a supported technology it seems a shame.
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Likelihood to Renew
Anaplan
In any line of work, a tool that is flexible and would allow different departments of your company to easily interact and exchange valuable insights, is highly anticipated and needed. For me, what Anaplan provides to a business, be it a smaller one or an enterprise customer, is an easily scaling, agile planning and modeling platform that can meet almost any need and give a high-end solution to the problems any company faces on a daily basis.
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HCL Technologies
There are three main factors to renew a licence: 1) Cost to migrate to another platform would be rather expensive and time consuming, plus the requirement of retraining employees to use a new tool 2) It has been proven time and time again that it is a market leader in the space (10 years +) 3) It can be built upon, with the addition of additional IBM EMM modules - despite theories it does have very strong digital capabilities.
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Usability
Anaplan
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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HCL Technologies
I think it is easy to use, if you don't have to do to complex selections.
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Reliability and Availability
Anaplan
There are very few outages. Maintenance is scheduled on two or three Saturdays per month, so as not to affect businesses. When there is an outage, users are kept informed of progress to restore the platform and typically this takes no more than an hour. Anaplan customer support is very responsive if we ever have questions about platform issues
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HCL Technologies
No answers on this topic
Performance
Anaplan
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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HCL Technologies
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Anaplan
1. Anaplan has separate 24/7 customer support channel to help with queries, 2. Customer Partner from Anaplan to support vendor with their queries like license purchase, use case implementation support, customer advocacy 3. Anaplan Learning Platform to help learning new product features free of cost and Yearly Anaplan connect across globe to share success stories of various companies.
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HCL Technologies
I didn't use the Unica support since it is with IBM, only before.
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In-Person Training
Anaplan
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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HCL Technologies
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Anaplan
Anaplan training materials are clear, simple, easy to understand and to follow. Visuals are excellent. The vendor is good at updating training materials in a timely manner and encouraging users and administrators to keep coming back to Academy site for refresher courses or new feature courses. I really like their interactive diagrams
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HCL Technologies
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Anaplan
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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HCL Technologies
- We had to rebuild a part of the datamart afterwards to tighten up and simplify the selection process. But as it was too time consuming to rebuild all the existing campaigns, we no run campaigns on different versions of the datamart. - The response tracking of the campaigns never worked out well, it was impossible to implement a direct response where there is a link between the lead and the response in our operational process
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Alternatives Considered
Anaplan
Anaplan is what I would consider a modeling platform. It excels at taking a forecasting or planning process and systematizing it - and allowing for whatever nuances and granularity you need to perform that modeling. It is not positioned as "data collection" platform - which are typically designed to take data uploads from Excel to calculate basic opex and revenue models. It's much more customizable and flexible.
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HCL Technologies
The contact history and the response history are so powerful. You can track whatever you want to help the call center to push relevant offers to our customer. In addition, predictive models can be built, with patience, in IBM Campaign. If you have some complaints from the call center about any campaigns, you can easily validate it into the contact or response history.
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Scalability
Anaplan
We have managed to leverage Anaplan for financial planning and forecasting across the business. It is now used by almost every department, with more than 50 users (but I know of companies that have hundreds of users) and still the platform is quick and reliable. It is easy to make changes to divisions and departments or add users and apply different user settings - the core part of the model is not affected and end users can continue their work without any disruption
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HCL Technologies
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Anaplan
  • Speeding up the process of closing and updating the current month forecast
  • Reduced work on the preparation of reports and presentations. We used different Anaplan approaches with varying success, but the overall result was there.
  • It's hard to gauge, but the overall increase in process and algorithm transparency, along with data protection, has given an excellent platform for scaling up the company's processes.
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HCL Technologies
  • It helps my clients drive their business which in turn, drives more profit for them.
  • It helps my clients determine what works, and what doesn't work, in terms of their social marketing campaigns.
  • It helps navigate proper budgeting through determining what clients' users respond to, and what they find unique.
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ScreenShots

Anaplan Screenshots

Screenshot of Platform: The Anaplan platform is a unified cloud-based solution that connects people, data and plans to enable complex scenario modeling and drive growthScreenshot of OpEx Planning: Review revenue-target-setting goals by brand, season, and capacity all on one, unified, highly-visual dashboardScreenshot of Supply Planning: Break down costs across assembly production to project profitability and align your supply chain to market opportunitiesScreenshot of Territory and Quota Planning: Keep track of sales goals and quotas across territories and industries to optimize sales performanceScreenshot of Headcount Planning: Easily align workforce plans with your strategic plans and quickly see where the best qualified talent resides to fit your organization’s staffing needsScreenshot of Marketing: Eliminate spreadsheets to drive efficiency across planning and manage budget against planned activity

HCL Unica Screenshots

Screenshot of End-to-end campaign managementScreenshot of Faster campaign creation