Anaplan vs IBM Planning Analytics

Anaplan

Sales performance management, various finance scenarios - Anaplan is good for automating calculations. It is less appropriate for very complex business cases.

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Szilvia Havasreti

PPS EMEA CEP Sales Coverage Program Manager

HPInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees

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IBM Planning Analytics

Cognos TM1's ability to store and provide fast access financial data both on-premise and in the cloud makes it a great asset during month-end or year-end closing. The speed at which it can be updated and reflect GL changes for reporting makes it well suited for PL and BL reporting. For example, when it comes budgeting season and your FI application is getting hammered a speedy application makes your user base happy. However, Cognos TM1 is not well suited for reporting when you have to store a lot of granular data, think retail transaction level stuff, as Cognos TM1 is an OLAP data structure rather than relational.

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Verified User

Analyst in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Anaplan

7.4

IBM Planning Analytics

10.0

Long-term financial planning

7.4

10.0

Financial budgeting

8.1

10.0

Forecasting

7.7

10.0

Scenario modeling

6.5

10.0

Management reporting

7.6

10.0

Anaplan

6.5

IBM Planning Analytics

9.0

Financial data consolidation

7.7

10.0

Journal entries and reports

6.6

8.0

Multi-currency management

6.2

10.0

Intercompany Eliminations

5.9

10.0

Minority Ownership

6.0

8.0

Local and consolidated reporting

7.1

10.0

Detailed Audit Trails

6.1

7.0

Anaplan

7.6

IBM Planning Analytics

9.4

Financial Statement Reporting

7.0

10.0

Management Reporting

8.3

10.0

Excel-based Reporting

6.9

10.0

Automated board and financial reporting

8.0

10.0

XBRL support for regulatory filing

—

7.3

Anaplan

6.7

IBM Planning Analytics

10.0

Personalized dashboards

5.3

10.0

Color-coded scorecards

6.0

10.0

KPIs

7.0

10.0

Cost and profitability analysis

7.0

10.0

Key Performance Indicator setting

7.4

10.0

Benchmarking with external data

7.2

10.0

Anaplan

8.3

IBM Planning Analytics

10.0

Flat file integration

8.3

10.0

Excel data integration

8.3

10.0

Direct links to 3rd-party data sources

8.2

10.0

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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Unique data base
Most of the calculations are in real time
The dimensions can be easily moved to customize the views
The calculations are consistent acrros the application
The expense allocation process is very effective

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Verified User

Director in Finance and Accounting

Insurance Company, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

I believe user set up within Anaplan is one of the areas that could be improved greatly.
Workflow is another area that I believe could be improved. Currently, I do not believe, there is a way to create an action against workflow. This would be a great benefit rather than moving the item to complete or in progress if you could write an action for it.

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Matthew Cantwell

Director of Business Intelligence Development

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma- Division of CommerceGambling & Casinos, 5001-10,000 employees

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Security access
Automate processes (some of them have to have user intervention to get the real time results)
Performance
More user friendly to upload data

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Verified User

Director in Finance and Accounting

Insurance Company, 10,001+ employees

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Likelihood to Renew

Anaplan8.2

Based on 3 answers

We rely on it heavily. The only way we wouldn't renew is if the price got significantly higher.

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Maggie Palumbo

Director of Sales Operations

Careerbuilder.comInternet, 1001-5000 employees

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IBM Planning Analytics10.0

Based on 1 answer

This is a planning developer's dream. You feel like you're given a blank canvas with all the right tools to make it an artwork. It is the future of business application development.

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David Chen

Partner

iNoVo SolutionComputer Software, 1-10 employees

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Usability

Anaplan8.2

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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IBM Planning Analytics9.0

Based on 1 answer

The application is easy to install and to develop with. Your super users have the ability to manage the data and the user logins without IT help.

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Verified User

Analyst in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

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Reliability and Availability

Anaplan10.0

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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No score

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Performance

Anaplan9.0

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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No score

No answers yet

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Support

Anaplan8.0

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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IBM Planning Analytics8.0

Based on 1 answer

There are good support people in Ottawa, but having access to the development team and a TAM make the support. Without that access I don't think IBM Support would be as highly rated.

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Verified User

Analyst in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

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In-Person Training

Anaplan3.0

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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No score

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Online Training

Anaplan5.0

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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No score

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Implementation

Anaplan6.8

Based on 12 answers

Implementation using Anaplan's internal customer success team left much to be desired. We've found much better success with outside consultants

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Christopher Pope

Manager

Seagate TechnologyComputer Hardware, 10,001+ employees

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Alternatives Considered

Anaplan provided a whiteboard that allowed us to set up our unique business as we saw fit. Other programs had built-in forecasting modules that we needed to adapt to. Our company is retail but also collections so flexibility was the key when making the final decision. Plus, Anaplan seemed more cutting edge, new school, in comparison to the other competitors.

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David Cintron

Operational Analyst

Aaron's, IncRetail, 10,001+ employees

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It's easier to train users compared to other similar applications

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Verified User

Director in Finance and Accounting

Insurance Company, 10,001+ employees

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Lines of Business and Business Impact

Anaplan has greatly reduced the amount of time it takes for us to budget and analyze budget vs. actuals. It's also been very useful in making sure our financial statements are accurate, because it allows us to upload a preliminary trial balance very quickly and compare our budget to a first look at actual data. It has also made it easier to keep track of department budget inputs since they are all in one place instead of dozens of Google or Excel sheets.

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Michael McIntosh

Sr. FP&A Analyst

AdRollOnline Media, 501-1000 employees

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Selection Process

Adaptive and Host Analytics

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More flexible and able to handle more data.

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Tommy Bettles

Sr. Manager, Finance

AtlassianComputer Software, 1001-5000 employees

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Scalability

Anaplan7.0

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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No score

No answers yet

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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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Reliable data base
Consistent calculations accros the application avoiding formula errors
Easy consolidation (aggregation)
Faster currency conversion

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Verified User

Director in Finance and Accounting

Insurance Company, 10,001+ employees

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Pricing Details

Anaplan

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Additional Pricing Details

Request a personal demo: https://www.anaplan.com/request-demo/ Free trial for existing customers for any app in the App Hub: https://apphub.anaplan.com/

Anaplan vs IBM Planning Analytics

Add comparison

Likelihood to Recommend

Anaplan

IBM Planning Analytics

Feature Rating Comparison

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

XBRL support for regulatory filing

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

Cons

Likelihood to Renew

Usability

Reliability and Availability

Performance

Support

In-Person Training

Online Training

Implementation

Alternatives Considered

Lines of Business and Business Impact

Selection Process

Scalability

Return on Investment

Screenshots

Pricing Details

Anaplan

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Additional Pricing Details

IBM Planning Analytics

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Additional Pricing Details

Rating Summary