Anaplan is a scenario planning and analysis platform designed to optimize decision-making in complex business environments so that enterprises can outpace their competition and the market. By building connections and collaboration across organizational silos, the Anaplan platform surfaces key insights.
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SAP Cloud ERP
Score 8.5 out of 10
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SAP Cloud ERP (formerly SAP S/4HANA Cloud) is a modular ERP that enables users to run mission-critical operations in real time from anywhere, introduce new business models in any industry, and expand globally. SAP Cloud ERP is a SaaS product and can also be deployed in a hybrid landscape for quicker time to value. SAP Cloud ERP is a foundational component of the
Essbase/HFM were hosted on-prem and required regular maintenance from the vendor. The tools were good at the simple tasks of consolidation and relatively simple allocation/calculations. Anaplan is a cloud-hosted platform that can be accessed almost anywhere with an internet …
Customizability and ease of learning (not a coder, similar to Excel formulas). Not confined to the existing configurability of software's planning process/tables. Low IT involvement. Scenario and driver-based planning (can make inputs). Can be used for more than just Finance …
I've implemented a number of projects for Anaplan for Sales Performance Management use cases. It is obviously built for financial planning, but it allows for a lot of flexibility for territory and quota, ICM, sales forecasting, and other important use cases. Territory and Quota is very powerful in the tool as it organize complex assignment structures into hierarchies for easier analysis and reporting.
The software reduces the stress of managing multiple departments in the supply chain sector. It offers great performance for both small and large businesses. With the built-in AI, it improves the overall efficiency of the organization and helps in reducing maintenance. The product customer care and support services are available 24/7.
Anaplan removes the time consuming process of integrating the results of individual spreadsheets.
Anaplan facilitates the standardization of assumptions across all sub-processes
Anaplan provides full transparency of the calculations and source inputs
Anaplan allows us to automate certain planning processes that would have been impossible when relying on the computational capabilities of an individual computer.
Anaplan is a very strong multi-dimensional modeling tool that provides a calculation engine to empower a complex planning process. It is fairly easy to learn for those with experience in similar tools, or excel. It forces structure and auditability that spread sheets do not have, along with extensive security capabilities
The cost of SAP as an ERP is quite high and the switching costs associated with ERP systems are even higher. That being said moving from one ERP to another only happens once in a great while for large organizations. Those switching costs include retraining, IT hardware requirements, outside consultants and more
As a user it is a very simple tool, but at the same time with a very mature and powerful calculation engine. It is very easy to switch from excel or traditional tools with added capabilities of multi dimensionality and real time calculation engine to see quick insights needed to create plans and scenarios
Day to day data insight is more accurate for manufacturing industry to procure as per forecasted from supplier. Supply and fulfillment cycle becomes more easier. I would say more about performance as we are using this new server so we can see clear difference between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and ECC. Also it has customized business extensions for rapid development.
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
I would rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud’s availability as 10 out of 10. The system is generally reliable and accessible whenever needed, with minimal unplanned outages. Occasional minor application errors or brief maintenance windows can occur, but overall the platform provides a high level of uptime and stability, which supports continuous business operations effectively.
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.
I would rate SAP S/4HANA Cloud’s performance as 10 out of 10. Most pages load quickly, and reports generally complete in a reasonable time frame, even for complex queries. The system handles integrations with other software smoothly, though in a few high-volume scenarios, certain reports or dashboards may take slightly longer to process. Overall, performance is strong and meets the needs of most business operations effectively.
Support quality has dropped since Thoma Bravo has taken over. I think some serious re-focus needs to happen here -- part of the beauty of being in the Anaplan community was how involved you felt in it before. Before I didn't dread sending a support ticket, now I am starting to.
The support system I find great as whenever I run into problems they rectify them quickly as possible they never reacted late the support is just up to the mark for me. They provide many solutions to the problems I faced the [technical] team support is always amazing they [listen] to mean work accordingly.
In my opinion, in-person training is always the best if you have the option to do so. This allows real-time interactions with the instructions, whereas the online training I took required me to write-down questions, email them, and wait for responses. This slows down the process, as you can imagine. That said, in-person training is an extra cost and it likely isn't needed for everyone. I would suggest selecting a small number of people to take in-person training and then having them act as mentors to the rest of your team. That way, as the rest of the team takes the online training, they have a resource to help them in real time.
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
I gave this rating because the SAP S/4HANA Cloud trainings were well-structured, comprehensive, and practical. They provided clear guidance on system functionality, hands-on exercises, and real-world scenarios that made it easier for our team to understand and adopt the platform. At the same time, there’s room for improvement in providing more role-specific or advanced scenario trainings, which would further enhance learning for specialized users.
One key insight from implementing Anaplan is that success comes from focusing on designing the process, not just building the model. Anaplan is extremely flexible—there are very few planning scenarios it cannot support—but that flexibility means the project needs strong governance, clear ownership of requirements, and a well-defined data model. When those foundations are in place, implementations are fast, iterations are easy, and users can quickly see value. In our projects, both Financial Planning and Integrated Business Planning models were adopted smoothly because we involved business users early, kept the model design intuitive, and leveraged Anaplan’s Excel-like syntax and user-friendly dashboards. The result was more efficient day-to-day work, reduced manual tasks, and increased collaboration across teams. In short: when you combine Anaplan’s flexibility with a structured implementation approach, adoption and value realization happen quickly.
SAP requires a lot of internal and external resources to complete its successful implementation. The cloud version requires a deeper understanding of the different capabilities of the local systems (hardware) and the connection towards your local IT team. We found several problems on our systems that we couldn't foresee before the implementation and roll out.
Anaplan is more powerful than Pigment considering that it is an Enterprise class system and is able to manage bigger data sets. Anaplan allows for advanced scenario modeling and formula capabilities along with custom reporting functionalities. Anaplan has proven its capabilities and stability across various use cases and across bigger enterprises when compared to Pigment which is still in earlier phases of its development
In our quest for an ERP solution, we evaluated alternatives such as Oracle ERP Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365. However, SAP S/4HANA Cloud's reputation for advanced analytics, scalability, and seamless integration with other SAP solutions made it the natural choice for our organization's digital journey.
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
The platform is highly flexible and cloud-based, allowing deployment across multiple departments, locations, and business units with minimal infrastructure constraints. It supports growth, additional users, and new business processes efficiently. The only reason for a 10 that it’s a perfect that certain highly specialized integrations or legacy system migrations can require extra planning to scale seamlessly, but overall the platform handles expansion very well.
I would rate the professional services for SAP S/4HANA Cloud as 10 out of 10. The team was highly knowledgeable, responsive, and provided valuable guidance throughout the implementation process. They helped with system configuration, best practices, and troubleshooting, ensuring a smoother deployment and faster user adoption. The only minor area for improvement would be slightly faster turnaround on certain non-critical queries, but overall, the services greatly contributed to the project’s success.
Anaplan's implementation led to a significant reduction in planning cycle errors and bugs, streamlining processes and improving overall accuracy in data inputs
Standardizing the planning process and enabling cross-functional collaboration through Anaplan enhanced our ability to adapt swiftly to changing business needs, resulting in improved agility in decision-making
The platform's capabilities, especially in Demand Planning and Supply Chain, positively impacted our ROI by optimizing resource allocation and solving complex business problems efficiently across multiple functions
