Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan
Our road map is to implement Anaplan globally to connect all departments and all levels of the organization for end to end planning, management reporting and analysis. Our initial phases focused on seamlessly connecting orders reporting and forecasting to revenue and gross margin forecasting. Anaplan allows all levels of the organization to have one version of the data and was the catalyst for rolling out consistent forecasting processes across all regions and functions. Anaplan will bring efficiency to our organization by eliminating shadow finance activities, improving data integrity and allowing consistent on demand analytics.
- It is a very user-friendly platform that allows individuals without IT backgrounds to build models in simple syntax. If you know how to use Excel, you will be able to pick up model building in Anaplan with relative ease using the guided build methodology.
- Anaplan is a blank slate that allows for multi-dimension models in which we determine the dimensions versus forcing us to adhere to predetermined dimensions.
- Maintaining our company hierarchies in data hub allows us to change information there and have it automatically pushed out to all spoke models versus changing 10-20 spreadsheets.
- The dashboard functionality is basic therefore, we have to bring in Tableau to provide a more professional view of the outputs as well as to allow management to more easily slice and dice data.
- There is an Anaplan learning center however, I have not found it useful when I have questions. We are fortunate to have Aviana Global guiding us through the initial phases of our process. Without our consultants, learning Anaplan would be overwhelming.
- The Anaplan Connect needs to be improved. We are considering a third party ETL, but we prefer that Anaplan have this capability built into its platform.
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.