Get your Forecast out of EXCEL!
May 25, 2017
Get your Forecast out of EXCEL!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan
We use Anaplan within our FP&A oOrganization. The goal is to get to make this a robust tool and also have our deal desk be linked into the system to help with synergies. Currently, FP&A is the only team using the tool in the organization. The problem that Anaplan helps us address is getting out of Excel and being able to have a single place for our forecast to be held.
- It allows for us to lock our forecast, which is extremely important for a public company.
- It's an extremely collaborative tool, allowing multiple users on a team to update the forecast, without fear of breaking the system.
- It is easy for a finance person to understand the formulas and update them as the business changes.
- Error Messages. When updating a formula, you may have missed a bracket. Doing something like this can lock up the system for an extensive amount of time, also locking out your peers.
- Suppressing Zero. Space becomes a real issue as you get more involved in the tool. A lot of times you want to use the system to its full capability, however, run into problems, because of space. It would be great if zero balances did not count against your space.
- Open source: Because the tool is so open, you can change something in on module, however effect many other things that you never intended too. I would love to see a feature that shows me by changing something a clear picture of all thing i am updating.
- Adaptive and Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite
I have used all of the above tools in previous companies. I have seen the limitations and what makes each tool shine. I have seen exactly why Anaplan beat the competition, and why the tool is critical for any FP&A team. From the things I mentioned previously, there is no reason I would pick another tool at this time.