Toiling with spreadsheets for Planning and Budgeting - Anaplan Really Can Help.
Updated May 26, 2017
Toiling with spreadsheets for Planning and Budgeting - Anaplan Really Can Help.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan
Anaplan is used in our company to replace our existing FP&A tools as well as our expense and budgeting report tools. It is currently being used just within finance, but several other interested parties are interested in our success.
We are currently using several antiquated tools for our reporting and we see anaplan as a way to simplify our process as well as bring us into the next generation of finance tools. We are also going through a general ledger update so we are using the conversion process as an opportunity to make this transition to Anaplan a bit easier. Hey - if we are updating our data sources we might as well plug them into a new tool.
We are currently using several antiquated tools for our reporting and we see anaplan as a way to simplify our process as well as bring us into the next generation of finance tools. We are also going through a general ledger update so we are using the conversion process as an opportunity to make this transition to Anaplan a bit easier. Hey - if we are updating our data sources we might as well plug them into a new tool.
- Anaplan is really quick to aggregate and pivot data. An example was the ability to load a bunch of production ledger data into the model then use a module plus a pretty slick formula to line them directly up with our consolidated budget information. Another was a couple of the dashboards that were very easy to modify to suit the needs of the end users by grouping hierarchy elements without additional SQL joins or programming. Treat it somewhat like a pivot table on steroids.
- I really liked the ability to bring in just about any format of data...granted there were some pretty specific things you have to do to get it there. This allowed us to use inputs coming from several legacy systems that weren't wrestling with IT to modify.
- The learning curve as a builder was pretty steep, but just like Excel, there are maybe 20 or 30 functions that, once you learn, you can start doing some pretty powerful data transformations that simply weren't possible without previously bouncing between two or three other tools.
- As mentioned previously...the learning curve was pretty steep. The Anapedia and Forums were ok with respect to helping me refresh my memory, but there was absolutely no way I would have been able to build my tools without a consultant. I even observed that different consultants had unique dialects (for lack of a better word) with respect how they used functions to accomplish the same tasks. What I am trying to say is that this is a very powerful, but complicated tool. You need several technically strong people on your team for success.
- The dashboards are very flexible and nice for delivering the analysis results to the end user, but is is very limited on the ability to provide the polish and formatting to satisfy senior management...or more importantly the people bringing the information to senior management. I understand that there is a tool called tableau that can apply the lipstick reports, but i do wish there were a couple of additional formatting options for the dashboards.
- The "Blue Toaster" is a lovely problem that you will face during your builds. It seems like when you modify a script or formula there is a background validation process that produces a "wait" pop up that is affectionately known in our group as the blue toaster. it seems like the app does not stop once it finds a validation error, but instead runs though the entire model to collect/validate any possible problems. It eats up a lot of time and a single modification error can put a team of builders on the waiting block for 5-10 minute stretches. This may not apply to everyone as we were making a very, very large model.
- Please note that at the time of writing this 05/2017 this was a minor problem. I can certainly see where this will be a somewhat easy fix and might not apply if being read in the future. I am sure that a patch will eventually fix.
- QlikView and IBM Cognos
QlikView, I do admit, put complete power into the builder's hands. However it was really complex and script heavy. We just didn't have the expertise to deploy properly and it didn't seem as Finance friendly as it still relied heavily on servers sitting behind IT barriers. QlikView, while may have the ability to make prettier dashboads, seemed more focused on reporting an analysis and didn't seem like it could be used much as a budgeting or planning tool. IBM Cognos would have worked, but seemed too similar to the older generations tools that we were already using.