Item: Anaplan
Rating: 9
Author: Aaron Overfors

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Anaplan is being used across the entire organization. The biggest users are in Finance and Sales--we look at all of our financial plans and budgets on a regular basis within Anaplan and use it to forecast revenue and sales. We examine our resourcing situation and use it to determine which actions we need to take; we track KPIs for the organization and adjust plans accordingly; we look at YTD attainment and adjust our strategies as needed. Anaplan acts as a hub for our overall company performance by showcasing what we are doing well and highlighting areas that need more attention.

Pros and Cons

Data analytics; Anaplan does well in categorizing data in several different ways. For example, we can review revenue by practice, resource type, geography, etc.
Collaborative work; Anaplan allows for federated data input that is automatically aggregated. This means all members of a team can contribute to inputs.
Real-time updates; Any data updates are instantly propagated across the organization. This means data from SFDC and other systems are updating in a timely manner.
Scenario Analysis; Taking historical data to project certain situations

Workflow. Right now, any workflow process is almost entirely custom-built and has several limitations. While most things can be done, it is not streamlined.
Functionality for translations. Anaplan does not support aliases or inherent functionality for translations. Again, it is possible to work with translations, but involves a lot of manual work.
Import optimizations. Being able to run imports on a scheduled/automated basis within the platform would be hugely beneficial.
A publisher/subscriber model for APIs would be hugely beneficial.

Most Important Features

Globally accessible via a web browser
Public API
Flexible roles and access
Dynamic reporting

Return on Investment

We have had a significant increase in our ability to meet quantitative company goals by providing better visibility, better data from source systems, and an intuitive interface to review.
We have spent about 2/3 less time gathering financial data for ongoing projects to asses our current budget status.
Anaplan has reduced slippage on projects and served as a focal point for portfolio reviews, which means we have more on-time and on-budget deliveries.

Alternatives Considered

Anaplan seems best-of-breed when it comes to scenario planning and flexibility in accommodating different business processes. Its ability to model is superior to other products. Anaplan is not as strong in reporting and can require more setup time than their competitors, but the flexibility and power is unrivaled.

Key Insights

Do you think Anaplan delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Anaplan's feature set?

Yes

Did Anaplan live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Anaplan go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Anaplan again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Salesforce CMS, Emburse Nexonia, Harvest

Likelihood to Recommend

Anaplan is well-suited for any planning process and supporting analytics. Anaplan excels in performing scenario analyses and allowing for multiple iterations on plans over time. Anaplan does well in drawing in all stakeholders of a process and not just the 'doers' or 'managers'; from contributors to reviewers to governance to executives and everyone in between, Anaplan does well in crafting an experience for them.
Anaplan is not well-suited for hard-and-fast reporting use cases (e.g. financial close).

On a related note, Anaplan is crafted to work well with an agile process. Anaplan has created their own methodology (The Anaplan Way) that does just this, but some companies who are not accustomed or resistant to Agile should strongly consider adopting an agile methodology before implementing and using Anaplan.

Anaplan - Superb Modeling with Real Collaboration

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan