Amazing emerging tool that is leading into maturity, however still needs a strong reporting suite
September 28, 2021
Amazing emerging tool that is leading into maturity, however still needs a strong reporting suite

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan
The main area is within the Budgeting and Forecasting space within the finance teams, however, there have been moves into a more operational forecasting role with the implementation of a Workforce Planning capability and PoC's in Sales.
The main problem is around the collation of data into a single model, with the calculation engine acting as a bonus as opposed to a game-changer. Much of the problems that are being solved with Anaplan stems from the use of multiple disparate excel spreadsheets instead of the inability to forecast at lower levels of granularity because of the calculation power of Excel.
The main problem is around the collation of data into a single model, with the calculation engine acting as a bonus as opposed to a game-changer. Much of the problems that are being solved with Anaplan stems from the use of multiple disparate excel spreadsheets instead of the inability to forecast at lower levels of granularity because of the calculation power of Excel.
Pros
- Strong calculation engine
- Time to value is extremely quick given it's drag and drop UI
- Blank slate, so the world is your oyster in terms of what you want/can build
Cons
- Reporting and Analysis capabilities within Anaplan are still quite weak and require secondary products to support it
- To the above point, data extraction out of Anaplan is quite difficult to maintain from a technology perspective due to the ability to chop and change schemas on a whim
- Model size still remains a top concern when building + inability to automate backups
- Flexibility to build
- Speed to delivery
- SAAS
- Positive - ability to forecast has increased dramatically due to the automatic collation of forecasts from different individuals
- Negative - high cost means that ROI takes much longer to deliver
Anaplan is much stronger across the UX front and [has the] ability to have as many cubes as you like means the method of calculation [is] extremely vast.
Oracle is a much more mature product, albeit really just a simple cube with calculations against it. The benefit of Oracle is in its overall suite of products that can also provide Financial Close, transactional data integration via the ERP, and also a Management Reporting suite as well.
Oracle is a much more mature product, albeit really just a simple cube with calculations against it. The benefit of Oracle is in its overall suite of products that can also provide Financial Close, transactional data integration via the ERP, and also a Management Reporting suite as well.
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?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of Anaplan go as expected?
No
Would you buy Anaplan again?
Yes
Comments
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