Item: Anaplan
Rating: 10
Author: George Whitby

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Anaplan is a tool we use to build business applications for our clients. It starts as a blank (empty) model that is then developed into a fully-fledged app that meets the needs of a business process. Specific use cases we have recently implemented are: - Budget planning - Meeting complex disclosure requirements (15c, IFRS 16) - Performance management (cost allocation & profitability analysis).

Pros and Cons

Planning, budgeting & forecasting.
Cost allocation.
Data cleansing.
Ad-hoc analysis of large data sets.

Native data integration capabilities could be improved (and are being improved with Cloud Works).
Slice and dice reporting is possible but can be a bit constrained compared to other OLAP tools, particularly if multiple large hierarchies are used at once. There are good reasons for this (it is an inherent part of why it is very good at performing other tasks), but should be considered if Anaplan is to take over all analytical capabilities for an organisation.

Most Important Features

Flexibility (you start with a blank slate and can build what you need).
Ease & speed of development.
Supportability & ease of maintenance (provided best practices have been followed).

Return on Investment

Has turned an annual 6-week process into a few days of running the application and presenting the answer to trustees.

Alternatives Considered

SAP BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation)

Anaplan is cheaper, more flexible, and easier to develop than BPC. In particular, the ability to plan different parts of the business at different levels of granularity (e.g. planning fixed staff costs at the company level, travel & expenses at the regional level and executive spend at the group level) and connect them up into a consolidated forecast is easier than in BPC where you are more locked in to early design decisions. Also, it is easier to be flexible when requirements change, whereas suddenly deciding you need e.g. an additional dimension in BPC can be challenging. However, that said BPC does have stronger ad-hoc reporting capabilities.

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?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Anaplan go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Anaplan again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

- Great for planning & forecasting - you can quickly and easily build a custom planning process for your organisation with complete flexibility, planning one part of your business in one way and another in a completely different way before bringing all the parts together in a consolidated forecast. - A good use case is a complex cost allocation processes. You can set it up to add processes controls and support reporting to make the processes clear, auditable & efficient. - Really strong for building data cleansing/master data management.

Great tool for building business applications

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan