Item: Anaplan
Rating: 8
Author: Joel Middleton

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Anaplan is a platform where we are contracted to implement its capabilities in various industries across a wide array of use cases. Anaplan does really well in a targeted, but broadly encompassing, set of use cases - chiefly; FP&A and SPM. Anaplan helps address the problems typical of a company or enterprise that is struggling with tools that cannot handle the scale at which they need to use them. Common problems in these situations range from siloed workstreams fed by disparate data sources to lack of collaboration and transparency as well as visibility into the impact of the inputs and assumptions driving the planning process. Ultimately these kinds of problems lead to plans that are not as accurate, responsive, or timely as they could be. Anaplan alleviates a lot of those issues by being a cloud-based platform capable of handling enterprise-scale planning needs.

Pros and Cons

Scalability
The relative ease of access for those coming from another EPM tool
Easy to get up and running once the workspace is partitioned
Major improvements in UX elements have made for much-improved business planning applications

Data integrations are tedious to set up and adjust as everything should be coming through a "Data Hub" model. Changes in data sources or data sets can require an entire re-working of Data Hub model components
Functions are rigid, with no ability to create a custom function
BI/Reporting capabilities have come a long way, but if Anaplan sales reps are going to say it's a BI tool, then it needs to have the capabilities to compete with the real BI tools

Most Important Features

Cloud capability
User experience capabilities
Connected planning

Return on Investment

Much faster planning cycles
More robust forecasts
Improved collaboration and communication across global teams

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

Other Software Used

Microsoft Excel, Python IDLE, Spyder

Likelihood to Recommend

If it's a use case in Financial Planning & Analysis then Anaplan is usually very well suited for the problem at hand. Likewise, SPM and CPM use cases where the data is clean and doesn't require a lot of munging inside the system. Additionally, Anaplan is well suited for use cases related to other forecasting functions within an enterprise (like Demand Planning) as long as complex forecasting methods aren't required. While there are workable solutions for complex forecasting methods, they do not scale as well with large volumes of data as other tools in the space can or custom-built tools using Python or R can handle. Accordingly, planning processes that require very long time horizons of 20-30+ years (e.g. Capex planning for industries with heavy investment in fixed assets like Oil & Gas) typically require some workarounds with the data in order to get it to fit the size limitations of the workspace the model resides in.

Great for Targeted Use Cases, but Don't Expect Major Flexibility

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan