Item: Anaplan
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have implemented Anaplan for a range of clients and use cases. It is best used to bring more structure and robustness to planning processes and when Excel's processing power has been exceeded. The benefit that Anaplan has over other systems is how flexible it is and how you don't need to be from a systems background to build models.

Pros and Cons

Calculating millions/billions of cells of data in real-time, much more than excel, and no need for aggregations to be run
Applying data locking to user inputs during a planning process, to ensure that only the right data can be edited throughout
Adapting to changing requirements from the client, after go live, so Anaplan can stay relevant

Sparsity costs workspace, and, therefore money - you are encouraged to build models dimensionally, as it gives the best user experience, however sometimes you have sparse data sets, but these zero's still use workspace
Reporting could be a bit better, some more conditional formatting options, and improved graphs would be great. It has improved a lot over the past 7 years I have been using Anaplan though
There is a strange quirk where the order of the dimensions within tables can become out of sync with the model default, which can make the model perform slower. The fix is to manually edit the dimensions, and that prompts Anaplan to put them in the correct order. Strange how Anaplan can't do this automatically when opening a model for the first time?

Most Important Features

Speed of calculations
Flexibility
Data control

Return on Investment

Reduced planning cycle time
Increased level of detail of plans
Reduced headcount for people handling Excel data vs the old process

Alternatives Considered

Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management

My first experience of an EPM system was Hyperion on-premise. I found that you needed a lot of database understanding and a coding mind. Whereas Anaplan is more logical, you can write formulas in a similar way to excel. Anaplan is also much more flexible and forgiving of any changes to the upfront design. I remember our Hyperion model had to be rebuilt as the wrong assumptions were made of dense vs. sparse dimensions during the design phase.

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, Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management, Microsoft Powerpoint

Likelihood to Recommend

Best suited for handling large calculations, where Excel can no longer cope. Also, in environments where the calculations are likely to be changed regularly, Anaplan can handle that, and even significantly change the structure of data sets, without too much of a headache. It struggles with sparsity creating larger models than they should be (although at least you know performance won't reduce when the model gets more populated with data). Due to the sparsity consideration, Anaplan isn't the best tool for data that needs to be pivoted by a large number of dimensions, like in a BI tool.

Anaplan offers large scale calculation power and flexibility to adapt to changing business requirements

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan