Anaplan is the tool organizations need to modernize their modeling capabilities.
Updated October 17, 2023
Anaplan is the tool organizations need to modernize their modeling capabilities.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan
Currently use Anaplan to address business management and planning. Anaplan allows for the improvement of many common problems facing organizations currently relying on tools such as Microsoft Excel for many complex business needs as they grow and need a product that will allow them to scale their models with their growth. Some common examples are the single source of truth nature of Anaplan vs. multiple versions of spreadsheet files, ease of auditability Anaplan provides, and the varying levels of control over access by user/role type.
- Consuming large amounts of data for manipulation and calculation.
- Low code nature allows business users to learn the tool and own it.
- Easier to write, maintain, and audit complex models.
- Great user interface to interact with the models.
- There is a bit of a learning curve to get started, but great resources are available to help with this.
- The user interface is somewhat limited in presentation, but data can be exported to more dynamic presentation tools (Tableau, PowerBI, etc.) if it better suits the users need.
- Model size and constraints can become a factor in larger, more complex models.
- Single source of truth. Everyone sees and works on the same data set and sees updates in real time.
- Auditability. Anaplan functionality allows for users to track the formula behind any calculation and avoids the "black box" element of other tools. Also, users can use this functionality to track changes made in the model.
- Anaplan's updated user experience is a great way to give busy professionals and executives the information they need in an easy to digest format, within having to dig into and sort through the details.
- Quicker turnaround on reporting needs. No more time spent consolidating data into a spreadsheet for reports.
- Improved efficiency of data and report management. No more passing around files and searching for the most current version.
- Eliminated much of the manual prep work for regular reporting packages. The process became a few button clicks once the data is available and loaded to Anaplan.
Anaplan brings Excel functionality into the modern era and improves upon it. Anaplan's robust calculation engine can handle large amounts of data and calculations that will usually cause issues in other tools. Add to that all of the additional user functionality plus a better end user presentation. As Anaplan grows within an organization, it's simple to connect the different models and use cases to eliminate the silo approach that has developed in many instances in the past.
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
Anaplan Feature Ratings
Using Anaplan
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Convenient Feel confident using | Lots to learn |
- Real time calculations in a cloud based solution. No more managing countless versions of historical files with errors or outdated data. With Anaplan, everyone in the organization sees the same live data at the same time, as the data is refreshed or variables are updated.
- Anaplan is remarkably useful in scenarios where an organization may want to regularly calculate large volumes of complex calculations or modeling. Anaplan's calculation engine is robust and can turn complex calculations into largely automated tasks that calculate in seconds while still remaining flexible enough to handle outside of the norm scenarios you may run into.
- Highly customizable security options. When an organization has a standard model that is used across multiple functions or departments, it can get overwhelming to end users and may even raise security concerns where access to the information should be limited. Anaplan offers levels of control as to who can see or edit each level of data. This can come in very handy in examples where one model meets the needs of the entire org, but users only want to see the pieces that affect them. In this scenario, rather than have multiple files or reports for each department, each can leverage the same Anaplan model, but the users can only see the components they want to see or should see.
- It depends on how Anaplan is expected to be used and depending on the perspective of the user. As an upgrade to something like Excel for an end user, it's a fairly simple process to acclimate to Anaplan. The catch is that unless users are willing to invest the time to learn the tool, there can be a bit of a learning curve for those end users to engage with the development end on their own. However, once getting over that hurdle, there are many tasks that users will find similar and be able to work on themselves. For more complicated use cases, it would likely be recommended to have engage someone with the technical expertise to assist with building models. There may already be IT resources in the organization that can help with this.
- Anaplan is a great tool for automation, but because it is largely formula and process based, it can be difficult to get the full value in scenarios where the rules of the model or something like say data formats are inconsistent or subject to change. Anaplan is highly flexible and offers options when processes aren't standardized, however it will likely mean more development or greater potential for input error.
Yes, but I don't use it