Anaplan is a flexible tool that can be built for most business processes
Updated November 18, 2024

Anaplan is a flexible tool that can be built for most business processes

SJ Estrada | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan

Anaplan is used across our organisation. The use cases that I am familiar with are related for Finance, i.e. Budgeting & Forecasting, Workforce Planning, & Revenue Planning. All of our BUs are onboarded to Anaplan for the creation of our Annual Operating Plan while only a fraction use it for Forecasting. This number is expected to grow as we continue to build out features for our Forecast model. Currently, we are implementing models for Workforce Planning and expect to build out our Revenue model in mid to late 2024. The Workforce Planning model is expected to be used by all BUs for Budgeting & Forecasting cycles while the Revenue model will be piloted for one BU.

Pros

  • Anaplan is flexible, meaning it can be built to accommodate almost all business use cases
  • Implementations are quick - delivery of MVP products and phased enhancements is ideal
  • The UX is user friendly and Finance users enjoy the similarity of features to excel (like pivot, filter, etc)
  • Anaplan continues to enhance its product and listen to its customers / community

Cons

  • Audit Reporting - it's currently difficult to use / read the audit reports
  • Security - security is not centralised & too broad (actively being worked on)
  • Data Integration / Management - data management and orchestration could be centralised (actively being worked on)
  • We are able to submit plans at least a day before deadline now.

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 is a strong tool for finance as it can be built for a variety of business processes. Its flexibility allows us to customise the tool for each unique aspect of the business. While it is extremely flexible, it is important to have the right people in place to help manage the tool long term or else scalability / optimisation could be at risk. Implementations for Anaplan are quick and you can easily deliver an MVP and then continue to add on additional features throughout the year in releases. Users enjoy working with the tool because of the UX - if dashboards are built with a strong user journey in mind. The auditing feature is not very user friendly; the export of history must be exported, parsed and displayed on a separately built dashboard to be useful. Security is too broad and not centrally managed (but this is being worked on!). More work needs to be done to make integration and data management easier (again being worked on!).

Anaplan Feature Ratings

6.6
Long-term financial planning
8
Financial budgeting
8
Forecasting
8
Scenario modeling
6
Management reporting
3
6.7
Financial data consolidation
8
Journal entries and reports
Not Rated
Local and consolidated reporting
8
Detailed Audit Trails
4
4.3
Financial Statement Reporting
5
Management Reporting
3
Excel-based Reporting
5
7.0
Personalized dashboards
5
Color-coded scorecards
8
Cost and profitability analysis
Not Rated
Key Performance Indicator setting
8
5.7
Flat file integration
8
Excel data integration
4
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
5
6.0
Customizable dashboards
6
Ad-hoc Reporting ()
Not Rated
Not Rated
Publish to PDF
Not Rated
Report Versioning
Not Rated
Data Discovery and Visualization ()
Not Rated
7.0
Role-Based Security Model
7
Report-Level Access Control
Not Rated
7.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
Not Rated
Mobile Application
7
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
7

Using Anaplan

5 - You need to have a systems thinking mind & understand broader architecture concepts. You should also have foundational to deep knowledge of the functional area for which you are creating the model for. If you are a curious person who adapts to the ever-changing technological world, you will thrive using Anaplan.
  • Workforce Management & Planning
  • Budgeting & Forecasting
  • Expand deeper into Revenue Planning

Anaplan Support

Support quality has dropped since Thoma Bravo has taken over. I think some serious re-focus needs to happen here -- part of the beauty of being in the Anaplan community was how involved you felt in it before. Before I didn't dread sending a support ticket, now I am starting to.
ProsCons
Knowledgeable team
Kept well informed
Quick Initial Response
Slow Resolution
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
I don't control what version of support we have and do not know which we have.
Yes

Comments

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