Item: Anaplan
Rating: 9
Author: Anshu Na

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Anaplan Predictive Insights as a customer intelligence platform to get a comprehensive view of our customers, especially for sales and marketing teams on which customers to target and which ones to engage through marketing campaigns. We use Anaplan Predictive Insights as an addendum to Oracle CX Sales because Anaplan’s predictive insights are more streamlined to our sales planning and target group of customers. A typical business problem addressed is scoring the target customers based on internal parameters using an AI engine. The predictive intent signals and their integration with our customer database are a good fit for what we wanted to achieve.

Pros and Cons

Predictive intent signals
Integration with complex databases
Integration with CRM for creating marketing campaigns
Excellent insights for marketing folks for segmentation based analysis
Building models

UI/UX could be more intuitive
Pricing could be based on usage esp if average usage is low or is restricted to a smaller team
Issues with integration with Marketo ended up with us letting go of Marketo
Reporting functionality could be developed
Training on some of the internal workings of the predictive engine could help us model the data better so that better output is achieved

Most Important Features

Predictive insights for sales and marketing teams
Targeting marketing campaigns for customers who will be Partners for the long run
Insights for sales teams to target prospective buyers
Predictive sales models can be customized
Integrated well with our in-house customer databases

Return on Investment

Positive ROI is based on the fact that we could close some deals quickly based on the predictions provided
We were able to tweak and target our marketing campaigns based on the insights provided by Anaplan
The statistical analysis gave us the right direction and content for creating marketing campaigns

Alternatives Considered

SAP Analytics Cloud, Acoustic Analytics (formerly IBM Watson Customer Experience Analytics) and Adobe Workfront

We liked the integration Anaplan Predictive Insights provided with our in-house databases even during the demo. The results were there to be seen as it made more sense overall. With other 3rd party software, it wasn’t exactly plug and play. This gave Anaplan Predictive Insights an edge over a few other products which we gave a fair try.

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?

Yes

Did implementation of Anaplan go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Anaplan again?

Yes

Other Software Used

IBM Watson Knowledge Studio, SAP Analytics Cloud, Azure Bot Service (Microsoft Bot Framework), AWS Chatbot, Salesforce CMS, IBM Security MaaS360 with Watson, Sophos Intercept X

Likelihood to Recommend

It is really well suited for the marketing and sales team. Marketing teams can create targeted campaigns based on their predictive engine. The sales team can actually predict targeted buyers so that the overall possibility of deal closures manifolds. A few integrations with selected 3rd party software completely failed to achieve its target objective.

Users and Roles

200 - Sales
Marketing
Developers
Solution consultants
Senior leadership in sales and marketing

Support Headcount Required

25 - Software Developers/Consultants
Coders
Designers
Solution engineers
Sales support
Product support
Analysts
Data Scientists

Business Processes Supported

Customer segmentation
Campaign management
Deal closures
New buyers
Prospective sales by region

Innovative Uses

Campaign for a totally different demography
Sales enablement for a new region
Workforce re-skilling
New sales models

Future Planned Uses

Keep exploring new regions
Expand business for existing clients
Insights build on innovative business models as opposed to traditional sales models

Likelihood to Renew

We will continue to use it for the long term. We have biannual, 5-year goals, which we assess annually. Till now it has met our targets.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation

Product features were hands down the most important factor. Its predictive AI engine ensured rich insights, which helped us create innovative marketing campaigns. Sales funnel doubled in record time.

Predictive insights and modelling engine for Sales and Marketing geeks

Overall Satisfaction with Anaplan Predictive Insights (Mintigo)