Anaplan Platform

What differentiates Anaplan Platform from other similar products?

I would say the industry can be differentiated on two axes: ease of use and flexibility. Most products can achieve only one of the two axes. Anaplan has been able to have a high level of ease of use and flexibility making it the most useable product in the industry. There are other factors that play into its differentiation such as cloud vs on-premises and price, but I was drawn to Anaplan for its ease of use and flexibility, and I am very pleased! Anaplan has areas of improvement, but its pros highly outweigh any cons, and when comparing to the rest of the industry, it's way ahead of the game!

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

There are a few aspects that I absolutely love: 1) instant calculation - Anaplan can calculate billions of cells of information in seconds. There is no data processing steps that are required for the data to be updated down the line, unlike many competitors. 2) User experience - Anaplan has an incredible interface for the end-users. You can combine input assumptions and end results on the same user dashboard and the end users can see the impacts of their assumptions immediately. 3) Ease of use - This product is truly easy to use. The hardest part is learning to think in terms of multidimensional data.

What do you dislike most about this product?

Being a very flexible platform, people can and often do architect unsustainable solutions. It's not the fault of the platform and more the fault of the users, but this aspect can get challenging.

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

If you are looking for a solution that really integrates process and business planning, you can't beat Anaplan. If you have a simple use case, it likely isn't the most affordable option due to its flexibility and maintenance.

What differentiates Anaplan Platform from other similar products?

Anaplan has been in the space longer than their competitors and have an established foundation as the alternative to "sending spreadsheets back and forth". Because of that, Anaplan is generally considered the safer solution, with more established customers and peer references. However, Anaplan's competitors, mainly Adaptive and OneStream, are pushing hard to get Anaplan's market share.

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

Anaplan's methodology for building and maintaining models is intuitive and truly drives sustainability for planning models. With Excel, people would do things in several different ways and it was always a nightmare to complete a consolidated planning process. Anaplan sets one approach and methodology for all users and allows connected planning to be a reality. While your team does have to learn and understand this methodology, once you do, you can truly realize the platform's value proposition.

What do you dislike most about this product?

Anaplan's visual interface can be improved. They've made significant improvements in recent years, but the base modeling interface still looks a little dated. This is a turnoff for new users and hinders the user adoption process.

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

Setup periodic trainings - Anaplan is not valuable to your organization unless your team knows how to use it and manipulate their models. Establish a plan of ownership - typically the reason a company is considering Anaplan is because they don't want IT to have full ownership of their planning solution. Just make sure to establish where that line is between business and IT ownership. Simpler is better - it's easy to fall into the trap of designing and builder a really complex Anaplan model, but foundationally, simpler Anaplan models are more sustainable and will last at your organization for a longer period of time.

What differentiates Anaplan Platform from other similar products?

Anaplan is the most flexible/configurable tool I’ve used compared to other “out of the box” solutions. I love how it can be applied to almost every business use case because of its flexibility. The learning curve of being a model builder isn’t that bad since a lot of the skills from excel are transferable.

What is your favorite aspect of this product?

It allows me to use my technical skills but also my creativity to come up with solutions. In Anaplan - model building and solutions can come in different ways. There can be multiple ways to build something out though there are best practices and preferred methods.

What do you dislike most about this product?

The look and feel of the NUX from an FP&A perspective. It’s not the best for large data sets like in most FP&A models (e.g. inputting forecast values for example)

What recommendations would you give to someone considering this product?

I would invest in hiring a dedicated model builder to own the product and become your SME during the initial implementation.