Anaplan Reviews

I'm a consultant. I work for a consulting firm, and our job is to implement Anaplan for our clients. I'm a solution architect in Anaplan.

It's mainly for financial planning and analysis (FP&A), supply chain, and sales incentive use cases.

I’m a consultant for a consulting firm. I’m a certified Anaplan model builder with solution architect experience. I’ve implemented around eleven projects, most of which were related to financial and sales planning. 

I also have a fair understanding of supply chain, but I’ve only worked on one supply chain project. The primary use cases I’ve seen involve financial planning, supply chain planning, and sales planning, including territory and quota management.

One advantage is easy integration. While some IT support may be needed, Anaplan offers many connectors to automate data transfer from ERP systems, reducing manual data loading. This connectivity comes at a cost, but it's worthwhile. Anaplan can connect to various third-party resources, sometimes requiring IT assistance for configuration. You can create many scenarios and what-if analyses based on business drivers, adapting them as needed.

Anaplan is constantly evolving and introduces new features monthly. As a SaaS product, updates, patches, and new features are seamlessly integrated into the backend, eliminating disruptions for businesses. Also, Anaplan introduced new dashboards with IRR-type visualizations, which are useful and enhance the user experience.

Anaplan's real-time data updating feature impacts our customers' decision-making processes because they don't have to wait. With a well-built model incorporating best practices, data updates happen in real time. Any changes or dynamic elements are reflected immediately, thanks to the Designer Client product.

For example, if new items are added to a list, the data is automatically updated based on the model configuration. All data is real-time; simply refresh to see the latest information without waiting or making additional changes.

Anaplan has many great features. For example, the UX features and dashboards are intuitive and user-friendly. Anaplan's acquisition of Fluent will bring artificial intelligence capabilities to the platform, benefiting users with the latest AI technology. 

Anaplan's scalability stands out compared to other platforms, especially for scenario planning and what-if analysis. It's user-friendly and requires no coding, making it easy for end-users. This is why Anaplan is gaining recognition among clients.

Anaplan is planning to enhance AI capabilities, but right now, there's PlanIQ. With some statistical knowledge, we can use it, but it's a paid option, not free.

One key area of improvement is pricing. With many competitors entering the market, pricing is something they need to reconsider, which could help us. Also, while cPanel is slowly gaining traction, the biggest competitor remains Excel. Since most people use Excel, Anaplan should offer more free training to help users get familiar with its features. This would make the platform more popular compared to other competitors.

Anaplan has improved significantly over the years—five years ago, it didn’t have features like a good dashboard. Back then, everything was done on a classical dashboard, but now, it's all in the new UX. In terms of the product, there are still features that need to be added, but they are working on it. However, there are some smaller issues that also need attention.

I have been using it for almost seven years. 

I would rate the stability as nine out of ten, where one is low and ten is high stability.

If a thousand customers use Anaplan at the same time, there won’t be any challenges. The product doesn’t go down or anything like that. It’s a very stable product, being cloud-based, and it has its own in-memory technology and patented system. I’ve seen tests where multiple users are logged in at the same time, and it performs without any issues.

I would rate the scalability as nine out of ten, where one is low, and ten is high scalability. Our customers are mainly mid-size to large-scale enterprises that use Anaplan. The product is most suitable for companies with large operations.

My customers come from various domains. We have clients in the consumer goods, pharma, consulting, and healthcare sectors. Right now, Anaplan covers most industries, including Fortune 500 companies and mid-sized enterprises. Since Anaplan is a US-based company, the majority of these companies are based in the US, but it also has a strong presence in Europe. They are expanding their focus on the Asia Pacific region as well. One of the challenges, however, is data center locations. 

Currently, the data centers are in the US and Europe. In countries like China, there are data restrictions, which can be a disadvantage. Anaplan is working on getting data centers in specific regions, such as Saudi Arabia, where data restrictions are stricter.

The response is very good. If you face any issues, you just need to log a ticket, and Anaplan team immediately acknowledges it. They assign someone to help you out, so the support is really good.

Positive

I would rate my experience with the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy. 

It’s not very difficult to set up. Anaplan uses something called an agile process during implementation. The first step is data discovery, where we understand the client's requirements and their entire process.

Anaplan is a platform, meaning it’s a blank canvas. Unlike SAP, which comes with default features, Anaplan is customized for each customer. So, depending on the specific business requirements, the model is built from scratch. For example, if I'm working for a pharma company, their business logic will be different from a manufacturing company or an IT company.

Anaplan customizes the model according to each business's requirements. The same model may not work even for two companies within the same industry, as every company has different needs. That’s where Anaplan stands out—it tailors the model based on the business. If the person implementing the solution has a good overview of the end-to-end business process, it makes the setup process much easier.

So, what happens is the client needs to purchase a workspace. Anaplan has three types of models. Based on the model licenses, the workspace is allocated accordingly. Most companies, when implementing Anaplan, start with a private project. For example, they might focus on one specific function like finance. They begin small to visualize the benefits and then slowly expand it to other departments, such as supply chain or sales planning. As a SaaS product, customers have to pay for both the workspace and the model licenses. There are three types of licenses, and the billing is based on that.

The deployment time depends on the business requirements. For example, a typical financial planning process varies depending on the industry, the client, and what exactly the client wants to achieve. There’s no fixed timeline, but generally, it takes at least three months. Anaplan follows the Agile process where we try to understand the scope of work, perform data discovery to grasp the entire end-to-end process, and then establish a timeline. The timeline also depends on what features the client wants, such as whether they want to automate processes right away or keep things manual for a while before integrating systems. There are many external factors that affect the duration.

It is good value for money. The reason is that it saves a lot of time. Planning is a very tedious job, and most of the people involved are highly talented team members. Before Anaplan, a lot of time was spent on preparing and cleansing data.

For example, I’ve seen situations where a consultation team required four members, but after implementing Anaplan, only one person was able to handle everything. That's the value Anaplan offers. However, it all depends on how it's implemented, who the partners are, and whether they have a long-term vision. The sustainability of the implementation is important. If Anaplan is implemented properly, it delivers excellent results.

I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, where one is very cheap, and ten is very expensive. The price is quite up there. 

This is a very good product, especially for planning solutions. It’s been in the market for over a decade, and it’s widely adopted by Fortune 500 companies. People are using it and benefiting from it. The key to maximizing its value is not using it in isolation. Instead, once customers understand its capabilities, they should leverage it across departments, starting with finance and then expanding into other areas.

It’s a good product, both in terms of stability and return on investment.

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

The most valuable features are the dashboards and Model Map, as they speak to the business and they are the backbone of the modelling.

It’s very agile and we can do changes in minutes, rather than waiting for consultants and change requests. So, it’s as dynamic as the business.

• The sizing can be improved.
• Need more subsets for Versions and Time.
• Reporting can be vastly improved.

Right now, if we build a module using 3 versions, 100 GL Accounts, 25 Cost Centers, and 13 periods (12 months + 1 Year), the sizing of the model calculated would be 3*100*25*13 = 97500, irrespective of the data present in the module. I mean, even if you have only 1000 cells with data out of those 97500 cells, and the remaining cells are null, still the sizing is calculated for all the 97500 cells.

Further, we do not have an option of having only a few months or a few versions (Actual Forecast in module). We should either use them or not use them; if we can get a subset for the version and time, then we can reduce the sizing to some extent.

In the above example, if the module was only for forecasting purposes, then the sizing could be reduced to 65000 instead 97500 by reducing the number of versions to 2 from 3.

Sizing is the biggest challenge in providing solutions.

I have been using it for 2+ years.

The projects I have worked on were of medium scale and had no issues with stability.

The projects were of medium scale and had no issues with scalability, but sizing of the cloud server directly affects scalability and thus affects the cost.

Technical support is 8 out of 10.

Previously, we had a built-in and Excel-based solution. We switched for more agility, data control and transparency.

Initial setup was complex to design due to the diversified planning methods used by different operating companies within the organization.

The sizing is the biggest culprit, so please get your sizing done properly by giving all the details before you decide on going with Anaplan.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated TM1, along with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation.

Please keep in mind the sizing; the way sizing includes even empty cells is big disadvantage. The reporting for now is not up to mark if you do not use dashboards intelligently.

I'm using Anaplan to provide production support for my client. The Anaplan model is already there and what I'm doing is fixing bugs updating the logic. That's my main role in the project. I will fix those queues for the business and update some processes or dashboards to better suit business needs, as per their requests.

I believe Anaplan is a new cloud tool, and from time to time, there's a lot of improvement that the Anaplan company deploys with the system. So, with that improvement, we need to really adapt and know the new system trends.

I like updating the current model. For example, if the business wants to see a different version or a different report style, I'm happy to work, manipulate, and do some data visualization changes for them.

The dashboard could be better. Because within a dashboard or report, you have to do a lot of scrolling. You need to scroll down because the table doesn't fit in a single view. That's why even the users aren't happy with that kind of user experience. They need to scroll to see all the data, and it could be better if it fits in just one page. That way, you can see everything.

In the next release, I want automation that's connected to Anaplan. For example, to load master data from SAP to Anaplan. I don't know if this already exists, but a log where you can see the progress and see if there's an error will also help. It would be better to give you the error message, for example, if there is an error within the automated process importing to Anaplan.

I have been using the Anaplan tool for about three years.

Right now, Anaplan is very stable. It has some downtime from time to time, but they're able to reinstate it to work as it is. I think many of our users have a demand planner, and they are the main users of Anaplan for our clients. Many of them are in field sales roles, and these people are in the market selling the product. I believe the number of users ranges from 30 to 50 for one country.

In terms of scalability, Anaplan is great. Right now, there's a lot of changes that need to happen in our model, and I believe you can easily ask for an increase in size, and it can adopt the new logic that encouraged a lot of space.

Sometimes, we find bugs within the system, and we don't know how to fix them. So, every year we file maybe five to ten tickets with Anaplan support to fix the bugs that we found.

I used IBM Cognos TM1, which is now called Planning Analytics. I started using Anaplan because I was given an additional role, and I started supporting Anaplan simultaneously. 

I think there's a lot of differences between Anaplan and IBM because Anaplan is cloud-based. But I believe IBM Planning Analytics is getting on the cloud as well. The old version of IBM is more like a remote desktop. But Anaplan is on the cloud, and you can access it via the web anywhere you go.

The initial setup is quite complex because we have this one development team, and we have plenty of markets connected to one model. There's a lot of customization to tailor-fit with the market requirements and with the country requirements. Setting up a new model takes the team at least three months or five months at most.

We implemented this solution. We followed the Agile methodology, and there were a lot of sprints for two weeks and then we released all the enhancements or deployments. It's very fast-paced.

I would advise potential users to have a good model builder and a solutions architect to transform their business complexity into an Anaplan module or dashboard that fits and works for them. They need to have a great solutions architect, a finder, and the end model builder, which will convert this complexity in Excel and to an equivalent Anaplan report.

The biggest lesson I learned using the Anaplan is that everyone can learn to use the Anaplan tool if they have the perseverance to learn. Everything is in Google, and you can Google the logic that you need to apply to a given bug or issue with the module within the system. It's continuous learning, and you have to keep learning and using the Anaplan system every day to be more familiar with the tool.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Anaplan a nine.

You can use this solution for almost everything that you need, that includes the sales forecast, workforce, planning of technical KPIs, etc. It's not a focused solution for a specific use case.

It's simple to use and has a lot of functions suitable for many use cases. Here, you don't have to know how to code. So it's like Excel-based syntax.

Workspace allowance and integrations with external systems are the things to be improved. Apart from that, everything else works well except for the poor ETL capabilities. They should first solve the issue of integrations and modeling sparsity. That would be great.

I have been using this solution for five years. It's a SaaS solution so it's always up-to-date.

I would rate it nine out of ten.

It's one of the solutions that could be scaled up quite easily if its architecture is set up correctly at the beginning of the project, compared to many others marketed by big and well-known CPM/BI providers. Currently, we have approximately 20 Anaplan users in our organization.

I would say it was a good experience. I faced probably zero unsolved issues. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it all nine. They're good at solving issues.

Positive

I switched due to the company's policy I work for now.

It's not easy to start from scratch, but the complexity is something you can also find doing your planning in Excel. So, I don't think Anaplan has an outstanding complexity.

As it is cloud-based, it doesn’t need to be deployed on your servers and it's usually deployed via partners. We just make sure it serves the needs of the organization considering the demands of the specific projects.

It's not that expensive compared to the vast majority of other products. But it's not cheap, it's somewhere in the middle. I would rate the cost five out of ten.

I would very likely recommend the product to my colleagues. 

We are a solution provider and we take on support and integration projects. I provide resources to my clients and one of the products that they work with is Anaplan.

Anaplan is used for different business cycles. For example, in sales, we can use it for the ESD cycle, order-to-cash process, and the procure-to-pay process, to find the sales turnover. 

Another use case is finding out sales demand and forecast.

There is a full set of reports available for sales.

Automation needs to be built into this solution. There are various cycles within the platform and I am not able to easily enter a single case.

Anaplan is a stable solution.

This product is scalable.

Technical support has been good.

The initial setup is straightforward. There is no complexity to it.

It is deployed with code that has been designed for Anaplan.

We integrate this product for our clients, and we also handle the support.

ROI is not something that I see in my role.

This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers.

My advice for anybody who is implementing this product is that they need the right partner to implement it. I am certified in Anaplan and I recommend that people use somebody who is certified. They will know the process and understand end-to-end business cycles, so it will be easy for them to implement.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We use Anaplan for organizing and planning the data in a supply concept.

Anaplan is a three-dimensional cloud platform that is good for analyzing data, visualization, integration, terrific for visibility. Additionally, it is continually being updated and allows collaboration. When comparing it to Microsoft Excel, in Anaplan when you make a change to a sheet you do not need to make the same change to all the sheets as you do in Excel. 

The solution could improve by better dashboards and while entering the form loss and project implementation the ability to use graphical shapes more effectively.

I have been using Anaplan for one and a half years.

Anaplan is highly stable.

The scalability is very good.

We have 15 model builders using this solution in my organization.

Anaplan has an online community group and if we have any technical problems they can provide us support answers within 15 to 20 minutes. Their technical support is very good.

I have used Microsoft Excel previously.

The initial setup was straightforward. it took us approximately 24 hours.

There is maintenance being conducted every month by Anaplan.

We are currently using a free workspace license for 90 days. We are satisfied with the price of the solution. There are additional costs if you want more storage, the default limit is 250 GB.

I have evaluated other solutions and Anaplan is better than other competitors out there.

I rate Anaplan a ten out of ten.

Anaplan is used for various financial planning, such as supply chain, and consolidation.

My clients exhibit enhanced efficiency in financial planning, supply chain management, demand planning, and financial consolidation. They possess superior visibility, enabling swift action-taking.

The most valuable feature of Anaplan is machine learning. The solution is constantly evolving from feedback. Additionally, there is a wide range of training material online.

The price of the solution can improve.

I have been using Anaplan for approximately eight years.

The solution is generally stable. There are tweaks that need to be made for optimum stability.

The solution is highly scalable.

We do the support ourselves and rarely needed global support from the vendor.

We did not use another solution previously.

The initial setup of Anaplan is easy because it is low code or no code deployments. The full process of deployment can take six months. We do not need a lot of resources for the deployment.

We do the difficult customization for the customers. We provide our customers with feedback.

The price of the solution is expensive.

If the solution is built correctly there is no maintenance needed.

The crucial aspect is to ensure that there are individuals who possess the knowledge to effectively utilize the tool. It is akin to piloting an airplane, where one must first acquire the skills to fly before attempting to operate it. Otherwise, they will crash it.

I rate Anaplan a seven out of ten.

We use Anaplan for a lot of different things, but mostly in sales planning.

The features that I have found most valuable are that it is web-based and easy to use.

In terms of what could be improved, when there is a lot of data, it sometimes takes long to load.

In the new experience, it does not let you pick a list in the formula box like it did in the old experience. I would like that to be included in the new release.

I have been using Anaplan for about a year and a half.

It is a low maintenance solution.

The support is pretty good. They get back to you within a week.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give Anaplan an eight.