Anaplan vs SAP Analytics Cloud comparison

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847 views|398 comparisons
95% willing to recommend
SAP Logo
736 views|491 comparisons
90% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Anaplan and SAP Analytics Cloud based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Predictive Analytics solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Anaplan vs. SAP Analytics Cloud Report (Updated: March 2024).
771,157 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution scales well.""Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go.""It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive.""Anaplan's most valuable features are that it's a no-coding platform, everything can be scaled to your other functions, and it's easy to learn and use (especially because Anaplan provides excellent interactive training).""Anaplan integrates well into my clients' core systems. The ability to aggregate the forms within the dashboarding is also useful. Only one of my clients has implemented workflow. Their usage has been very light. Dashboarding capability is probably the biggest one. My clients like having the ability to aggregate, slice and dice, and dynamically adjust things in the dashboards.""Technical support has been good.""It's simple to use with a lot of functions.""I am impressed with the tool’s real-time calculations and intuitive interface. The tool’s user interface is the best compared to other software that I have worked with. I also find the tool’s management reporting feature valuable."

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"I like the connectivity the solution provides with other products.""Data integration is very good.""Real-time data makes for a single version of the truth.""The product is flexible and has features like AI, link analysis, and insights. It has many features. I can search, and it creates automatic charts without selecting anything. For example, I can ask, "What is the gross margin?" the tool builds a chart based on my question.""Visualization is quite seamless and awesome. Once the data messaging is set up, it's straightforward and simple to select how it should be displayed. So, that's another advantage of SAP.""It is a comprehensive BI solution that provides reporting, planning, and predictive analytics in one solution. You don't have to buy three different products. It is very flexible. It can be implemented very quickly. It has a lot of out-of-the-box scenarios that you can use for quick deployment.""There is a really nice insight feature that I enjoy using.""The most valuable features are the analytical application and the user story."

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Cons
"It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions.""Space and integration are a problem.""Anaplan could be improved with a stronger consolidation module.""The tool needs to work on its integration with MS Excel and MS Word. The tool does not allow data analysis in spreadsheets which is possible on other platforms. I want the solution to be more collaborative to facilitate decision-making in organizations.""The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools.""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.""The negative is that the higher the flexibility, the higher is the complexity. That can act against you as a negative because it does require a model builder or a coder/developer.""There are so many business rules to set up in the system that as a business user it's hard to gauge what they're doing and it's possible to get lost."

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"An additional feature that needs to be added to SAP Analytics Cloud is exporting because right now, you can only export to PDF and PowerPoint. It would be good to have multiple export options, for example, to Excel and other apps. Pricing is an area for improvement in SAP Analytics Cloud, apart from exporting.""Live Data Models are very slow and the setup can be improved, with tools such as Cloud Connector being inbuilt into SAP Analytics Cloud. Likewise, we need to write application code from scratch, rather than tweaking existing code, as we might with Excel macros. Moreover, when using responsive pages, the widgets get adjusted according to the mobile screen. As a result, when I place two or three KPI tiles, they can only be viewed tile-by-tile. We want to see the full dashboard on the mobile screen and zoom in to click on a particular section of the dashboard and go further into that. But displaying tile-by-tile makes it very annoying and the upper management using this dashboard might not be aware there are any more tiles to view.""Some algorithms are complex and can't be processed by just tagging the data and expecting results.""SAP Analytics cloud needs better exporting options.""What could be improved in SAP Analytics Cloud is integration, particularly in terms of extracting data from the source system. Currently, its data extraction mechanism doesn't have good integration and needs improvement.""The security, authorization, and live connection to the back-office system features can be improved. A business analyst colleague who creates complex financial management reports has mentioned that he wants to see more fact and visualization features. It would be helpful to have more visualization features to be able to prepare more stories or reports for executives. For example, Tableau has some visualization features that are not present in this solution.""Figuring out how to navigate all of the products around Data Warehouse Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud and BW for HANA is quite difficult.""AI doesn't work as well with SAP live connections."

More SAP Analytics Cloud Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "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."
  • "The entry-level is anywhere from about $30,000 to $50,000 a year, however, it does go up significantly after that depending on the complexity and how much space you're using."
  • "This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
  • "The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
  • "This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
  • "The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
  • "Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
  • "A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
  • More Anaplan Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It is a bit expensive, but really worth it, especially if you are already using other SAP tools."
  • "It is not the most expensive one. You have to do the cost-of-ownership analysis and take a lot of things into consideration to come up with the conclusion that it is cheaper or not, but its price is reasonable. It provides value for money."
  • "It's quite expensive and costs a lot to maintain, especially with licensing."
  • "It's not that costly as such for the time being."
  • "Its licensing is on a monthly basis."
  • "Compute and storage features should be sold separately."
  • "Its pricing is okay as compared to its competitors."
  • "Its price is slightly on the higher side."
  • More SAP Analytics Cloud Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations of… more »
    Top Answer:We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and… more »
    Top Answer:There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time… more »
    Top Answer:Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies… more »
    Top Answer:Visualization is quite seamless and awesome. Once the data messaging is set up, it's straightforward and simple to select how it should be displayed. So, that's another advantage of SAP.
    Top Answer:SAP Analytics Cloud is a bit higher [in price]. Because, if Microsoft can afford a better product and lower cost, SAP can afford at least the same, or even lower. At least it should be competitive. If… more »
    Ranking
    4th
    Views
    847
    Comparisons
    398
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    357
    Rating
    7.8
    3rd
    Views
    736
    Comparisons
    491
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    553
    Rating
    7.8
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    SAP BusinessObjects Cloud
    Learn More
    Overview

    Anaplan is a cloud-based planning and performance management platform with documented use cases in finance, sales, supply chain, marketing, IT and HR. At the core of Anaplan's technology is a single hub where business users can build, deploy, maintain, and share models without coding or reliance on IT personnel.

    With Anaplan You Can:

    • Accelerate revenue growth
    • Convert data into market opportunity
    • Drive higher sales performance
    • Gain market share
    • Improve customer satisfaction
    • See edge-to-edge across your company
    • Achieve business and technology goals
    • Become agile and resilient with continuous models and forecasts

    The Anaplan Platform Is:

    • Flexible
    • Scalable
    • Collaborative
    • Secure
    • Multi-dimensional
    • Built to help businesses think ahead and rapidly adapt to change

    Anaplan Benefits:

    • Illuminate blind spots and hidden opportunities.
    • Easily create a shareable, living representation of how your business actually works.
    • Dynamic planning allows you to continuously adapt to market changes and other changing circumstances effectively.
    • Information is always readily available and can be easily shared with all teams across your enterprise.
    • Anaplan provides intelligent decision-making. The platform gives you all the information you need to make business decisions and also gives you the ability to run several “what if” scenarios to determine which decision is best based on a large range of variables - at record speed, instead of it taking days or weeks to complete.
    • By using Anaplan, you can adapt to changes very quickly. You can consider all of the possible options before responding in real time.
    • Anaplan can be used remotely from wherever you are.
    • Anaplan will help your organization stay focused and on target. You can stay in control with the ability to run scenario calculations quickly and use the information to make adjustments as needed.
    • Anaplan provides accurate, real-time data so you don’t have to worry about the risk of bad data. In turn, this boosts shareholder confidence because Anaplan’s platform mitigates the risks associated with incorrect data.
    • Anaplan’s Connected Planning helps you meet regulatory requirements. All the relevant business data is held in one place, therefore making adjustments easier to implement quickly. With Connected Planning, results also have a full audit trail.

    Anaplan Features:

    • Hyperscale computing: Anaplan eliminates the “messy middle” caused by out-of-date, siloed signals.
    • Integrated and dynamic signal set: This feature incorporates internal and external factors, relationships, and market context across functions which can all be seamlessly integrated.
    • Responsive unified system: Anaplan’s high-fidelity, responsive, and unified system for execution and accountability is reliable, accurate, and traceable.
    • Real-time insights: Detect signals hidden in your systems and gain insight into every asset, resource, risk, and change to help provide decision clarity.
    • Unlimited multi-dimensional scenarios: Anaplan helps your organization run unlimited multi-dimensional scenarios to identify ideal plans of action.
    • Synchronization: Using Anaplan, you can synchronize execution and readiness. Anaplan enables autonomous and coordinated in-market action by connecting headquarters to your most remote outposts.

    Reviews from Real Users:

    "Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go.” - Sandeep A., Lead Analyst at a retailer

    "This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable.” - Raghavendra K., Lead Consultant at a tech services company

    "Anaplan is a three-dimensional cloud platform that is good for analyzing data, visualization, integration, terrific for visibility.” - Anaplan model builder at a tech services company

    SAP Analytics Cloud is an all-in-one Software-as-a-Service business intelligence tool that provides the key functionalities of an analytics tool to SAP business users. This tool is built on HANA Business Intelligence (BI) platform, providing analytics from data collected from multiple sources, such as ERP, Microsoft SQL, and Salesforce, among other solutions.

    You can use SAP Analytics Cloud to compile data and perform ad-hoc reporting and analysis for predictive planning. SAP Analytics Cloud collects and analyzes the raw data from transactional systems into intelligent insights that allow you to make better decisions.

    SAP Analytics Cloud uses machine learning to clean up data, identify errors, and issues, and suggest optimization or filtering options. You can use the modeling feature in Analytics Cloud to create hierarchies and get deeper data insights.

    The three core functions of SAP Analytics Cloud consist of Planning, Predictive Analysis, and Business Intelligence as a holistic SaaS solution that offers real-time analysis to business leaders.

    SAP Analytics Cloud Capabilities

    • Data discovery
    • Machine learning
    • Integrated financial and business planning
    • Predictive analysis
    • Automated data cleansing
    • Custom widgets
    • Mobile extension
    • Role-based customization
    • Data exploration and visualization

    SAP Analytics Cloud Key Features

    • Augmented analytics: SAP Analytics Cloud allows organizations to make the most of AI (Artificial Intelligence)-powered analytics through augmented analytics. It includes a Search to Insight feature that enables users not skilled or experienced in data science to access and use the platform.

      These smart insight tools allow organizations to visualize business data without manual intervention. By combining multiple machine learning algorithms, SAP Analytics Cloud automates predictive analysis so that organizations can have significant insight into secured data.
    • Enterprise planning: As SAP Analytics Cloud is an all-in-one financial planning and analysis solution, organizations can use it to align strategies across all departments. It allows end-to-end, data-driven planning decisions via financial modeling, allocations, smart insights, and automated reporting.

      The Zero-based budgeting feature allows for an effective resources allocation with built-in collaboration tools. The finance team can collaborate easily, create budget templates and make accurate decisions.

    SAP Analytics Cloud Benefits

    • Real-time cloud insights: SAP Analytics Cloud makes it easy for users at every level to generate instant insights and improve data-driven decision-making. With SAP Analytics Cloud, you can have immediate and central access to all figures, diagrams, insights, and evaluations for every employee on every device and updated in real time.

    • Customizable dashboard: You can customize your dashboard according to your requirements. This customization means you can easily access all the relevant data on a single pane of vision tailored to your business.

    • Collaborative planning: As an all-in-one platform, SAP Analytics Cloud integrates the multiple aspects of a business into a single solution, including finance, HR, sales, and supply chain management.

    • Data on any device: You can integrate SAP Analytics Cloud with SAP S/4 HANA and deploy insights to Android and iOS devices. The SAP S/4 HANA integration also enables the rolling out of changes to multiple files and devices from a central location, so you can carry your business operations on the go over a secured cloud network.

    • In-memory technology: Since it is based on SAP HANA in-memory technology, SAP Analytics Cloud can process massive amounts of data in a short time.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Segun O., SAP HANA Developer at SOA PEOPLE, says that "The most valuable features are on the application side, where you can design applications into your analytics on the platform."

    The Head of Finance Enterprise Application at a computer software company adds that "The visualization feature is the most valuable. SAP Analytics Cloud is also very easy to use."

    "Its many features make it the best in the market," sums up a Consultor SAP Business Object, Sap Analytics Cloud at a tech services company.

    Sample Customers
    HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
    Live Oak Bank
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization25%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Educational Organization14%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization20%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business43%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise31%
    Large Enterprise51%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise27%
    Large Enterprise57%
    Buyer's Guide
    Anaplan vs. SAP Analytics Cloud
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan vs. SAP Analytics Cloud and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    771,157 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Anaplan is ranked 4th in Predictive Analytics with 24 reviews while SAP Analytics Cloud is ranked 3rd in Predictive Analytics with 60 reviews. Anaplan is rated 8.0, while SAP Analytics Cloud is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Anaplan writes "Great for large-scale modelling, easy to learn, and very stable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SAP Analytics Cloud writes "Good for reporting but needs to improve its predictive analytics features". Anaplan is most compared with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Hyperion, IBM Planning Analytics and Board, whereas SAP Analytics Cloud is most compared with SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, Tableau, IBM Planning Analytics, Microsoft Power BI and IBM Cognos. See our Anaplan vs. SAP Analytics Cloud report.

    See our list of best Predictive Analytics vendors.

    We monitor all Predictive Analytics reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.