Anaplan
Anaplan, IncExternal reviews
460 reviews
from
and
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Anaplan provides strong use cases across multiple industries
What do you like best about the product?
The live calculation engine allow users to see the effects of their updates in real time, which places Anaplan at the top tier of planning solutions. Centralizing information also allows users to view changes from other parts of our organization, which drives more efficient planning cycles and communication among departments.
The new user experience is also industry-best. Dashboarding translates cleanly to the mobile application, and on-screen views are professional and effective for communicating data to higher level users.
I have been involved with Hyperion and TM1 implementations in past roles, and Anaplan is by far the easiest and fastest to implement. Changes on-the-go are also very efficient to roll out, which is not the case with more complicated and less-sophisticated platforms. For organizations that experience dynamic lines of business, Anaplan is an ideal solution for quickly developing what-if scenario analysis to reduce uncertainty and promote smarter forecasting.
The new user experience is also industry-best. Dashboarding translates cleanly to the mobile application, and on-screen views are professional and effective for communicating data to higher level users.
I have been involved with Hyperion and TM1 implementations in past roles, and Anaplan is by far the easiest and fastest to implement. Changes on-the-go are also very efficient to roll out, which is not the case with more complicated and less-sophisticated platforms. For organizations that experience dynamic lines of business, Anaplan is an ideal solution for quickly developing what-if scenario analysis to reduce uncertainty and promote smarter forecasting.
What do you dislike about the product?
Managing large amounts of data presents a challenge at times. Due to Anaplan's configuration as a planning tool, there is a trade-off between calculation speed and data storage capabilities. Many times, our users would like to see highly specific, transaction level details within Anaplan, but due to the size of our organization, this is generally an impossible task to accomplish without exceeding the maximum allowed workspace size parameters.
Reporting is also not a strong suit for Anaplan. Most of our users are used to more flexible ad-hoc reporting similar to what is offered in Excel from Hyperion or TM1, so creating reports to match the capabilities of other tools often presents challenges. However, as with all things in Anaplan, the more time you spend in the system as a developer, the more you are able to find solutions for previously unsolvable problems.
Reporting is also not a strong suit for Anaplan. Most of our users are used to more flexible ad-hoc reporting similar to what is offered in Excel from Hyperion or TM1, so creating reports to match the capabilities of other tools often presents challenges. However, as with all things in Anaplan, the more time you spend in the system as a developer, the more you are able to find solutions for previously unsolvable problems.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
In my work, my clients have solved issues around workforce planning, financial analysis, executive reporting, Capex and depreciation, cost allocations, real estate investment and property management, data integrations, and model security management. All of these areas have added significant efficiency around our planning cycles (reduced forecast/budget completion time, better communication across departments, greater visibility into cost savings drivers).
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Your success with Anaplan is measured by the amount of knowledge and investment you make in learning the platform. Any company needs to invest in a full-time staff to support the system, which will increase user adoption as well as grow the use case potential within the organization. I have yet to run into a situation that cannot be solved with Anaplan, but it took time, creativity and an architectural focus to design solutions that had not yet been discovered by other developers.
Anaplan - Continues to Outperform with Connected Planning
What do you like best about the product?
I believe that Anaplan is an outstanding software that provides its customers the ability to create a completely customized atmosphere for their planning experience. Where that be FP&A, Sales and Operations, or Quota & Territory planning, Anaplan provides a unique solution that makes data management and forecasting easy. Specifically for me, I love the ability of Anaplan to be used as our central FP&A planning model that we are continuing to expand and build on with each day. It is great to see our end-users get into Anaplan and be able to easily use the software without the stress of saving down a bunch of different excel files. Overall Anaplan has been a fantastic software for out team and we can't wait to continue to use and build upon it.
What do you dislike about the product?
Overall Anaplan has been a great software for my company, providing a unique solution to our business needs and the way we want to plan. While every software has its quirks, Anaplan is great about laying out this eccentricities and making sure that while the software runs a certain way, there are workarounds and that the Anaplan team is working on making it easier to use. These quirks in the model can be sometimes hard to explain to an end-user who is used to Excel or Google Sheets, and does not understand the nature of the hyperblock or the way that Anaplan's software will approach a formula to try to calculate that. While it can be frustrating, Anaplan has great documentation and educational tools that we use with our end users to be able to get them to understand how the system works.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We are able to help solve a lot of our problems that we experienced as a team with Anaplan. The first thing is that we can have multiple end-users working in the same module updating information without it crashing or causing any delays for the users. Additionally, we are able to house our entire model in this software, and when we start to create new analytical reports or want to build out a new way to forecast something, we have all the building blocks all ready to go. Anaplan's excellent capability to ingest data has also allowed us to automate so much of the manual labor we spent hours doing. This has improved efficiencies for our team and allowed us to be more agile in making business decisions.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I think that Anaplan can provide a very unique solution to companies. When evaluating Anaplan, I believe that it is important to make sure that you have the data infrastructure and time to build out the model. That is the heaviest lift, and can come with complications. Once you set up your customized models, Anaplan will provide a great planning solution.
Extensive Capabilities, Connectivity, and Agility
What do you like best about the product?
I like how flexible the system is to make constant improvements to our model and address changing business needs. The Covid crisis is a great example where new urgent requests have arisen, and we have been able to quickly build out new data integrations and business analysis to enable timely decisions for senior leadership.
What do you dislike about the product?
My primary dislike is the way the system temporarily locks for all users of a model when an admin makes a small error, such as a formula set to the wrong format. The length of the lock depends on the size and complexity of the model, but you can easily toast a model for several minutes.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have improved our planning and reporting with Anaplan, with both speed and flexibility. We can also easily add new use cases and connect data across models. We have been able to help solve urgent business needs as well by have the ability to build out new analysis without the need to rely on consultants.
Anaplan
What do you like best about the product?
Super helpful for tracking sales and churn. Great for forecasting payout.
What do you dislike about the product?
I wish it was easier to customize and track based on date/time vs showing a list, would have updates, sync to email. Wish it would categorize better and have more of a newsfeed.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I am able to better forecast and track sales/compensation.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you are a sales professional definitely use Anaplan!
Effective people management platform
What do you like best about the product?
It is organized in people planning and management
What do you dislike about the product?
The design looks like it's from 2002, so not very inspiring
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Solved problems with consistent people assignments
Connected planning too
What do you like best about the product?
Great modeling capability, connecting financial planning with sales and ops planning.
What do you dislike about the product?
Learning could take some time for those who’s good at excel.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Replacing excel modeling, enabling collaboration.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Start with a small project... commit team resources and get executive sponsors.
Anaplan Implementation
What do you like best about the product?
Once you get your head around it, it is a simple modelling tool that understands time and data structures. The more time spent planning it before diving in the better your end result will be. We all want to dive into new technology and I'm a firm believer of the 'play with a product to learn it' approach but on this one planning is worth the time spent ten times over.
What do you dislike about the product?
Getting your head around it takes time and slips from memory easily. Focus on delivery and you'll be fine.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We now do our budgeting and financial forecasting through Anaplan, have built three of our four underlying business models, with the last one coming this year followed by a overarching strategic model that will tie them all together.
Best Modeling Tool Around
What do you like best about the product?
Anaplan is an incredible tool for modeling. You have the ability to create endless lists and dimensions that can be used for modeling. Imagine custom drop down menus, date fields, boolean check boxes, and much more. These modeling fields can be used to create great modeling! Also, Anaplan has the capacity to work within many different areas of the business. You can create an FP&A plan, inventory plan, sales territory and quota plan, sales compensation calculation, and really any business modeling you can think of. Other tools in this category cannot create models like this in other parts of the business. Finally, Anaplan manages to create this data real-time. Other competitors cannot create data real-time like Anaplan can.
What do you dislike about the product?
Being a tool that can accomplish all business modeling needs, it can get implemented poorly.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
FP&A, Sales planning, Sales compensation, and inventory planning.
Great PMing software
What do you like best about the product?
The best part is the cloud focus and the versatility of using it for different types of businesses.
What do you dislike about the product?
The differentiation of the software for different files, it can just be different modules.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I am trying to solve the problem of different teams using a different type of product. For example its much simpler for a smartwatch manufacturing company to utilize this software instead of using different types for all functions.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Great tool but consider how to implement across different company functions
showing 211 - 219