Anaplan Reviews

My first project in Anaplan was about capacity planning for the factory's RCT and NCTC capacity planning. My second use case was about CapEx and OpEx planning for another client. Mainly it's finance and supply chain related activities.

In finance, mainly, earlier, we were using Excel spreadsheets. Every time their monthly cycle ends, the company needed to go back to the reporting. They would have to pull all the data from all the users and then publish all final reports. However, in Anaplan, everyone reports their numbers through the cloud and wherever the end-user or the planner wants to see the data collated, he can just simply open the Anaplan and then see the reports ready-made. It's much less work-intensive.

The modeling is very easy. It's almost an Excel-like model building. It is very easy to change the logic or business rules. You can do it anytime. It's not like you need a different team set up for the changes.

The solution is very user-friendly.

The initial setup is very easy.

The solution is scalable.

The solution has been very stable so far.

We have found that the product integrates well with SAP and they have ready-made connectors. In fact, it is easy to integrate with any other system. They have plug-and-play software which makes integrations easy with very little time consumption required. 

You don't need to have a programming language to use Anaplan.

There is no demand planning, no dedicated demand planning where it can do statistical forecasting. They have engaged with a plan queue to do the statistical forecasting. However, if we compare it with SAP or others, they don't have an in-house forecasting tool or anything.

It would be nice if the solution offered better extensions. For example, in SEC Excel, they have one extra extension, which is really good in terms of performance. It would have been really great to have something similar, however, from what I have seen so far it is not up to the mark. Whenever you load the data in Excel and then send it back to Anaplan, it takes a lot of time. It's very hard to use it. Rather than using the available extension, people prefer to go back to Anaplan again.

Plastic dashboards were a little bit hard to create, however, it's my understanding that it's a bit better now.

I've been using the solution for more than two years at this point. 

The solution is stable. I've never faced any issue where it had downtime or anything. It has never failed, at least for me.

The solution is very scalable. In previous projects, there were some changes that the business wanted to make, however, they were not able to do it in SAP or Cisco systems. They used append models to do those changes and send them back to SAP.

Considering the previous project, there were almost 300 to 400 users. There are finance project managers across the zones or the CapEx and OpEx controllers.

Our latest client does plan to increase usage. They've already forgotten all about trying to make Excel reporting work.

Technical support is very good. I have also worked on SAP previously, and, if I had to compare SAP support and Anaplan support, Anaplan support is quite responsive. We're very satisfied with them overall. 

I didn't use business performance management, however, I do use SAP, IBP, and APO. These are mainly ERP-related Software solutions.

The initial setup is not difficult or complex. It's very simple and straightforward. 

Generally, the deployment takes four to five months to complete at least the basic agenda. Later you can keep on adding the functionalities once the users start filling the Anaplan, they go ahead and ask for more requirements.

The four to five-month deployment includes, for example, the process of customization and testing.

We did not use an integrator. I'm in consulting, so we get the projects for the deployment.

I don't know anything about the cost or the licensing. It's not an aspect of the solution I work on.

We have partners and we do the implementation for clients. 

I am using a SaaS version of the solution.

Generally, people rush to design the scope and just start building. I would say that new users should focus first on designing the process and scope. Once that is finalized, then move into the model building rather than pushing everything in one go.

During our training in Anaplan, there was one quote saying, "almost everything can be built in Anaplan". There were scenarios where I thought, okay fine, Anaplan can't build this logic, and yet, after a point, we were able to build that logic. It's pretty scalable.

I would rate the solution at 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 concentrate now on financial planning. However, we have intentions to move towards supply planning. My company uses the tool to know the key players in the market.

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.

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.

I have been working with the solution for three to four years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable. There are around 10-20 users for the solution.

The tool’s support is responsive but its Workaround Time is not very helpful.

Neutral

We chose Anaplan based on the client’s requirements.

The tool’s setup is easy. The tool’s deployment depends on the requirements of both users and clients. The overall deployment will not take more than four to five weeks to complete. One week is required for the determination of user requirements and another four to five weeks for the solution’s deployment.

The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions.

I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. This product is an important Enterprise Performance Management tool. It has one of the most powerful calculation engines called Hyperblock.

My main use of Anaplan is for financial planning and budgeting forecasts.

Anaplan's strongest feature is that its GUI is very modern and user-friendly.

Anaplan could be improved with a stronger consolidation module. In the next release, Anaplan should include out-of-the-box integration with software systems. Currently, they don't have a connector, so you have to work with an API or directly with a company to build connections, whereas their competitors already include native connectors.

I've been using Anaplan for seven years.

Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually.

Anaplan's technical support is very good.

Positive

The initial setup is very easy, though it can vary based on users' needs. Depending on the scope of the user's requirements, it can take anywhere between two and twelve months to deploy everything.

Anaplan is a great product for large organizations with multiple locations that want to do FP&A. I would give Anaplan a score of eight out of ten.

My primary use case of this solution is to solve business scenarios, including sales and operations planning and compensation management for top FMCG clients and service provider clients.

Anaplan has eased a major pain point in mapping multidimensional data by combining all the necessary dimensions into a single tool. This makes it much easier for managers to understand the data coming in from their reps.

This product has a very good modeling feature, and its graphical representation of visualizations has also been valuable.

The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools.

I have been using this solution for about three years.

My impression is that this is a reliable solution that gets very good feedback at the management level. 

We have something called Anaplan Connect, which is like an in-built Anaplan connector, where we can connect with our third-party data sources, and we don't have any issues, especially when we do an integration perspective.

My experience with customer support has been great, they are very responsive to any issues.

Before using this solution, I used to develop using Excel macro dashboards. I switched because while Excel is a bigger environment compared to Anaplan, this product is a tool created to achieve something, not like an enterprise package.

With Anaplan, setup is almost like solving a Rubik's cube - there are no book rules for the product. So the complexity varies depending on the business scenario and how well the people involved understand the logical requirements. However, the product's architecture is very simple, so the sync process happens in a matter of seconds.

Anaplan sell their licenses on a storage basis, which they call a bucket. 

I would personally recommend Anaplan, especially for anyone who is having issues dealing with bulk loads of Excel data or is experiencing pain in allocation or planning. Anaplan is a one-stop solution and does not require knowledge of a programming language - if you're familiar with Excel functions, that will be sufficient. I would rate this product as eight out of ten.

• Serves as a platform: You can design your solutions on top of it
• Allows you to do “what-if” analysis on the go
• Allows collaboration across the organization: This is most essential for security

We use Anaplan across multiple functional areas. I will elaborate a few features that have had the most impact on our organization:

• The forecasting/planning cycles: This used to take months to collaborate. It now only takes a week to finish and be worked upon.
• The commission payment systems: Have been automated in Anaplan. The commission payments are highly transparent and efficient now.
• The Bookings and Revenue Forecasting model: Allows us to predict the Salesforce requirements and to budget for them beforehand.

• A better presentation layer would certainly take it a notch higher.
• As compared to other BI tools, such as QlikView, the presentation layer is not as user-friendly.
• It still does a fairly good job on the look and feel of the dashboards. But this is the only area in which there is scope for improvement.

I have used this solution for more than four years.

There were no stability issues.

This product is super scalable and efficient.

Mostly there is no need for any support. Anaplan is very supportive in case you need to contact the technical support.

Being a business analyst, we use multiple tools.

We were the early adaptors of Anaplan. Because of the customizability that it offers and the ease of various “what-if” scenarios, you can build on this tool.

None of the other tools in the market offer that level of flexibility. Hence, it is pretty unique in that sense.

There is no setup required. It is a cloud platform.

Go for a bigger deal initially. Once you start using it, you will certainly want more of it.

We had evaluated Tableau and QlikView. Even though a lot of the other tools do a good job, only Anaplan allows flexibility and customizability to design solutions and do real-time “what-if” analysis.

Have a core team dedicated only to Anaplan and you will realize the true potential of this tool.

The tool is very good and customizable.

• Multi-dimensional
• Easy to restructure
• Cloud compatible

The capacity projection of certain lines helped to identify where the utilization is falling beyond a limit. It helped certain category planners to plan for long term investments (shift patterns).

I would like to see more flexible graphs. That is, more varieties of graphs, more customization (like choosing colors, gradients, etc.) and more conditional formatting options (format sharply or gradient).

Anaplan gave us some limitations in terms of these aspects. There might be scope for experimenting around the formatting, if not the types, of graphs!

I have used the product for one year.

Very rarely. The tool slows down around once every two months.

There were no scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 8/10.

I used a different solution. I switched to expand my exposure to a budding tool in planning.

The initial setup was straightforward.

It might cost more compared to some decent tools in the market. But one should be mindful about the capabilities of Anaplan, which justify the cost.

I haven't done this, as it was already selected by my organization. However, I did some market research to see how other options are flourishing, and found Anaplan to be a worthwhile option.

There are fewer experts in the Indian market, but there seems to be a lot of scope in global markets. Anaplan is a worthwhile investment for a top performing planning solution in any sector, Finance, Capacity, or Budgeting, etc.