## [[1]]
## [1] "Real - time - the cloud based technology allows all changes & its impact is visible in real time."
##
## [[2]]
## [1] "I think that Anaplan is good for workforce planning. The strength is that once you have the raw data of the personnel, one could upload the sheet for a more automated output."
##
## [[3]]
## [1] "Anaplan is very fast! Instantaneous updates to imported information."
##
## [[4]]
## [1] "Manipulation of big data"
##
## [[5]]
## [1] "Viewing of live data across offices/the globe"
##
## [[6]]
## [1] "The Hub offers a good area for getting more information"
##
## [[7]]
## [1] "I think the greatest strength of Anaplan is that the entire model is interconnected. The ability to update a single variable and have that change propagated through the entire model is unparalleled."
##
## [[8]]
## [1] "Another strength is the ability to have multiple users working in a given model simultaneously. We have had the experience of actively modeling to meet a deadline and realizing that some of the underlying assumptions and/or layout needed to be changed to support a new approach. While our model-builder made the back-end adjustments in Florida, our analyst continued to work through a new set of variables. We ended up with a completely refreshed approach in less than a half hour. With only two hours before our deadline, we NEVER would have even entertained making the change in Excel."
##
## [[9]]
## [1] "The thing that Anaplan does -- that I haven't seen elsewhere -- is the ability to get to data-driven analysis of the future. BI tools are great for reporting what has already happened, but fall short of predictive analytics and sensitivity analysis. Anaplan handles those with ease."
##
## [[10]]
## [1] "Hyperbloc architecture -- the ability to see changes to models instantly cascade through all the models."
##
## [[11]]
## [1] "Function agnostic platform - the ability to adapt the platform to many different use cases and integrate those use cases into a connected planning environment."
##
## [[12]]
## [1] "Cloud architecture. Security and product enhancements come automatically."
##
## [[13]]
## [1] "Anaplan is great for headcount reporting. We have reports by dept, office location, and subsidiary that is great for planning and also for full company reporting."
##
## [[14]]
## [1] "Although they can be complicated to set up, Anaplan is also great for setting up complex P&L views. For example, setting up a P&L with a combination of subs/depts., that still needs to consolidate to the total P&L."
##
## [[15]]
## [1] "Systems-wise, I like that it's impossible to #REF the model! Anaplan shows you where everything is referenced, so it's very difficult to break anything."
##
## [[16]]
## [1] "I also like that formulas copy across, so there is no chance of pointing to the wrong cell, like in Excel"
##
## [[17]]
## [1] "We really like the Data Hub concept. We are working on multiple projects with regards to aggregating data from multiple sources, and Data Hub has worked well for us thus far."
##
## [[18]]
## [1] "Agility is key for our businesses and we feel that Anaplan gives us the ability to remain flexible and reactive to the changes throughout our businesses."
##
## [[19]]
## [1] "As a administrator I really like the resources provided by Anaplan such as Anapedia. It makes it really simple to ask questions and find answers if we are having difficulty with certain items."
##
## [[20]]
## [1] "Modeling is next level in Anaplan. With a background deep in Excel modeling and the frustrations that come along with it, Anaplan is a breath of fresh air and is actually fun to build and model in."
##
## [[21]]
## [1] "Dashboarding and synchronization. The synchronization feature in Anaplan is one of the greatest things ever. As its core Anaplan models are built around hierarchical lists and dimensions and using similar dimensions in dashboards allows you to synchronize to different views of the same data with simple clicks around a dashboard. It makes reporting and BI extremely user friendly and flexible."
##
## [[22]]
## [1] "Its fast. If you had the same exact model in Excel and Anaplan. That model in Excel would be like riding and old bike with under-inflated tires, while Anaplan would be like driving a Tesla in Ludicrous mode. The ability to have your entire business modeled on a single platform, potentially across multiple models, where when you make a change the entire model updates within seconds, is invaluable in making decisions."
##
## [[23]]
## [1] "It is a very user-friendly platform that allows individuals without IT backgrounds to build models in simple syntax. If you know how to use Excel, you will be able to pick up model building in Anaplan with relative ease using the guided build methodology."
##
## [[24]]
## [1] "Anaplan is a blank slate that allows for multi-dimension models in which we determine the dimensions versus forcing us to adhere to predetermined dimensions."
##
## [[25]]
## [1] "Maintaining our company hierarchies in Data Hub allows us to change information there and have it automatically pushed out to all spoke models versus changing 10-20 spreadsheets."
##
## [[26]]
## [1] "Allows non-technical business-oriented individuals create functionality in the system."
##
## [[27]]
## [1] "Highly customizable."
##
## [[28]]
## [1] "Excellent business partner from a people perspective. Very focused on customer success, not just the next PO."
##
## [[29]]
## [1] "Smart Import Features: When you have data in multiple dimensions, as long as you set up the corresponding fields correctly, it can be loaded into your Anaplan space fairly easily."
##
## [[30]]
## [1] "Interactive Dashboard: As long as you set up hierarchy correctly, you can publish your numbers on the dashboard and just navigate to the level that you are interested in."
##
## [[31]]
## [1] "Productivity: My favorite thing about Anaplan is that you can work on the formulas on a micro level (in my case, individual employee) and you only work on this once and it will apply to the whole and you can have the company view in no time. Doing the same thing in MS Excel could take much longer."
##
## [[32]]
## [1] "Calculate values based on data in other files; we use this for scoring accounts"
##
## [[33]]
## [1] "See the impact of new scenarios and potential changes; we do this with proposed territory changes"
##
## [[34]]
## [1] "Quick and easy reporting on your current setup"
##
## [[35]]
## [1] "Scalability - ability to build out financials with new SKUs spanning multiple financial assumptions"
##
## [[36]]
## [1] "Timely cross functional data access"
##
## [[37]]
## [1] "Ability to export data across systems SQL / Tableau"
##
## [[38]]
## [1] "It allows users to set up complex algorithms which then leads to recommendations made by the tool for the planners to make a decision."
##
## [[39]]
## [1] "Helps in collaboration across multiple users within our department but across Dish and potentially externally with our suppliers in the future."
##
## [[40]]
## [1] "The software is extremely fast and can calculate scenarios fast."
##
## [[41]]
## [1] "It allows for us to lock our forecast, which is extremely important for a public company."
##
## [[42]]
## [1] "It's an extremely collaborative tool, allowing multiple users on a team to update the forecast, without fear of breaking the system."
##
## [[43]]
## [1] "It is easy for a finance person to understand the formulas and update them as the business changes."
##
## [[44]]
## [1] "Personnel Forecasting models allow more in-depth & precise forecasting."
##
## [[45]]
## [1] "Flexibility allows the creation and use of custom, better focused analytical and planning models."
##
## [[46]]
## [1] "The tool is geared towards mass usability within an organization, thus can be used collaboratively between finance and business partners."
##
## [[47]]
## [1] "If the model in Anaplan is built well, it allows the user to make one change as part of an input and that one change will be reflected through out the model."
##
## [[48]]
## [1] "Unlike Excel, there is no need for a formula check - it's a very useful feature for a large model for multiple variable and drivers."
##
## [[49]]
## [1] "The key to a successful model is to keep your model simple, don't overcomplicate things."
##
## [[50]]
## [1] "It is in the cloud."
##
## [[51]]
## [1] "it is a powerful calculation engine."
##
## [[52]]
## [1] "It allows you to analyze data instead of [just] prepare it."
##
## [[53]]
## [1] "Flexibility"
##
## [[54]]
## [1] "Efficiency"
##
## [[55]]
## [1] "Integrated forecast tool with internal systems"
##
## [[56]]
## [1] "Excel add-in ... could definitely be improved to be more robust"
##
## [[57]]
## [1] "Cloud based modeling platform that can be accessed from anywhere with leading industry-standard encryption and security."
##
## [[58]]
## [1] "Speed and Power of Hyperblock calculation engine. It can calculate an enormous amount of data, an amount that excel would have no chance at processing."
##
## [[59]]
## [1] "History/Audit Trails/Restore Points - every single change to the model is logged and a restore point created"
##
## [[60]]
## [1] "User-access controls"
##
## [[61]]
## [1] "Speed"
##
## [[62]]
## [1] "Flexibility. It is easy to change attributes and other items in Anaplan."
##
## [[63]]
## [1] "Reliability. The system has had very few glitches over 2 years."
##
## [[64]]
## [1] "Responsiveness. Anaplan support and account teams are very responsive."
##
## [[65]]
## [1] "Hierarchies - when a change is made to a bottom level, it filters upwards from sales rep, to district, to region, etc."
##
## [[66]]
## [1] "Multi-dimensions - keeps models clean and efficient"
##
## [[67]]
## [1] "Web-based - changes and compilations are done in real time"
##
## [[68]]
## [1] "Multiple users working on similar tasks for different parts of the company. No shared spreadsheets or unexpected deleted cells."
##
## [[69]]
## [1] "Creates a discussion platform for project managers who need to bid for internal resources. Our IT department can only do so much and managers can get a feel for the total demand and timing of demand thru our capacity model."
##
## [[70]]
## [1] "Business wide expense drivers can be updated centrally. FICA limit change. Medical benefits change. Cost per inquiry change. It takes some forethought, but doesn't everything?"
##
## [[71]]
## [1] "Restore history. This feature sounds pretty good for normal operations but we have found interesting and novel ways to meet customer requests that are made easy with this feature."
##
## [[72]]
## [1] "Flexibility - we are able to conceive and deliver new model changes with limited resources and time"
##
## [[73]]
## [1] "Scale - We have an operational model with over a billion elements and are able to get reasonable performance"
##
## [[74]]
## [1] "The data crunching is very powerful. I have never worked in a system that can crunch data this well."
##
## [[75]]
## [1] "The tools it provides to accomplish what you need are very strong. I like the flexibility."
##
## [[76]]
## [1] "Live updating of numbers is very nice."
##
## [[77]]
## [1] "The flexibility the system allows is really great. It's been helpful to be able to design a system that fits our needs and not have to have workarounds in order to make our process fit into a system."
##
## [[78]]
## [1] "You can maintain the system within your team and don't need IT or someone with a technical skill set to be the system admin."
##
## [[79]]
## [1] "It's a tool that can be used in other areas of the business. I see a future for fully integrating the companywide analysis we do."
##
## [[80]]
## [1] "Flexible"
##
## [[81]]
## [1] "Cloud-based and easily accessible"
##
## [[82]]
## [1] "Hierarchy management for list structures is good, and can easily adapt to changes when doing reorgs."
##
## [[83]]
## [1] "Speed is good when pivoting a large data set compared to Excel."
##
## [[84]]
## [1] "Flexibility in design is much more robust than competitors such as Essbase."
##
## [[85]]
## [1] "Sales Planning and Forecasting"
##
## [[86]]
## [1] "Data Scrubbing and comparison"
##
## [[87]]
## [1] "Read and write data from Salesforce.com"
##
## [[88]]
## [1] "I can't imagine a more fluid, comprehensive platform than what Anaplan has created in regard to model interaction."
##
## [[89]]
## [1] "Anaplan is compatible with other software in terms of importing and exporting data."
##
## [[90]]
## [1] "The service, support, and training Anaplan provides to its clients is tremendous."
##
## [[91]]
## [1] "Anaplan's dynamic features make this application a huge win over essbase (no calculating, everything is almost instant)."
##
## [[92]]
## [1] "User experience is great and intuitive."
##
## [[93]]
## [1] "Budget"
##
## [[94]]
## [1] "Forecasting"
##
## [[95]]
## [1] "5 year planning"
##
## [[96]]
## [1] "Tracking"
##
## [[97]]
## [1] "Structure - formulas remain consistent, does not allow one-time formulas that can get you in trouble."
##
## [[98]]
## [1] "Cross-talk - Anaplan easily integrates actual results with budget without the worry of linking files."
##
## [[99]]
## [1] "Access - control who uses what easily and efficiently."
##
## [[100]]
## [1] "Pivot tables allow users to customize the way they see data."
##
## [[101]]
## [1] "Easy drill down capabilities for variance investigation."
##
## [[102]]
## [1] "Modeling capability - It has enough control to be a rigid system. Yet, it has enough flexibility to change with the needs of the business."
##
## [[103]]
## [1] "One version of truth - Same data source is being shared by many groups via dashboard, so there is no confusion on which version is the most recent."
##
## [[104]]
## [1] "Be able to create reports on the fly and provide access to the data set for those who need them."
##
## [[105]]
## [1] "The amount of users that can be in Anaplan and making changes is HUGE. It's great being able to walk end users through the process and then immediately let them explore and check their understanding."
##
## [[106]]
## [1] "Real time changes. Being able to make a change and instantly see the impact, even across several complex modules, helped immensely during the budget build. Making changes and being able to immediately tweak them, cut our build time and made the budget more accurate."
##
## [[107]]
## [1] "Reduced blackbox budget calculations. This goes hand in hand with real time changes. We were able to walk our end users from start to finish through the process and show how changes in one section impact the final product. Even if the users didn't know the exact process they could see the impact from one input box to the next."
##
## [[108]]
## [1] "Anaplan is really quick to aggregate and pivot data. An example was the ability to load a bunch of production ledger data into the model then use a module plus a pretty slick formula to line them directly up with our consolidated budget information. Another was a couple of the dashboards that were very easy to modify to suit the needs of the end users by grouping hierarchy elements without additional SQL joins or programming. Treat it somewhat like a pivot table on steroids."
##
## [[109]]
## [1] "I really liked the ability to bring in just about any format of data...granted there were some pretty specific things you have to do to get it there. This allowed us to use inputs coming from several legacy systems that weren't wrestling with IT to modify."
##
## [[110]]
## [1] "The learning curve as a builder was pretty steep, but just like Excel, there are maybe 20 or 30 functions that, once you learn, you can start doing some pretty powerful data transformations that simply weren't possible without previously bouncing between two or three other tools."
##
## [[111]]
## [1] "As a user, I can really trust the calculations in Anaplan. Unlike Excel, there is not incorrect cell somewhere in a cell in the report or an equation that worked one month and not another."
##
## [[112]]
## [1] "Anaplan can be completely customized and is very flexible. There are many ways to achieve one calculation and the flexibility allows the user to choose the method that best fits into their business needs."
##
## [[113]]
## [1] "Reporting and Dashboarding is really a great tool in Anaplan. We can customize each users views to show them exactly what they need to see and we can pick and choose exactly how the information is displayed. On top of that, these dashboards are interactive, and allow users to jump into any other destination in Anaplan if needed."
##
## [[114]]
## [1] "The multi-dimensional features of the tool is the most powerful component, with specific views being able to be pivoted by a simple drag and drop."
##
## [[115]]
## [1] "Again, consistency and the ability to modify a calculation widely within a model is very helpful."
##
## [[116]]
## [1] "The likelihood of mistakes are lessened with the tool, both due to Anaplan's ability to prohibit formulas that aren't exactly correct and the fact that formulas are applied widely so ad hoc bandaids cannot be used to hide an issue."
##
## [[117]]
## [1] "Its flexibility is key in building out our expense management model as well as planning ahead for housing our complicated billings/sales comp models."
##
## [[118]]
## [1] "The freedom it gives us in creating various dashboards is very helpful - makes it visually appealing to our users."
##
## [[119]]
## [1] "The lists/modules/dashboard setup is easier to use than other cloud based financial planning systems."
##
## [[120]]
## [1] "Sorting historical expenses at the department level into the customized reports and dashboards that our CFO likes."
##
## [[121]]
## [1] "Rolling up expenses at every level (department, cost center, FSLI, by our customized cost categories)."
##
## [[122]]
## [1] "Updates data across various modules and reports"
##
## [[123]]
## [1] "Multi dimensional"
##
## [[124]]
## [1] "Connected planning"
##
## [[125]]
## [1] "Automated forecasting."
##
## [[126]]
## [1] "Flexibility of the application to add or move components."
##
## [[127]]
## [1] "Ease of access to the cloud-based solution."
##
## [[128]]
## [1] "Very easy to customize access views and add additional users"
##
## [[129]]
## [1] "Creating and publishing and creating new customized dashboards"
##
## [[130]]
## [1] "Efficiency and calculation accuracy. Love the drill down feature."
##
## [[131]]
## [1] "Single consistent view of data"
##
## [[132]]
## [1] "Powerful calculation engine"
##
## [[133]]
## [1] "Extended modeling capabilities"
##
## [[134]]
## [1] "Less dependency on IT"
##
## [[135]]
## [1] "Easy to maintain hierarchies"
##
## [[136]]
## [1] "Multi-dimensional Analysis"
##
## [[137]]
## [1] "Data Visualization"
##
## [[138]]
## [1] "Data Calculations"
##
## [[139]]
## [1] "Budgeting - Anaplan offers a robust budgeting system to allow multiple users to be actively involved in the budget process and mainstreams the use of one workbook, opening it to various users"
##
## [[140]]
## [1] "Planning - Anaplan's forecasting ability is dynamic and allows the users to create multiple scenarios to see impact, as long as the product is set-up correctly"
##
## [[141]]
## [1] "One of Anaplan's great advantages is that it enables users to create a custom solution and build out their model to meet their needs. If you have the right personnel in house there is almost no limit to what you can build."
##
## [[142]]
## [1] "Anaplan's structure of lists and modules allows users to quickly and easily build out their model for multiple products and accounts with significantly less effort than using spreadsheets. Formulas are preserved for all elements of a list so there is no risk of 'fat fingering' your formula in an individual cell."
##
## [[143]]
## [1] "Users can easily consolidate disparate reports making Anaplan a one-stop-shop for viewing reports and analysis all in one place."
##
## [[144]]
## [1] "Real time updates"
##
## [[145]]
## [1] "Easy access from anywhere"
##
## [[146]]
## [1] "Good customer support. Anaplan contacts always do their best to be helpful when issues arise."
##
## [[147]]
## [1] "Good value for money, particularly compared with systems like Hyperion."
##
## [[148]]
## [1] "Easy implementation, again particularly compared with systems like Hyperion."
##
## [[149]]
## [1] "It organized everything into one structured place where it is very user friendly for someone who doesnt have a finance background."
##
## [[150]]
## [1] "It gives budget managers access to their budget (self service model)."
##
## [[151]]
## [1] "Very reliable and fast - our Excel model consistently crashed when we had to update each month of actuals."
##
## [[152]]
## [1] "Anaplan can complete complex calculations on large volumes of data in real-time. For anyone who's ever stared hopelessly at the status bar in Excel while it's \"calculating\" Anaplan is an absolute life saver."
##
## [[153]]
## [1] "Anaplan's activity tracking is amazing. It keeps a detailed log of everything, everyone has done, and allows you to simply and easily revert to any prior time."
##
## [[154]]
## [1] "Anaplan is easy to deploy without lots of IT red-tape. If you can write formulas in excel, you can quickly learn to write formulas in Anaplan."
##
## [[155]]
## [1] "Amount of formulas to help analyze data"
##
## [[156]]
## [1] "Organizational aspect of all different modules"
##
## [[157]]
## [1] "Ability to change quickly one input in the module with all changes automatically flowing through"
##
## [[158]]
## [1] "Headcount planning. Easy to get the headcount related information when pulling in the data, like average salary, average new hire salary."
##
## [[159]]
## [1] "Break back function and overwrite function."
##
## [[160]]
## [1] "Drill in to the details."
##
## [[161]]
## [1] "Processes data very well. We have millions of transactions that Anaplan can provide analysis for extremely quickly. Excel could not manage the process."
##
## [[162]]
## [1] "Easy to set security permissions based on role. This allows us to create one template and send to 50 business leaders who all manage different aspects of the business."
##
## [[163]]
## [1] "Dynamic dashboards so individuals can pivot and look at data they want to see."
##
## [[164]]
## [1] "Opex Modeling"
##
## [[165]]
## [1] "User interface"
##
## [[166]]
## [1] "Self-served dashboard"
##
## [[167]]
## [1] "Robust tool that allows for many different types of analysis"
##
## [[168]]
## [1] "Cross-departmental/functional visibility"
##
## [[169]]
## [1] "Easy to use"
##
## [[170]]
## [1] "Pivot table to get different views on the fly."
##
## [[171]]
## [1] "Quick changes in the system allow our fast pace world to exist in systems."
##
## [[172]]
## [1] "Calculations are very fast and much better than Excel in terms of complexity."
##
## [[173]]
## [1] "Anaplan is incredibly flexible"
##
## [[174]]
## [1] "Anaplan is really easy to use even for an untrained outsider"
##
## [[175]]
## [1] "Anaplan is easy to integrate with other systems like Salesforce"
##
## [[176]]
## [1] "It's fast"
##
## [[177]]
## [1] "What-if scenarios"
##
## [[178]]
## [1] "It's a very powerful tool when it comes to budgeting."
##
## [[179]]
## [1] "It serves us well in some analysis work but we are not yet using it to its full capabilities."
##
## [[180]]
## [1] "Driver-Based Forecasting; allows users to easily input drivers to build up a financial forecast."
##
## [[181]]
## [1] "Version control; easy to see how your current forecast compares to prior versions."
##
## [[182]]
## [1] "Anaplan's flexibility as a free form model allows us to model as complex as we want."
##
## [[183]]
## [1] "The import/export, mappings, and API features make this closer to an enterprise tool."
##
## [[184]]
## [1] "Consolidation - instant and updated hierarchy views."
##
## [[185]]
## [1] "Logic - easy to change logic and add in future forecasting capabilities."
##
## [[186]]
## [1] "Link check - doesn't delete modules that are connected to other line items (MS Access will delete queries)."
##
## [[187]]
## [1] "Easy to use interface that is similar to the functionality of Excel."
##
## [[188]]
## [1] "Full customization of the platform to provide the functionality that your business requires."
##
## [[189]]
## [1] "Easy collaboration on building models at the same time"
##
## [[190]]
## [1] "One place to go for reporting of actuals"
##
## [[191]]
## [1] "Easy to change the names across all the models"
##
## [[192]]
## [1] "Real-time data"
##
## [[193]]
## [1] "Easy to implement additional data from our ERP system"
##
## [[194]]
## [1] "Allows multi-hierarchies"
##
## [[195]]
## [1] "It is extremely customizable, you can build your platform to meet your specific needs. For example we biult a module to project T&E expenses for both domestic and international trips."
##
## [[196]]
## [1] "You are able to make the models as complex and detailed as you want or as high level based on requirements."
##
## [[197]]
## [1] "Complex formulas that interconnect seamlessly through entire model"
##
## [[198]]
## [1] "Secure source of truth for forecast data"
##
## [[199]]
## [1] "Handles Large Data"
##
## [[200]]
## [1] "Streamlined Model"
##
## [[201]]
## [1] "Provides Ability for Quality Reporting"
##
## [[202]]
## [1] "Simultaneous data editing by several departments."
##
## [[203]]
## [1] "Large data calculation."
##
## [[204]]
## [1] "Agile access anywhere if you have Internet access."
##
## [[205]]
## [1] "Anaplan is great at organizing data. You can have one module for importing and then other modules that feed from there. It acts as a one stop shop for data that comes from several different SQL tables. Plus the pivot function is so easy to use."
##
## [[206]]
## [1] "Anaplan is money when it comes to modeling. You can test scenarios with different subsets changing one data point which will flow through all modules and particular versions that you need it to."
##
## [[207]]
## [1] "I am able to keep a very detailed and constantly updated hierarchy in Anaplan. From there I can branch off subsets that I need to test, such as bottom stores, merged stores, closing stores....thus I can extrapolate or dismiss certain groups. I also love Selective Access. Operators can see their group only and efficiently make changes to the forecast where they see fit."
##
## [[208]]
## [1] "Anaplan has incredible flexibility. It is very much like Excel because you can use it for virtually anything you need."
##
## [[209]]
## [1] "It simplifies large data sets and automates many processes like no other tool I've used in the past."
##
## [[210]]
## [1] "It is constantly gaining new capabilities (new charts/graphs, new formulas/functions, etc.) unlike other legacy products which don't really improve much."
##
## [[211]]
## [1] "Anaplan provides a lot of flexibility in how to build your model. It has all of the calculation abilities that Excel has but can handle much more data."
##
## [[212]]
## [1] "Anaplan's use of lists and dimensions makes it easier to update a rolling financial plan using external data sources like our ERP, HRIS, and CRM."
##
## [[213]]
## [1] "Being cloud based, Anaplan allows all users to see changes implemented immediately without having to wait for a refresh process to occur and be updated in an external reporting source. That being said, Anaplan is capable of publishing data to external data warehouses for reporting purposes which we utilize as well."
##
## [[214]]
## [1] "Anaplan's lists allow for changes to hierarchies (e.g. products, cost centers, accounts) instantaneously and is as easy as drag and drop. Current and historical data is updated simultaneously."
##
## [[215]]
## [1] "Anaplan's modules allow for complex formulas and modeling. In particular for us, with employees worldwide, salary, commission, lunar bonus, tax and benefit calculations at the country level are very beneficial."
##
## [[216]]
## [1] "Anaplan allows data to be viewed and manipulated across multiple dimensions. Once you have the data in the system users can build virtually any model they want to evaluate and analyze."
##
## [[217]]
## [1] "With Anaplan our data is centralized and stable. We replaced a number of spreadsheets which resided on individual's laptops and were constantly emailed back and forth. Time spent validating and manipulating data has been drastically reduced - not to mention the errors that always exist in a spreadsheet."
##
## [[218]]
## [1] "Anaplan has allowed us to simplify our use of multiple hierarchies. Primary issues before Anaplan involved reconciling inputs and outputs that existed at different levels of a hierarchy and sometimes across different dimensions. In Anaplan once the relationship is mapped everything happens seamlessly."
##
## [[219]]
## [1] "In our case Anaplan and our use does not rely on our IT organization. Superusers build the models and dashboards for regular users and all of the tool and the data reside in the cloud. Data is always accessible and as real time as you can feed to the system. Changes are instantaneous."
##
## [[220]]
## [1] "One data source that is live. No more discussions of when you ran your report, why is your number different from my number, etc."
##
## [[221]]
## [1] "Time saver! I used to spend three hours one Sunday every month to put our forecast data together for review. Now it's live and visible at any time. In addition, our annual planning took much less time for everyone involved!"
##
## [[222]]
## [1] "Spreadsheets could not handle the statistical analysis we wanted to include in our forecast. Now we have years of data to draw on!"
##
## [[223]]
## [1] "Ability to model change"
##
## [[224]]
## [1] "Handle complex data sets"
##
## [[225]]
## [1] "Manage multiple calculation types and scenarios"
##
## [[226]]
## [1] "Collect data and contribution."
##
## [[227]]
## [1] "Immediate and accessible data."
##
## [[228]]
## [1] "Change management culture creation."
##
## [[229]]
## [1] "Simultaneous Access"
##
## [[230]]
## [1] "Ease of Use"
##
## [[231]]
## [1] "Calculation Speed"
##
## [[232]]
## [1] "Aggregating significant amount of complex and disparate data."
##
## [[233]]
## [1] "Almost as flexible as an Excel spreadsheet... almost."
##
## [[234]]
## [1] "Availability - rarely down."
##
## [[235]]
## [1] "An extremely flexible tool that allows pivot-able and drill down analysis in seconds."
##
## [[236]]
## [1] "Collaborative - all users see changes in real time. Multiple users can work on the same model at the same time."
##
## [[237]]
## [1] "Reporting. Eliminates Excel spreadsheets, can also feed right from financial system into Anaplan."
##
## [[238]]
## [1] "Stores a massive amount of data and can compress it in a report. You can create various reports while still exporting to validate a few things and import as well."
##
## [[239]]
## [1] "Anaplan can be used as a forecasting tool, it can store actuals, prior year(s) actuals, it holds history and store information that many other financial systems can do - but the advantage is it has reports and can be the future tool that just doesn't house information but also allows you to utilize it to be proactive."
##
## [[240]]
## [1] "Allowing many users the ability to be in the system working at the same time and aggregating the results."
##
## [[241]]
## [1] "The flexibility to change the models as your business changes."
##
## [[242]]
## [1] "Creating reports that are deliverable ready directly out of the system."
##
## [[243]]
## [1] "Anaplan is a very flexible modeling tool that can be used in almost any business situation. It is truly a platform for modeling and analysis within an organization."
##
## [[244]]
## [1] "Anaplan can easily be managed and evolved by the business user."
##
## [[245]]
## [1] "Anaplan has good visualization of data and information and processes calculations and updates in real time."
##
## [[246]]
## [1] "Anaplan allows you to build out your model easily by applying a dimension. If you would like to view your model with more regions or cost centers, the software allows you to quickly do so."
##
## [[247]]
## [1] "Uploading data into Anaplan is quick and effective using the Import feature. Similarly, it is just as easy to pull data out of the system using Export to conduct further analysis."
##
## [[248]]
## [1] "Dashboards allow you to review multiply inputs and outputs in the model all at once to simplify ease of updating key inputs and reviewing the corresponding outputs."
##
## [[249]]
## [1] "Customization - you can make Anaplan do whatever it is you need; highly flexible"
##
## [[250]]
## [1] "Easy to adopt and learn. You do not need to be a computer engineer in order to use Anaplan"
##
## [[251]]
## [1] "Instant Gratification - As soon as you make a change, that change is reflected everywhere in the entire model"
##
## [[252]]
## [1] "Reporting in real time - makes it easy for our users to view reports without having to refresh."
##
## [[253]]
## [1] "Can view reports in multiple currencies - users can view in local currency or reporting currency and compare."
##
## [[254]]
## [1] "Import processes are relatively quick and do not hold up other users."
##
## [[255]]
## [1] "Adaptation - It is pretty easy to make minor changes to the hierarchies and calculations within the system. Be aware that major changes could be quite difficult, but the minor changes are so much easier in this system and that of Hyperion or like systems"
##
## [[256]]
## [1] "Formula modeling - Anaplan thrives on automating a lot of calculations that would normally be done in excel."
##
## [[257]]
## [1] "Consistency - The beauty of Anaplan compared to modeling in Excel is that you are guaranteed that everyone is using the same basis for calculations. You can create a corporate standard for modelling that is used throughout the company instead of having each region doing their own thing. This forces you to learn more about the other regions, and allows you to be much more consistent."
##
## [[258]]
## [1] "Cloud - having the platform accessible nearly anywhere is a huge benefit for employees that are on the go."
##
## [[259]]
## [1] "Budgeting: we previously used Excel spreadsheets for Anaplan that were uploaded into a planning tool. If we had errors in our underlying tool, we'd have to write fix macros and update 2000+ spreadsheets. With Anaplan, fixes are invisible and there's no more emailing or uploading. It's all real time."
##
## [[260]]
## [1] "Dashboards: we have our dashboards built in Anaplan and have quick drill down capability. We also have security, so it's very easy to secure information."
##
## [[261]]
## [1] "Real time updates in the system."
##
## [[262]]
## [1] "Ease of use for Excel users."
##
## [[263]]
## [1] "Ability to do what if analysis."
##
## [[264]]
## [1] "Flexibility to move between different time periods with the field selectors"
##
## [[265]]
## [1] "Flexibility to see different pivots/views of the data instantly"
##
## [[266]]
## [1] "Different levels of access to different data"
##
## [[267]]
## [1] "Quickly Configurable"
##
## [[268]]
## [1] "Fast Delivery of Data"
##
## [[269]]
## [1] "Financial Planning"
##
## [[270]]
## [1] "Distributor Sales Collaboration"
##
## [[271]]
## [1] "Real-time analysis"
##
## [[272]]
## [1] "Plan Financial Forecasting, you can set specific financial goals and use Anaplan to show you how variables need to be set, like how many more resources, employees you would need to achieve that goal, or what volume of sales would be required in order to achieve those results, based on current or actual data/results."
##
## [[273]]
## [1] "Presenting Financial Results, historical data for incomes and expenses can be imported into Anaplan, then all this data can be massaged and you can apply formulas in order to present specific financial results for any specific period of time or fiscal year, quarter results in dashboards."
##
## [[274]]
## [1] "Play with \"What If\" scenarios, Anaplan allows the user to \"play\" with the data in order to foresee what would happen if certain data variables are modified, like for example it can be set to show what the overall revenue would be under circumstances like having 'X' number resources in the sales team, making average sales of 'Y' amounts over 'Z' periods of time, and then these variables can be manipulated and see how the rest are affected in order to achieve a specific revenue goal."
##
## [[275]]
## [1] "Easy to learn...good self service training"
##
## [[276]]
## [1] "Fast to implement"
##
## [[277]]
## [1] "Simple user interface"
## [[1]]
## [1] "Performance - in the case of complex business cases, the size of Anaplan is increasing drastically, and even a simple click would take more than it should."
##
## [[2]]
## [1] "UI - The User interface needs to be improved: group/expand hierarchy, \"Ctrl \" + select option to allow multi selection, Content page clean up, easier \"Drag & drop\" when customizing or building exports."
##
## [[3]]
## [1] "Review & enhance the type of security user roles."
##
## [[4]]
## [1] "It is at times difficult to trouble shoot. It would be nice to have better references to the source cells."
##
## [[5]]
## [1] "Getting a blue-box error is the worst. If formula errors could not result in blocking other users out that would be an awesome improvement."
##
## [[6]]
## [1] "Standardized training offering"
##
## [[7]]
## [1] "Lag times with large models"
##
## [[8]]
## [1] "Product adoption, there needs to be more of a push because it is fairly specialized so finding talent that has used it is tough"
##
## [[9]]
## [1] "The reporting/dashboarding capability is adequate but could be enhanced."
##
## [[10]]
## [1] "Anaplan is somewhat intuitive ... but it DOES require an investment of time and energy to become proficient in it. The ability to use it for more and more use cases is limited by the number of personnel who truly understand the tool. The corollary is that unless that knowledge is spread to multiple people on the team, there can be substantial risk were a key resource to leave the group."
##
## [[11]]
## [1] "Building a new model does require a fair amount of up-front planning and construction. So there are some things we would rather do in Anaplan than Excel ... but unless they have continuing utility, we find ourselves unlikely to perform quick analyses in Anaplan."
##
## [[12]]
## [1] "The actions could be improved - make it obvious what the sources and targets of the are so we don't have to guess or put them in the action names. Also get a native scheduler! That's so simple and it's very frustrating and expensive to have to build/buy our own."
##
## [[13]]
## [1] "Reporting and UI still have a long way to go. Simple things like being able to alphabetize/order what you see on the screen, or add a rich color pallet to choose from."
##
## [[14]]
## [1] "User access management could improve. We need to have model level admins that don't have access to everything in the workspace. Also the tenant admin space doesn't work effectively. I can't remove a user from all models simultaneously. I also can't see all models a user has access to from the tenant admin space."
##
## [[15]]
## [1] "I'd like to see a back button. While there is restore from backup, it is a long process that only Admins can perform. And all users lose changes of course."
##
## [[16]]
## [1] "As an Admin, my #1 request is: why can't we select multiple list members with check boxes? For example, if I have a list of depts., and want to see HR + Recruiting (two list members). Yes, I can build a line item that does that. But every combination of list members must be custom built."
##
## [[17]]
## [1] "Another one that I get asked for are hierarchies for line items. For example, if I have a List on pages, there will be \"+\" to group items. For example, I might have Finance, HR, and Recruiting, all in \"G&A\" which I could then open the \"+\" to expand and collapse (G&A) to show the detail. If I am pivoted on a Line Item on pages, this isn't possible."
##
## [[18]]
## [1] "Another big one I get asked for, is \"why can't I save views?!\" Of course Admins can, but I think users would really appreciate it this one. Please consider it!"
##
## [[19]]
## [1] "I believe user set up within Anaplan is one of the areas that could be improved greatly."
##
## [[20]]
## [1] "Workflow is another area that I believe could be improved. Currently, I do not believe, there is a way to create an action against workflow. This would be a great benefit rather than moving the item to complete or in progress if you could write an action for it."
##
## [[21]]
## [1] "Error handling can be annoying. A single formula error can lock up your model for 2-5 minutes while it reverts back to before you pressed enter, and while its improved a little in the year I've been using Anaplan, there are certain situations where I feel like it could be eliminated or made more efficient."
##
## [[22]]
## [1] "Time subsets would be really nice."
##
## [[23]]
## [1] "The dashboard functionality is basic therefore, we have to bring in Tableau to provide a more professional view of the outputs as well as to allow management to more easily slice and dice data."
##
## [[24]]
## [1] "There is an Anaplan learning center however, I have not found it useful when I have questions. We are fortunate to have Aviana Global guiding us through the initial phases of our process. Without our consultants, learning Anaplan would be overwhelming."
##
## [[25]]
## [1] "The Anaplan Connect needs to be improved. We are considering a third party ETL, but we prefer that Anaplan have this capability built into its platform."
##
## [[26]]
## [1] "Larger workspaces."
##
## [[27]]
## [1] "Ongoing support contracts based on LOE."
##
## [[28]]
## [1] "Better formula support and explanation within the model."
##
## [[29]]
## [1] "Graphical feature: Anaplan should explore more graphical features. In my case, I have to export my data to MS Visio to get an org chart. The conditional formatting options are still very limited right now."
##
## [[30]]
## [1] "Formula for List Properties: It's only allowed to key in the formulas for these list properties. I'm not sure about the design philosophy. But I wish it could be similar to the formulas in modules to avoid mistakes."
##
## [[31]]
## [1] "Training Documentation Version Control: Training documentations have some many mistakes. It seems no version control at all. Since using Anaplan requires to set up time properly, the training documentations need to be updated. Before you publish any document, can you let one of your employees (who are not authors of the documentation) to follow the documentation to see if he can complete tasks based on the directions on the documentation? All the modeler in my company had hard time to teach ourselves by using the documentation so none of us was able to complete the intermediate training."
##
## [[32]]
## [1] "Logistics and relationships of data are complicated if you do not have a data background"
##
## [[33]]
## [1] "Formulas are difficult without a data background"
##
## [[34]]
## [1] "We need more storage, we have large data sets"
##
## [[35]]
## [1] "Difficulty training up users"
##
## [[36]]
## [1] "Hierarchy of units that are used cross functionally that aren't easily translated between orgs"
##
## [[37]]
## [1] "Ability to call back parts of models previously built up"
##
## [[38]]
## [1] "Elegance in design can be make or break between cost accretion and dilution"
##
## [[39]]
## [1] "Inconsistency of quality of consultants"
##
## [[40]]
## [1] "Partnership with data visualization software such as Tableau is needed."
##
## [[41]]
## [1] "More supply chain apps to allow users to see the different applications within supply chain."
##
## [[42]]
## [1] "Error Messages. When updating a formula, you may have missed a bracket. Doing something like this can lock up the system for an extensive amount of time, also locking out your peers."
##
## [[43]]
## [1] "Suppressing Zero. Space becomes a real issue as you get more involved in the tool. A lot of times you want to use the system to its full capability, however, run into problems, because of space. It would be great if zero balances did not count against your space."
##
## [[44]]
## [1] "Open source: Because the tool is so open, you can change something in on module, however effect many other things that you never intended too. I would love to see a feature that shows me by changing something a clear picture of all thing i am updating."
##
## [[45]]
## [1] "Size and pricing limitations inhibit full potential of the tool."
##
## [[46]]
## [1] "Empty cells/cells with 0 value are counted and take up space in models."
##
## [[47]]
## [1] "Models often require sophistication that can be a challenge to implement."
##
## [[48]]
## [1] "So far, I've been pleased with Anaplan. Where Anaplan, as a company can improve, is the consultants. Different consultants have different styles and Anaplan Consultants should be teaching their customers how to use the tool rather than doing the work on their behalf."
##
## [[49]]
## [1] "Also, most of the consultants I interacted with were from LA so it would be nice to have some local consultants (Bay Area) or at least have some face to face time with our consultants."
##
## [[50]]
## [1] "Saving of different user views of dashboards."
##
## [[51]]
## [1] "I wish it would handle custom time frames better."
##
## [[52]]
## [1] "Excel Add Ins ... it needs to be further developed to increase efficiency"
##
## [[53]]
## [1] "Large up front cost compared to using an existing platform like Excel"
##
## [[54]]
## [1] "Learning curve for model builders"
##
## [[55]]
## [1] "The UI (User Interface) is Ugly"
##
## [[56]]
## [1] "Cumbersome to Use / Model"
##
## [[57]]
## [1] "Lacks basic functionality of Excel"
##
## [[58]]
## [1] "Clunky"
##
## [[59]]
## [1] "Pricing model is confusing"
##
## [[60]]
## [1] "Best practices and use of Anaplan in FP&A"
##
## [[61]]
## [1] "Best practices and uses of Anaplan across the organization"
##
## [[62]]
## [1] "Graphical user interface - the graph settings do not have as many settings as others"
##
## [[63]]
## [1] "Formulas - the formulas can have an intelligence to catch any human errors and I wish the formulas were more closely related to Excel, since that's what we know"
##
## [[64]]
## [1] "Data integration - our models require all data to be input into the model. For some things, we would like to see Anaplan have the ability to query data, so as not to bring in the data if not needed"
##
## [[65]]
## [1] "User interface could use some improvement, particularly navigation that sometimes requires both the mouse and the keyboard to get to the place you need to be."
##
## [[66]]
## [1] "Undo button. the current process can restate a model back to any (and I mean any) point in time. this is great except when you just want to go back one or two changes. then it is kind of cumbersome."
##
## [[67]]
## [1] "configurable data defaults. when I add an employee to my compensation module, there are 2 or 3 defaults I would like to have set so that I only have to pay attention to the exceptions."
##
## [[68]]
## [1] "Integration - Anaplan is working on their integration landscape, we currently use the SFDC connectors, but need a more robust integration framework"
##
## [[69]]
## [1] "The text editor for writing formulas is terrible. I write all of my formulas in notepad ++. I shouldn't have to work outside the system to engineering the system. Please allow me to indent if statements, and provide more context into formulas. This needs massive improvement and makes working in the system incredibly clumsy."
##
## [[70]]
## [1] "The documentation on formulas isn't great."
##
## [[71]]
## [1] "Formatting is very limited in the system."
##
## [[72]]
## [1] "Dashboard text boxes need more options. Being able to input width and height numbers to control the size would be very helpful."
##
## [[73]]
## [1] "Creating a better way to organize your lists and modules would be incredibly helpful."
##
## [[74]]
## [1] "Creating revenue waterfalls and billing cycles in the system is very difficult."
##
## [[75]]
## [1] "Reporting, Reporting, Reporting!! I feel like this is a very big weakness in Anaplan."
##
## [[76]]
## [1] "Being able to highlight several cells and then being able to see the sum or average etc."
##
## [[77]]
## [1] "Being able to group rows or columns so that you can expand or not instead of just hiding rows or columns."
##
## [[78]]
## [1] "Formatting isn't great within Anaplan so adding more of those options/capabilities [would be good]."
##
## [[79]]
## [1] "Creating a native ETL tool."
##
## [[80]]
## [1] "Improvements on error message when formulas aren't correct. More flexibility in formula text editor."
##
## [[81]]
## [1] "Steep learning curve"
##
## [[82]]
## [1] "Limited data integration technology - getting data in and out is not easy"
##
## [[83]]
## [1] "The GUI has slowly improved, but still leaves room for improvement."
##
## [[84]]
## [1] "Formula error checking can be slow in a complex model."
##
## [[85]]
## [1] "Dashboards, charting, and conditional formatting should be improved to the level of Excel."
##
## [[86]]
## [1] "Pricing model should be streamlined, they seem to change it significantly every year."
##
## [[87]]
## [1] "Training materials can be improved. Also, it's very difficult to understand the formula syntax mentioned in Anapedia."
##
## [[88]]
## [1] "Dashboards."
##
## [[89]]
## [1] "The only thing I'm annoyed with is creating a different view within dashboards and modules. This is mainly in regard to selecting columns and having to scroll through to select them one by one. I believe they are rolling out a fix for this sometime this year if I remember what was said at Hub 17."
##
## [[90]]
## [1] "Size constraints (130 gigs per workspace is terrible)."
##
## [[91]]
## [1] "The blue Toast note that stops model building progress is an absolute time killer during development."
##
## [[92]]
## [1] "More user-friendly"
##
## [[93]]
## [1] "More help tools"
##
## [[94]]
## [1] "Better support"
##
## [[95]]
## [1] "Learning curve - requires understanding of Anaplan's syntax."
##
## [[96]]
## [1] "Formatting of output and linking to Excel could be stronger. We need to do a lot of reformatting after we export to Excel."
##
## [[97]]
## [1] "Additional reporting capability, especially with formatting of the tables, charts, and graphs. I wish to be able to label axis, change colors of the graphs, define axis."
##
## [[98]]
## [1] "Dashboard - unable to place a \"picture/logo\" on a dashboard."
##
## [[99]]
## [1] "No auto e-mail capabilities. Once data is loaded into Anaplan, I would like to send an automatic e-mail that the load has been completed."
##
## [[100]]
## [1] "No mobile app is available. I wish there is a version (for dashboard) to see it on mobile device."
##
## [[101]]
## [1] "The most challenging part of Anaplan was getting over its steep learning curve. It was very challenging to adjust logic from the excel language to Anaplan's language. Unfortunately it seems to be a necessary evil to really understand and use the tool."
##
## [[102]]
## [1] "Unhelpful error messages. The error messages rarely help diagnosing the problem at hand. Better explanation on error messages could help significantly."
##
## [[103]]
## [1] "Lack of formula formatting. This is not a con by itself but a huge opportunity going forward. Being able to add additional, even redundant, brackets would help itemizing formula logic."
##
## [[104]]
## [1] "As mentioned previously...the learning curve was pretty steep. The Anapedia and Forums were ok with respect to helping me refresh my memory, but there was absolutely no way I would have been able to build my tools without a consultant. I even observed that different consultants had unique dialects (for lack of a better word) with respect how they used functions to accomplish the same tasks. What I am trying to say is that this is a very powerful, but complicated tool. You need several technically strong people on your team for success."
##
## [[105]]
## [1] "The dashboards are very flexible and nice for delivering the analysis results to the end user, but is is very limited on the ability to provide the polish and formatting to satisfy senior management...or more importantly the people bringing the information to senior management. I understand that there is a tool called Tableau that can apply the lipstick reports, but i do wish there were a couple of additional formatting options for the dashboards."
##
## [[106]]
## [1] "The \"Blue Toaster\" is a lovely problem that you will face during your builds. It seems like when you modify a script or formula there is a background validation process that produces a \"wait\" pop up that is affectionately known in our group as the blue toaster. it seems like the app does not stop once it finds a validation error, but instead runs though the entire model to collect/validate any possible problems. It eats up a lot of time and a single modification error can put a team of builders on the waiting block for 5-10 minute stretches. This may not apply to everyone as we were making a very, very large model."
##
## [[107]]
## [1] "Please note that at the time of writing this 05/2017 this was a minor problem. I can certainly see where this will be a somewhat easy fix and might not apply if being read in the future. I am sure that a patch will eventually fix."
##
## [[108]]
## [1] "Anaplan could benefit from implementing keyboard shortcuts. Many users of Anaplan come from the Excel world and that is one of my favorite functionalities in Excel."
##
## [[109]]
## [1] "Formatting would be an additional perk for our team. We consolidate and calculate all our financial data, but we also do a good deal of reporting that data to the business. Currently we need to extract and format in Excel before publishing."
##
## [[110]]
## [1] "Another great function would be a column filter, the current filter is a bit cumbersome to use."
##
## [[111]]
## [1] "I believe that the dashboard visuals have room for improvement where many chart component options are very basic and have little customization options."
##
## [[112]]
## [1] "Placing visuals or tables on a dashboard itself is very cumbersome and time-consuming. One must drag and drop and apply formatting criteria pretty perfectly to deliver a product that is easily consumable and aesthetically pleasing."
##
## [[113]]
## [1] "This is both a pro and a con, but there is no room for error in setting up a formula and no autofill/smart fill capabilities within the model to easily complete a formula within the model, similar to excel, which makes the ramp up period longer."
##
## [[114]]
## [1] "There is no functionality to insert comments into certain data cells like Adaptive does."
##
## [[115]]
## [1] "You can't combine monthly input cells in the same view as fields like \"Business Unit, Vendor, Expense Account\" etc. Monthly input cells need to be in a separate module/view as the module with said various fields."
##
## [[116]]
## [1] "This is more of an enhancement request but it'd be nice to trace precedents easily without drilling down/referencing different source modules."
##
## [[117]]
## [1] "Better UI and dashboards for reporting purposes."
##
## [[118]]
## [1] "Real time integration into Workday for headcount forecasting."
##
## [[119]]
## [1] "We have various issues related to the size of our models, space and memory issues. We have 'too' many companies and cost centers apparently for Anaplan to handle efficiently and have created co and other group lists in order to accommodate this. This makes maintenance cumbersome and time-consuming."
##
## [[120]]
## [1] "Need to be able to see import mappings even if file used to create the mapping is deleted, or don’t allow file delete if mapping is still needed."
##
## [[121]]
## [1] "Log related -"
##
## [[122]]
## [1] "Need a way to purge a log, it must be huge!"
##
## [[123]]
## [1] "Need all tasks to record, e.g., export tasks don't currently record in the log."
##
## [[124]]
## [1] "Need to be able to select current local time vs. UTC for logging, research purposes."
##
## [[125]]
## [1] "Need an easy way to clear/delete all data for a version."
##
## [[126]]
## [1] "Need to know what users are connected at any point in time."
##
## [[127]]
## [1] "Would like Workspace, Model size adn space available information to list on the dashboard when we log in."
##
## [[128]]
## [1] "Would be great if field name sizes could be increased from 60 character maximum so we can match source system fields."
##
## [[129]]
## [1] "Better visualization to understand the data at a glance."
##
## [[130]]
## [1] "Modeler should be able to copy modules from one model to another."
##
## [[131]]
## [1] "Currently we can just import from a model but it would be awesome if we could export too."
##
## [[132]]
## [1] "Dashboard and charting could be a little more polished."
##
## [[133]]
## [1] "Excel addon could be a little more flexible."
##
## [[134]]
## [1] "Anaplan claims that it will totally replace Excel and it is not there yet. But it is an extremely powerful tool."
##
## [[135]]
## [1] "Sorting and alphabetizing reports in Anaplan is not good."
##
## [[136]]
## [1] "Adding simple subtotals to reports should be very easy but not in all scenarios."
##
## [[137]]
## [1] "Time subset is good to have"
##
## [[138]]
## [1] "Multi-column sorting capability"
##
## [[139]]
## [1] "Model to model connection across workspaces"
##
## [[140]]
## [1] "Data Visualization"
##
## [[141]]
## [1] "Licensing agreements"
##
## [[142]]
## [1] "The system is limited and often stalled if someone is building while others are reviewing or importing data. The \"Blue Box\" appears locking all users out for a brief moment due to someone building, which inhibits efficiency of the system."
##
## [[143]]
## [1] "Anaplan's reporting is very informal and does not allow the flexibility of excel, unless exported to excel. Even when exported to excel, the formatting has to be reperformed if changing the hierarchy of the report or adding more data. More often than not, you will find that Anaplan users use other tools to create the report design and use Anaplan more for the middle man."
##
## [[144]]
## [1] "The audit trail and checks to verify all data is being included is limited. During implementation when working with Anaplan, Anaplan did not understand the need for checks and it does not seem to be a common concern among those who work and consult for their platform. Ensuring 100% completeness is absolutely necessary to certify the reports being produced are accurate and correct. In addition, the audit trail feature was not detailed and there is no undo button, which increases the risk of mistakes happening and taking more time to correct."
##
## [[145]]
## [1] "Dashboards and reporting are not advanced enough for executive level consumption and they are not as easy to customize as spreadsheet based solutions. That said, they are sufficient for most end users."
##
## [[146]]
## [1] "The process of setting up and automating data imports is not easy and does require some level of expertise (and patience)."
##
## [[147]]
## [1] "You may encounter resistance and slow adoption from users who prefer the free-form nature of spreadsheets, since Anaplan does not allow them to perform ad-hoc side calculations. Values can be copy and pasted between Anaplan and Excel easily, but this is an added step for people who like to frequently manipulate and analyze data."
##
## [[148]]
## [1] "Glitchy. \"History\" will sometimes disappear, system will unexpectedly slow down."
##
## [[149]]
## [1] "Too much downtime for updates. These should be done in middle of the night, Anaplan is used most by finance people, who often work weekends."
##
## [[150]]
## [1] "Reporting not nice looking, requires additional work outside of the system."
##
## [[151]]
## [1] "The upload time takes a while across pages."
##
## [[152]]
## [1] "Not as flexible as Excel (need more for different versions)."
##
## [[153]]
## [1] "Onboarding could have been better as we were not familiar with the services."
##
## [[154]]
## [1] "I'd like to see a better dashboard design interface. It's functional, and gets the job done, but it doesn't offer much in terms of customizing the look and feel or re-using a standard dashboard template."
##
## [[155]]
## [1] "I'd like to see more workflow integration. We use Anaplan to calculate sales quotas but we still have to export all of our data and use mail merging to communicate quotas to our sales teams. Since Anaplan makes the caluclations so easy, doing the mail merge is now the most time-consuming part our process."
##
## [[156]]
## [1] "The import/export process is a little limited. It can only import CSV files, and it can't export to XLSX yet even though it's been the Microsoft Excel standard file type for 10 years."
##
## [[157]]
## [1] "The formula builder. It would be so much more helpful if Anaplan helped us auto-complete formulas providing guidance on the correct syntax."
##
## [[158]]
## [1] "Formula reminder."
##
## [[159]]
## [1] "Connection with Tableau is not super user-friendly."
##
## [[160]]
## [1] "Formatting. Formatting is awful when compared to Excel and limits wanted reporting."
##
## [[161]]
## [1] "Complex integrations require time. No one seems to truly be an expert at Anaplan. Trial and error is a must to learn the system."
##
## [[162]]
## [1] "Security - for example, you have to be a model admin in order to make changes to the dashboard."
##
## [[163]]
## [1] "Limited reporting capacity and functionality in Anaplan."
##
## [[164]]
## [1] "Anaplan data extract to Excel and Excel add-in has no format control."
##
## [[165]]
## [1] "Lack of format control on the dashboard. For example: favorable/unfavorable cannot be formatted on dashboard."
##
## [[166]]
## [1] "Versions limitation in Anaplan - Adding Version (aka Scenario) to the model will increase the space significantly."
##
## [[167]]
## [1] "Sales process is very involved and has a lot of touch"
##
## [[168]]
## [1] "High price point"
##
## [[169]]
## [1] "Takes a while to fully implement"
##
## [[170]]
## [1] "Definitely, the outages on the weekends sometimes hamper our ability at times to do things in our model."
##
## [[171]]
## [1] "Possibly offer some more space for sandbox ability."
##
## [[172]]
## [1] "Get rid of the Blue Box that says someone is making changes in the system."
##
## [[173]]
## [1] "I would love to have more training on chart and dashboard building in order to look at trending analysis."
##
## [[174]]
## [1] "I don't own my company's Anaplan agreement so I don't have a lot of control over what else I can do."
##
## [[175]]
## [1] "Rigid"
##
## [[176]]
## [1] "Expensive for being Excel in a straight jacket"
##
## [[177]]
## [1] "Formula Syntax is unnecessarily complicated"
##
## [[178]]
## [1] "Limited sorting or filtering capability"
##
## [[179]]
## [1] "You can't change or choose the colors your charts use"
##
## [[180]]
## [1] "Steep learning curve for model builders; it takes a while to get up to speed on how to build out models in Anaplan."
##
## [[181]]
## [1] "The BI and dashboard functionalities need much improvement. While I appreciate that it tries to auto decide how I want to scale and move items around it's not always exactly what is needed for the best end-user experience."
##
## [[182]]
## [1] "The formula box could be improved. Our formulas get rather complex and the box does not allow for new lines or tabbing. It would be phenomenal if we could write formulas similar to programming code to make development and debugging more intuitive."
##
## [[183]]
## [1] "The rollbacks when there's an error still boggles us. A simple error will cause rollbacks up to 18 minutes which locks everyone out of the system."
##
## [[184]]
## [1] "Formula Validation - during implementation errors in formulas cause all users to have downtime, sometimes over 10 minutes."
##
## [[185]]
## [1] "Reporting - No brainer here, the dashboards are not very end user friendly."
##
## [[186]]
## [1] "Ability to change colors/bold for lists&modules to easily see what are key components and what are linked together. Sort of like Excel tab colors."
##
## [[187]]
## [1] "I'd like to see some additional lines of information provided for archived models which will allow more detail and descriptions to be added to models."
##
## [[188]]
## [1] "I think there are a lot of issues regarding work space. I believe that the functionality of Anaplan is amazing and allows you to customize how you see the data in any way that you design, but there are direct implications as to how each additional dimension affects model size. These restrictions, in tandem with a restricted budget, enable a roadblock for the functionality that we desire."
##
## [[189]]
## [1] "Missing Functionality - Multi-select filters. Currently there is only a single selection from a drop down list. Creating multi-select requires over-complication of the logic."
##
## [[190]]
## [1] "Dashboard - color selection, not by default, can customize"
##
## [[191]]
## [1] "Dashboard - printing, can not be fit into one page right now"
##
## [[192]]
## [1] "Functions - more examples in the Anapedia would be better"
##
## [[193]]
## [1] "I think the dashboards could really use some more fonts, colors and different layouts."
##
## [[194]]
## [1] "Reporting - Hyperion Essbase/Smartview is so much easier; Excel add-in for Anaplan is not an option because it can only handle small amounts of data"
##
## [[195]]
## [1] "Year over Year variances are key functionality that are not easy to do"
##
## [[196]]
## [1] "Being able to lock versions ex: setting a plan version and making sure it never changes"
##
## [[197]]
## [1] "Limits of calculation functions"
##
## [[198]]
## [1] "Limited Flexibility"
##
## [[199]]
## [1] "Errors handling. If you make a mistake in formula, the model might freeze for all users for several minutes."
##
## [[200]]
## [1] "Multistage calculations may cause the app to work slowly."
##
## [[201]]
## [1] "Too few functions are yet available. Tons of simple actions are really hard to implement in some cases including PRODUCT, VLOOKUP and CASE SELECT."
##
## [[202]]
## [1] "Bugs that were reported months ago are not fixed."
##
## [[203]]
## [1] "Really poor technical support. There are only 5 or so tech support guys globally and you have to wait for their answer sometimes for too long. Mostly they only give you temporary workarounds because of the bugs that won't be fixed in the nearest future."
##
## [[204]]
## [1] "No Android app."
##
## [[205]]
## [1] "End users have no interface settings at all. Only administrators may save export views and all the useful tune-ups."
##
## [[206]]
## [1] "No friendly interface to edit user rights. When their quantity exceeds 30 or more changing the rights becomes a disaster."
##
## [[207]]
## [1] "The charts. It has been a battle for years to have Anaplan add little nuaces here and there. For example, you can't change the font on tables on a dashboard. The little things do matter. Most of the time I just export my data and create a graph in Excel."
##
## [[208]]
## [1] "If I want to add an available column to my view, I have to show all on everything and then dig through ALL the rows/columns on the screen. It's like having to create the (original carefully constructed) view from scratch."
##
## [[209]]
## [1] "Desktop Support is weak. When we first acquired it was one of the strengths of Anaplan. Gurus were always available and you could solve a problem at first contact via a GoToMeeting. Nowadays guru availability is spotty and it usually takes several conversations where someone has to ask someone else how to solve the issue. By the time I finally get an answer I've already found an alternative and have moved on to something else."
##
## [[210]]
## [1] "As models get larger, there is definitely some lag in the calculation. This can get annoying for end users when they are using dashboards."
##
## [[211]]
## [1] "Sometimes there is too much flexibility -- can lead to wanting to use Anaplan for things that it wasn't explicitly designed for."
##
## [[212]]
## [1] "Reporting is still limited in some ways, more color options for example would be nice."
##
## [[213]]
## [1] "The number of options for charts and graphs is substantially smaller than in Excel."
##
## [[214]]
## [1] "Pricing is space based so adding more to the model can come at a price."
##
## [[215]]
## [1] "Not unique to Anaplan, but being a cloud based application, it is not a data warehouse. Bringing in millions of GL or order management data is not particularly advised."
##
## [[216]]
## [1] "Anaplan could use a little more flexibility in being able to map and push data between modules. In particular for me, being able to map specific periods and ignoring others would be beneficial. As it is now, all periods map one to one by default."
##
## [[217]]
## [1] "Anaplan could also use some more flexibility in utilizing versions within modules. As it is now, it is an all or nothing proposition where no version in a module defaults to the current version. In certain cases, I would prefer to have a couple forecast versions, but exclude a budget version from being in a module."
##
## [[218]]
## [1] "Some functions I occasionally used in Excel are not yet available in Anaplan - SUBTOTAL and CODE primarily. Also the ability to highlight multiple adjacent cells and instantly see a sum, count or average."
##
## [[219]]
## [1] "We are on a prior pricing model with Anaplan and it makes it difficult to expand the use cases. I believe this is resolved in the new pricing model. Also, depending on the pricing, small tasks/projects may not be cost effective to move out of Excel and into Anaplan if the users are numerous and not already in Anaplan."
##
## [[220]]
## [1] "Extracting data out of Anaplan is not always straightforward. It is terrific for a user who has access to Anaplan but if a user wants to pull data out for another purpose or to share with non users it is limited. There are links to XLS and PPT but those only go so far."
##
## [[221]]
## [1] "Anaplan is really meant to have dashboards and as many views as you provide (someone always wants something slightly different). Anaplan is not really a giant pivot table if you are dealing with lots of data. By providing a connection to Tableau, Anaplan has offered a solution, but I would rather see that functionality included."
##
## [[222]]
## [1] "Rather than having to create coded lists in order to avoid sparsity and blowing up your model size I would like to see \"auto sparsity reduction\". For example, if I drag in a customer dimension and part dimension Anaplan should automatically eliminate blank cells where that particular customer doesn't buy that particular part."
##
## [[223]]
## [1] "Blocking. My actions (read mistakes) as an admin should not block other users. I believe this is about to be solved in an upgrade, however."
##
## [[224]]
## [1] "Reporting and user interface"
##
## [[225]]
## [1] "Graphics, Charts or dashboards can be improved."
##
## [[226]]
## [1] "API for Data connections is a little bit primitive, it would be great to have an inside and more friendly application."
##
## [[227]]
## [1] "Although Anaplan has an agreement with Google Docs, Anaplan does not have an inside option to share documents - it is a big con."
##
## [[228]]
## [1] "Visualizations are Basic"
##
## [[229]]
## [1] "Expensive"
##
## [[230]]
## [1] "Need more customization of dashboard options"
##
## [[231]]
## [1] "User management can be painful."
##
## [[232]]
## [1] "User experience has only marginally improved while I think Anaplan has spent a lot of time patting themselves on the back."
##
## [[233]]
## [1] "The rollback situation is a joke. A simple mistake in a formula will result in 5-12 minute lock ups. This is reaching a breaking point for us."
##
## [[234]]
## [1] "Anaplan can store large amounts of data, therefore when building Anaplan it can be cumbersome. The organization will have to manage well the initial build and also modify it as they see fit, as this can only be learned through time and experience."
##
## [[235]]
## [1] "If Anaplan has missing information such as new sku's not being able to easily add, it can make your forecasting by sku not balance. Also if there is no clear adjustment line, for example if it cannot disaggregate to a lower level and you need to allocate it this way you can spend hours trying to do these manually. Or if you want to just modify in one line adjustment and it doesn't exist and have to plug in one customer or brand, this can also be a situation where the number you are viewing is meaningless - it would be great is there was a place to see notes, who made the last change, what changes were done, or someone that locks it."
##
## [[236]]
## [1] "To be able to create content pane views specific to individual users."
##
## [[237]]
## [1] "The summation/average of selected cells for quick calculations."
##
## [[238]]
## [1] "Reporting capabilities need to be enhanced, especially for the FP&A user where structured / formatted reporting is needed."
##
## [[239]]
## [1] "With Anaplan's flexibility comes the potential to lose control of the models and recreate an 'Excel hell' type of situation. I think Anaplan needs to provide more life cycle management tools and capabilities."
##
## [[240]]
## [1] "Because of the reliance on dikensionality, you may be challenged to implement formulas as easily as you do in Excel. You will need to learn and understand these limitations to calculate the results as you expect outside of the system."
##
## [[241]]
## [1] "While dashboards are effective tools to deliver the main point of the model, the aesthetics provided are limited to basic charts relative to advanced aesthetics provided by tools such as Tableau."
##
## [[242]]
## [1] "When you apply or remove dimensions such as cost centers or regions to your model, you may lose the data you originally had because Anaplan is attempting to interpret how the data related to the dimensions."
##
## [[243]]
## [1] "Reporting - Severe lack in reporting capabilities from filtering to formatting."
##
## [[244]]
## [1] "Since we are close to our total model workspace, we have a lot of space constraints. We aren't able to add new reporting features without clogging up the system."
##
## [[245]]
## [1] "The Excel add-in has a lot of room for improvement - adding a Timestamp would be helpful, having the ability to keep all formatting when making changes to lists."
##
## [[246]]
## [1] "Having the ability for users to save views, and the ability to add formulas (ad-hoc)."
##
## [[247]]
## [1] "Model Sizing - Anaplan doesn't make use of sparse data, as it uses the same amount of space for an empty \"cell\" in a cube as it does for a full one. A product like Hyperion can ignore an empty cell and have it not count towards the size. When you are paying by size, this can cause a huge problem"
##
## [[248]]
## [1] "Shared Hierarchies - when you have multiple models sharing the same hierarchy, the process is to change it in one place, then you have to import those changes into other models. This is cumbersome to do, and allows the potential for errors if you do not update all hierarchies. There needs to be a global hierarchy option, along with local hierarchies only used in that model"
##
## [[249]]
## [1] "Ad-Hoc reporting - If it isn't in a dashboard right now, it is difficult to find. This creates problems for ad-hoc reporting, and spotting issues that may not show up on one of your canned dashboards"
##
## [[250]]
## [1] "Dimensionality and relational - in the Anaplan world, an alternate hierarchy of the same dataset uses an extra dimension in the module. This makes the size larger, and the navigation clunky. Properly integrating alternate hierarchies and hierarchy property sorting, summing, and filtering would go a long way"
##
## [[251]]
## [1] "There were issues with Anaplan timing out and forcing us to login again."
##
## [[252]]
## [1] "There's not always the flexibility in reporting -- somethings we dump into Excel and report from Excel."
##
## [[253]]
## [1] "While reporting has been improved via the dashboards, there is some way to go here, graphs etc."
##
## [[254]]
## [1] "Formula fields cannot be easily overwritten"
##
## [[255]]
## [1] "Reports with standard text with field values don't appear professional (same fonts) or seamless"
##
## [[256]]
## [1] "In one dashboard, you con't have flexibility to hide certain lines for some people"
##
## [[257]]
## [1] "Ease of Integration"
##
## [[258]]
## [1] "Process to suggest product enhancements"
##
## [[259]]
## [1] "Delays in module updates"
##
## [[260]]
## [1] "Slow Scrolling"
##
## [[261]]
## [1] "Customization of Module Views is often very manual"
##
## [[262]]
## [1] "Anaplan is not the easiest or most intuitive tool to use, deep understanding on how formulas and relationships between lists and modules need to be set is required in order to get the value that Anaplan can provide."
##
## [[263]]
## [1] "While at a high level it looks like handling of spreadsheets for which most users are familiar working with, simple tasks can be challenging in Anaplan, like a simple addition of a \"column\" or \"row\" would be no problem in a spreadsheet, in Anaplan this gets complicated due to the defined relationships that have been built for the Lists, Modules and their dimensions."
##
## [[264]]
## [1] "The training and certifications provided by Anaplan, while useful to get your feet wet, do not touch the deepest configurations, handling of dimensions and relationships that 'real-life' scenarios demand."
##
## [[265]]
## [1] "Customizability...company logos and images on dashboards"
##
## [[266]]
## [1] "Scalability"
##
## [[267]]
## [1] "Time flexibility - ability to have more than one real timescale"