Anaplan

Have a clear understanding of your requirements and data in advance to ensure a smooth implementation.

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They should start using Anaplan without any doubt, as Anaplan has true capabilities to ease business processes.

Start with a clear MVP use case, lock down governance early, and invest in data integration and testing from day one.

Very carefully choose the version of Anaplan you want and its features, because Anaplan offers a lot of customization.

Use it for multiple use cases to realise its value.

Il est impératif de se former correctement à la solution, de concevoir et d'implémenter la solution en respectant les bonnes pratiques recommandées par la communauté. Idéalement, se faire accompagner par un expert intégrateur est un plus non négligeable.

Align business and operations processes first.

It will more than likely need to be at least one person's full‑time job. Be sure to plan for that, whether it's retaining a consulting resource, training from within, or hiring somebody with experience.

Have a clear idea of your long-term vision of a connected Anaplan environment. Anaplan was a big improvement in our first use, but we've realized much greater value by developing multiple models and uses and connecting them together.

Invest early in data quality, integrations, and model governance. The modeling layer is only as good as the data you feed it, and the biggest challenges downstream are usually not the formulas; they’re account hierarchies, segmentation logic, user access, and data flow reliability.

Have your data prepared, as data is key. Try to simplify your process as part of the implementation, and focus on key drivers instead of ultra‑granular adjustments.

Buy in is crucial from leadership and dedicated resources (in addition to any 3rd party consultants) is extremely important.

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Have a defined end goal in mind, and make sure your data is in good shape.

Invest in a strong Center of Excellence. A well-structured COE is critical for governance, scaling, and ensuring the platform delivers continuous value.

I think it's worth understanding both sides of the flexibilities. It can be really useful to be able to make models at many different granularities, but that can make things difficult to change later without impacting data.

Bien s'entourer et bien choisir l'intégrateur responsable de la mise en place de la solution, et prévoir des équipes dédiées à l'accompagnement pour le déploiement d'Anaplan. Les équipes IT et métier doivent travailler conjointement pour arriver à un succès lors du déploiement.

Plan & align on process before build.

Make sure that you have a good handle on best practices. Don't write them off as optional, and the Anaplan Community has so many resources to help you make the most of building models well.

Re‑design your processes before implementing. Ensure data and master data that enter Anaplan are as clean as possible.

Create an internal COE to manage the system long-term.

Make sure you have an in‑house expert who can properly implement Anaplan. One expert is better than five inexperienced implementers.

Make sure that you have a defined champion/stakeholder with executive commitment. They are powerful in controlling scope and creating a successful project.

Spend time on process alignment, get power users in early to assure easy adoption.

Speak with an implementation provider before signing a contract, so that you fully understand all the implications of using Anaplan.

Really plan things out before starting any implementation with Anaplan.

Fix your business process before undergoing an implementation. Anaplan won't fix a bad process.

Get your data and process organized first with someone who is functionally strong and knows EPM tools.

Make sure you have enough budget. Create an internal CoE (Center of Excellence). Take the time and make an effort to create sustainable models; making changes later can be tedious.

Onboard any consulting team to implement the initial build and have your team learn the tool to form a COE. The COE can take care of further implementations and the support needed in your organization.

Think of model segmentation as part of the design of the whole solution to overcome user concurrency issues.

Define key goals and expectations upfront to avoid project overrun. Start with a small use case/MVP and scale into large, enterprise‑wide models.

Build inhouse talent so you can handle support and updates without resorting to an implementation partner.

Get an experienced Anaplanner; it saves you time and money by avoiding wrong implementation or design.

To plan carefully the timeline of the implementation, ensuring the involvement of end users throughout.

Start small, then plan out your strategy. Get off MS Excel.

Implement with the new Polaris calculation engine.

Build your first use case with vendor support to learn best practices, but plan for a second use case that you build internally as soon as possible. The second model forces you to internalize expertise. More importantly, multiple models create synergies—shared dimensions, common drivers, connected workflows. This improves both planning accuracy and cost‑performance. Each additional model becomes easier and more valuable.

Define Clear Objectives: Identify specific goals and use cases for Anaplan. Determine the problems you aim to solve, such as budgeting, forecasting, or resource allocation. Involve Stakeholders Early: Engage key stakeholders from various departments (finance, sales, operations) early in the process to gather requirements and ensure buy-in. Assess Current Processes: Evaluate your existing planning and forecasting processes to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement that Anaplan can address. Invest in Training: Provide comprehensive training for users at all levels to maximize the platform’s capabilities and ensure smooth adoption. Start Small: Begin with a pilot project or a specific department before rolling out Anaplan company-wide. This approach allows you to refine processes and build expertise gradually. Leverage Anaplan’s Community: Take advantage of Anaplan’s user community and resources for support, best practices, and insights from other users. Plan for Data Integration: Assess your data sources and develop a strategy for integrating them with Anaplan. Ensure data quality and consistency for effective modeling. Establish Governance: Set up governance structures to manage user roles, permissions, and data access, ensuring security and compliance. Monitor Performance: Continuously track performance and user feedback post-implementation to make necessary adjustments and improvements. Stay Flexible: Be prepared to adapt your approach as you learn more about Anaplan’s capabilities and how they align with your organization’s needs.

Consider the size and quantity of structural lists (e.g., legal entities, cost centers, business units, products, GL accounts, employees, etc.). While Anaplan promotes its ability to handle multiple dimensions in a module, size can quickly become unmanageable if overused.

A key piece of advice is to start small and scale up. Don’t try to build a full end-to-end system in one go. Focus on a critical use case, such as Budgeting or Sales Forecasting, and then expand as users become more comfortable. This also allows you to prove ROI early in the process. It’s also essential to engage stakeholders early. Since Anaplan is a collaborative platform, ensure that representatives from Finance, HR, and Supply Chain are involved in model design from the start. This prevents silos and helps create a shared system that works for everyone. Lastly, I recommend working with an Anaplan consultant or partner during the initial phase. They can help you avoid common pitfalls and accelerate the design process. Once you have a firm foundation, your internal team can take control of the system.

Quality of implementation greatly depends on skill and experience of the implementation team. Developing these skills in-house is necessary for long-term viability.

Be very thoughtful about how you architect and enable solutions. Anaplan is extremely flexible, but this can be a double-edged sword, as it may allow inefficient processes to be codified.

Plan Carefully When Moving from Excel to Anaplan: Transitioning from Excel to Anaplan requires careful planning. Instead of directly replicating existing processes, redesign and optimize them to fully leverage Anaplan’s capabilities. Build Internal Skills Alongside System Integrators: Companies should actively involve their own team in the Anaplan implementation. Work alongside System Integrators to ensure your in-house team develops the necessary skills to manage the system independently in the future. Collaborate Between IT and Business Teams: IT and business teams must work closely together. IT ensures proper data integration and governance, while the business team ensures the model aligns with their needs. Use Anaplan Where It Works Best—Planning: Focus on using Anaplan for planning tasks such as Forecasting and Budgeting. For advanced analytics, consider other tools better suited for those needs.

Make sure you use Anaplan for the right use cases.

Make sure you have someone on your team who knows Anaplan; otherwise, you risk accumulating technical debt or ending up with a highly suboptimal model.

For companies considering Anaplan, I strongly recommend evaluating the long-term costs as they scale to additional use cases and users. Anaplan can become cost-prohibitive quickly, as its per-user license fees are significant, and storage is intrinsically linked to user licenses. Additionally, I encourage prospective users to carefully assess their reporting needs. While Anaplan offers high flexibility for model builders, it is significantly less flexible for end users in terms of reporting capabilities.

Thoroughly review your data: Build prototypes of your requirements in Excel or another tool before implementation. Ensure your data is clean, identify bugs, errors, and anomalies, and resolve them early. Gather end-user requirements: Collect and document requirements before starting the implementation. Ask "what-if" questions and create mock-ups of your dashboards to validate expectations. Engage IT support: Include someone from your IT team who can assist with ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. Plan your ETL strategy: Determine which ETL process you will use in advance and start setting it up early to streamline data integration.

Model development can be complex and time-consuming. Anaplan’s coding language is not intuitive, so ensure you have in-house support or consultants available. Additionally, clearly define the use case before the initial rollout to streamline implementation and avoid inefficiencies.

Hire an in-house Anaplan specialist.

Ensure you have internal resources working on the model build and are not solely reliant on external consultants. It is critical that teams who will be using the model understand the decision points in the build and appreciate the efforts to maintain the model going forward. Having subject matter experts working hand in hand with the model builders ensures that the user experience is optimal and the applications contemplate all required capabilities.

Anaplan's flexibility as a platform is a huge strength, but also a weakness. If you do not put the correct governance and controls in place, it can cause problems further down the line.

Use a use case approach - have big picture in mind but built one use case at a time to deliver value quickly.

Have a clear final goal of what you want to achieve from your Anaplan model and expect this requirement to increase once you realize its full potential, but take small steps to steadily grow each model appropriately.

When developing new use cases, it is really important to weigh up the advantages of including these new use cases in the same model (more seamless integration and data flows; only one set of lists and hierarchies to maintain) against the disadvantages (the model can become slow and unwieldy to manage). It is really easy to get excited about how quickly you can develop new use cases and functionality in Anaplan and just keep building out the system, but if this isn't managed well, you lose system performance and it can take a lot of time, effort and, potentially, cost to redevelop models.

It is critical to have executive sponsorship and to hire an internal expert in Anaplan to lead this transformation. You can easily build one model in 3 - 6 months internally or with a budget consultancy, scaling your Anaplan use past a couple small use cases is impossible without an internal COE.

Make sure your processes are solid and documented. Have a plan to control development and updates.

Make sure to secure right amount of resources that can support you implementation since even tough Anaplan is very Excel like, it may be a bit tricky, if you want to do it right.

Macht einen Prototypen oder Proof of Concept mit einem erfahrenen Integrationspartner.

Almost anything is possible with Anaplan. Make sure the business processes are defined before implementing.

Chose the right implementation partner for the job. Invest internally and build an internal CoE early stages. Create and drive an internal deployment roadmap in order to leverage data integrations between use cases.

Clearly define pain points and objectives to be able to produce a more detailed user story.

Don't believe it's a quick project. Get your IT teammates involved from the very beginning. Spend extra time understanding and cleaning the data. Don't go live with the MVP (minimum viable product) from your consulting partner. Make sure it works properly with integrations and such first. Get people trained and involved in-house so they can troubleshoot and build up-front. They should be part of the implementation.

Ensure that you have in-house knowledge to supplement any external engagement. Will make a better deployment.

Start slow and keep improving over time.

Organize your data. Engage IT and ensure they are a part of your project team with their own parallel timelines. When implementations are rocky, it is because the master data changed throughout the engagement requiring re-work. Negotiate hard - you have leverage. Be ready to walk away. Look beyond your immediate needs - envision the perfect future and make sure Anaplan has convinced you that you can achieve this perfect future. Align on this future vision to ensure your partner also takes a long-term perspective on your day 1 architecture.

Assess your build plan well and prioritize critical pain points.

Plan for data integration strategy and decide on a good ETL tool along with Anaplan. Try to implement in hybrid agile method instead of pure agile.

Make sure you have someone on hand that knows Anaplan.

Just do it.

To asses long-term requirements.