Best Of
Re: Dark / Light Mode for Model Building
Wow. I didn't anticipate that my post would create such a high response rate. 😅
Dark Mode has been a personal preference of mine for quite some time, but I agree that the more pressing issue is the complete lack of contrast and visual highlights. The new design makes it particularly unclear where key elements, such as navigation, are located or how different areas within an app are intended to be used. This can be especially challenging for new users or visually impaired people, who may struggle to navigate and work efficiently within Anaplan. I can't understand how this change passed all the approvals at Anaplan.
Re: Dark / Light Mode for Model Building
And/or give us the ability to change the banner color to an appropriate brand color or to differentiate between different models (DEV/UAT/PROD).
Re: Aggregation of text and images in Hierarchy Charts
Nice stuff… albeit I'm fairly sure Rob Brydon would quite enjoy running the UK 😉
Updates to the Certified Master Anaplanner Exam study guide
Announcing the updated Certified Master Anaplanner Exam study guide: Essential Anaplan Topics
Achieving Certified Master Anaplanner status is a significant milestone in your Anaplan journey, demonstrating a mastery of the platform and a deep commitment to excellence in Connected Planning. To help you prepare for this achievement, we are excited to announce the release of the updated Certified Master Anaplanner Exam Study Guide!
This refreshed guide is designed to be your trusted companion as you prepare for the Certified Master Anaplanner exam. Whether you are sharpening your technical knowledge, refining your application skills, or diving deep into optimization strategies, this guide provides the comprehensive resources you need to succeed.
What you need to know about the Certified Master Anaplanner Exam
The Certified Master Anaplanner exam tests not only your foundational knowledge of the platform but also your ability to apply that knowledge in real-world scenarios. The exam format includes:
- Multiple-choice and multiple-selection questions.
- Scenario-based questions that test your application of PLANS and Anaplan best practices.
- Optimization questions that challenge your ability to design and improve models and for efficiency and scalability.
- Formula review and corrections to check appropriate model building capabilities.
You will have 90 minutes (1.5 hours) to answer 60 questions, with a passing score of 45. The mix of question types ensures that candidates demonstrate a well-rounded and expert-level understanding of the platform.
The exam fee is $550 plus local tax, per attempt. There is currently a limit of five attempts, an interval of two weeks for each attempt. There will be a summary grade for the topics provided to those who take the exam. If you do not pass, it is suggested that you review the topic categories you had a score lower than 75% percent. This can be found in the email you receive after completing the exam.
To help you feel confident and ready, the updated study guide maps the critical areas of focus and provides tips for success. It is structured to align with the skills and knowledge required to excel in the exam.
Get started today
Are you ready to begin your journey to achieving the top certification in the Anaplan Ecosystem? Be sure to review these helpful resources:
- Anaplan Solution Architect requirements (Anaplan Academy login required)
- Certified Master Anaplanner requirements (Anaplan Academy login required)
- Create a Webassesor account
- Email certification@anaplan.com for credential verification and registration
- Certified Master Anaplanner Exam FAQ
- [Now updated!] Certified Master Anaplanner Exam Study Guide: Essential Anaplan Topics
The path to achieving your status as a Certified Master Anaplanner is challenging but immensely rewarding. With the updated study guide in hand, you’re well on your way to achieving this prestigious certification and joining an incredible group of Anaplan experts who drive value throughout their organizations and the broad Anaplan Ecosystem.
Good luck, and we can’t wait to see you succeed!
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Re: Essential Anaplan topics
Hi @TristanS, @pvijayteja - our Essential Anaplan topics for the Certified Master Anaplanner exam has been updated. I know you both were interested in that material.
Thanks!
Ginger, Community Manager
Re: Is there any way i can convert number to text format but still following the number format for comma
Update for everyone- the newest release in NUX where you can format line items or list items individually (card→format→format) has rendered this solution obsolete. Thank you @MarkWarren and Anaplan dev team for this truly design-changing feature!
Re: Polaris - TEXTLIST alternative?
@TimWard70 just learnt that Previous function can actually work outside of the Time dimension on Polaris now. So TextList alternative on Polaris could be further simplified as per below
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December 2024 platform releases
Check out the latest Anaplan feature updates and enhancements in our December 2024 release notes. The information below offers supplemental information to that post.
UX
- Filter across line items (end users)
End users can now apply filters across line items to a grid in boards and worksheets. Regardless of the datatype of the line item, filtering will treat them as numeric, just like in the classic experience. Filter notations have also been improved for cases where line items are context selectors, making it easier to identify and apply filters efficiently. - Expand and collapse in cells with list pickers
List hierarchies in grid cells with list pickers can now be expanded and collapsed, streamlining navigation for users. - Row and column formatting
Page builders can now apply row and column formatting, including number formatting, to a grid in boards and worksheets. This enables page builders to make individual rows or columns stand out in UX pages and add the appropriate suffix, such as %. - Role-based page access
(We mentioned this in November's update, but added a video later in the month that many may have missed, so we're mentioning it again!) Users can now specify by role who can and cannot modify a page, allowing users to restrict critical planning pages while still giving users the flexibility to create their own pages and reports. All existing permissions will remain the same, with the addition of the enhanced capability to restrict modify access so users can no longer go into page designer.
Upcoming quarterly platform release webinar
Our next quarterly platform release webinar is scheduled for January 28 at 8am PT and registration is now open! Our expert-led session will equip you with a practical guide and live demonstrations to help you get the most out of new features and innovations.
Topics covered will include:
- Tailored access to available functions based on model engine
- User experience enhancements — see below for details
Features to be demo'd:
- Engine-specific content in Anapedia integration
- Role-based page access
- Network charts
- Axis label formatting
- Row/column formatting
- Filter across line items
- Expand/collapse in cells with list pickers
Full release notes and previous release notes can be found here.
Workflow: A comprehensive guide to streamlined planning
Author: Prasanth Kosuri is a Solution Architect and EPM Consultant at Deloitte.
Anaplan Workflow, introduced in September 2023, has revolutionized the way organizations approach planning. This powerful tool offers a range of enhancements designed to improve efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration. Anaplan Workflow allows businesses to automate their planning processes, notifying users automatically when their action is needed, bringing them to exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Workflow is designed to easily layer onto different business requirements, helping to remove the manual intervention required to run successful planning processes. Automated task handover and notifications drive efficiency, delivering data and insights more quickly. Direct, streamlined user journeys for stakeholders enable effortless user adoption, further democratizing the planning process.
Key enhancements in Anaplan Workflow
Anaplan Workflow has recently undergone significant enhancements, making it more powerful, efficient, and flexible. These improvements are designed to seamlessly integrate into both new and existing model builds, wherever processes require notifying users upon task completion, due tasks, and reminders. Here are the key enhancements:
- Automated task reminders: Ensure tasks are completed on time, preventing delays and bottlenecks by automatically notifying users when their action is needed.
- Intuitive template builder: Simplify the creation and management of Workflow templates, making it easier to design and implement workflows.
- Line item and model role-driven decision steps: Enable decision-making based on specific data points within a model and the roles of users. Configure decisions and approvals to be assigned to users based on a connected line item or a specified model role, allowing model logic to determine who should approve at each stage of the process and ensuring that everyone holding that role is notified when approval is required.
- Skippable decisions and approvals: Streamline workflows by allowing users to skip certain steps based on specific conditions. Decisions and approvals can be optionally skipped if the line item used to define the approvers is blank, adding more flexibility in handling approval steps.
- Workflow scheduling: When creating a Workflow template, builders have the option to "start immediately" or "start based on a schedule," including options for start and end dates, times of day, and workflow repetition. This allows for greater flexibility in managing workflows.
- Trigger workflows from a UX page: Workflow templates can now be linked to buttons on UX pages and made available for end users to use, allowing for greater flexibility and ensuring business continuity without delays.
- Hierarchy-based task customization: Tailor tasks to specific roles and responsibilities within the organizational hierarchy, ensuring that the right people are assigned to the right tasks.
- Clear context labels: Reduce errors by providing users with a better understanding of the data they are working with through clear context labels.
Practical use cases
- Capital expenditure (Capex) project approval: Create a workflow to guide Capex projects through a multi-step approval process, ensuring that all necessary approvals are obtained and documentation is complete.
- Promotions in trade promotion model: Implement a workflow to manage the promotion planning process, including steps for identifying eligible products, determining promotional terms, and obtaining approvals from relevant stakeholders.
- Supply chain demand planning: Develop a workflow to streamline the demand planning process, ensuring that demand forecasts are accurate and aligned with supply capabilities.
- Inventory management: Create a workflow to optimize inventory levels, automating tasks such as reorder point calculations and stock replenishment.
- Financial reporting: Automate the financial reporting process, ensuring that reports are generated accurately and on time.
Tips for building effective workflows
- Define clear objectives: Clearly articulate the goals of your workflow.
- Identify key tasks: Break down your workflow into smaller, manageable tasks.
- Leverage automation: Identify opportunities to automate repetitive tasks.
- Optimize data flow: Ensure data flows seamlessly between different modules.
- Test and iterate: Thoroughly test your workflows and make adjustments as needed.
- Provide clear instructions: Ensure users understand how to complete tasks and navigate the workflow.
- Monitor and analyze: Regularly monitor the performance of your workflows and identify areas for improvement.
Additional considerations
- Security and access control: Implement appropriate security measures to protect sensitive data and ensure that only authorized users have access to relevant workflows.
- User adoption: Develop a plan to encourage user adoption of Anaplan Workflow, providing training and support as needed.
- Integration with ADO: Consider integrating the Workflow with Anaplan Data Orchestrator to streamline data flow and improve efficiency. (Which is due for upcoming releases.)
Benefits of Workflow
The power of automation
By automating routine tasks, you can free up your team's time to focus on more strategic initiatives. This not only increases efficiency but also reduces the risk of human error.
Improved collaboration and visibility
Centralized workflows foster better communication and coordination among team members. Real-time tracking of task progress provides a clear overview of the planning process.
Enhanced data quality
Consistent workflows help ensure data accuracy and integrity, reducing the risk of errors and improving the reliability of your planning outputs.
Conclusion
Anaplan Workflow is a valuable tool for organizations seeking to streamline their planning processes, improve collaboration, and enhance data quality. By leveraging its powerful enhancements, including automated task reminders, intuitive template builder, hierarchy-based task customization, clearer context labels, line item and model role-driven decision steps, skippable decisions and approvals, workflow scheduling, and the ability to trigger workflows from a UX page, organizations can achieve even greater efficiency, accuracy, and agility in their planning efforts.
Specifically, the ability to automate task reminders and approvals ensures that projects stay on track and that the right stakeholders are involved at the right times. The intuitive template builder and hierarchy-based task customization simplify the creation and management of workflows, making it easier to tailor processes to the unique needs of the organization. Clear context labels and enhanced decision steps reduce errors and improve decision-making, while the flexibility to schedule workflows and trigger them from UX pages ensures that workflows can be seamlessly integrated into daily operations.
By adopting these enhancements, organizations can streamline their planning processes and foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. The result is a more agile, responsive, and data-driven organization that is well-equipped to navigate the complexities of modern business environments.
Questions? Leave a comment!
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How to roll back a production model to recover lost data
Author: Jessie Zhao is a Solution Architect and Certified Master Anaplanner at Anaplan.
Working with a model in ALM has a lot of benefits. These include building new features in a development model anytime without affecting production users, securely managing production lists by identifying structural data that needs to change in the deployment environment without risking an overwrite, and achieving model synchronization through formal revision control by leveraging the tagging of model changes. But there is one challenge — rolling back the production model to recover lost data is more complex in ALM models because of the potential compatibility issue between the development model and production model.
Recently, it happened that I needed to roll back one production model to restore lost data caused by deletion of list members from a production list. There had been three more revision tags added and a few hundred new inputs added to the production model after the deletion was run. My plan was to roll back to the history ID before the deletion happened to confirm the cause and get a copy of the lost data, and roll forward to the latest user change ID so that the few hundreds user edits between the problematic action and the latest user change wouldn’t be impacted, while I could use the copy to add back the lost data.
Steps I took (hint: don't follow these steps!):
- Change production model mode from deployed to standard offline.
- Roll production model back to the history ID before the deletion action with “unlink revision created after this restore point” flagged.
- Confirm prod model at the ID has lost data and make a copy (I know there'll be a copy revision tag added but will also be removed after Step 4).
- Roll model forward to the latest user change history ID with ““unlink revision created after this restore point” flagged.
- Add a new revision tag in Dev model and sync to Prod.
Everything looked good as the latest revision tag showed to be compatible to the DEV model initially, but it returned to an error stating that the target model was not compatible to the source model. It was hard to figure out what — except the copy model action — could cause the incompatibility.
For time’s sake, I gave up reconnecting the production model to the original DEV model and started to create a new DEV model from the latest revision tag existing in the production model. But, when I synced the revision tag after DEV model was created, it would return the same incompatibility error. It’s wasn't until I added a new revision tag in the production model first, and created DEV model from this newly created revision tag, did I successfully sync the revision tag between the new DEV and prod model.
To find out what caused the incompatibility, I recreated the issue with a test production model and a test development model and went through the same steps again.
Attempt #2
With more time to compare changes between models, I found that flagging “unlink revision created after this restore point” (revision tag 1) when rolling back and forward the model removed revision tag 2-4 from the production model, but keeping the structural changes made in revision tag 2-4 in production model, which in fact unsaved structural changes in production model. The available “add revision tag” and “revert to last revision” after rolling forward model also confirmed the idea (screenshot 1). At this point, reverting to last revision tag, meaning reverting to revision tag 1 “run delete action for account 7-9", would restore the compatibility (screenshot 2) but changes made in revision tag 2-4 as well as user inputs after the history ID associated with revision tag 1 would be erased. Given that, saving all changes by creating a new revision tag in this production model and creating a new development model would be the solution at this point.
Screenshot 1:
Screenshot 2:
Knowing what "unlink" does to the revision tag, I became curious about what would happen if I unflag “unlink revision after this restore point” when rolling back and forward model. I tested the idea and found that revision tag 2-4 will stay, but a new revision tag of copying model as well as history ID associated with it would be added. The copy model revision tag makes the prod model incompatible again and it would need to take the same solution as able to create a new development model, or use the revert feature which potentially could cause user input after revision tag 4 erased.
After the above two tests, I found that unflagging “unlink revisions created after this restore point” when rolling back the prod model to keep structural revisions while flagging the “unlink revision created after this restore point” when rolling forward the production model to eliminate copy model revision tag would be the best way to keep compatibility between the original Dev and Prod models.
The correct steps should be:
- Change production model mode from deployed to standard offline.
- Roll production model back to the history ID before the deletion action with “unlink revision created after this restore point” UN-flagged.
- Confirm prod model at the ID has lost data and make a copy.
- Roll model forward to the latest user change history ID with “unlink revision created after this restore point” flagged.
- Add a new revision tag in Dev model and sync to Prod.
Hope my experience of rolling back production model could be helpful for you when you face the same situation!
Questions? Leave a comment!
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