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My Road to Master Anaplanner
My Sign Story The power of social media and the power of good people—precisely what I realized during the longest job search of my early career back in the summer of 2018. Rejection after rejection, automated robotic email after email, and hundreds of recruiters, applications, and "get to know you" meetings later, I was…
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Improving Forecast Accuracy
Improving forecast accuracy often features the business value expected from a system implementation like Anaplan for demand planning. In reality, forecast accuracy is not a business value—but it contributes to business value in terms of better service levels and economic inventory levels. Often, customers want to improve…
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Congratulations to the Inaugural Class of Anaplan for All Fellows!
Anaplan for All is a first-of-its-kind program that opens doors for professionals from underrepresented backgrounds and connects them with jobs in the Anaplan Community. This spring, 45 fellows were selected from a pool of over 8,500 applicants. Each fellow first completed a 13-week data science training program led by…
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Anaplan Community Recognized as an Industry Leader
In the last several years, a growing body of research supports the proposition that communities provide tremendous value—to their members as well as to business. Here at the Anaplan Community, this has been a guiding principle of everything we do since we launched this site. We are here to support, inspire, and connect…
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Documentation: It Starts With the 'Why'
Documentation is one word that gives most model builders a cold shiver. It’s associated with binders full of information lost in archives or the output of rushed efforts to complete an implementation. As an Anaplan partner, we come across a bandwidth of different approaches to Anaplan model documentation. Let's discuss our…
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Higher Ed: Optimize Resource Allocation for Financial Sustainability
In the past year, business, government, and civic and cultural institutions faced enormous challenges that forced them to re-evaluate and change how they operate in order to survive. This was especially the case in the higher education sector, which was already under pressure to adapt its business model to keep up with…
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Survey Opportunities: Share Your Anaplan Experience
On occasion, the industry analyst community will approach Anaplan for customer insights, typically to inform research, and most often, in survey form. We have two such opportunities in motion for the month of May. The first comes from the BPM Partner community, which is currently preparing its annual Vendor Landscape…
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Leveraging the Anaplan Community in a Remote World
It doesn’t take a genius to articulate the vast change that COVID-19 made in our work environments. The days of being able to walk over to a colleague’s desk for support are no more. The pivot to working in an entirely remote world challenged our teams to be resourceful in order to continue delivering superior end results…
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Anaplan Live!: Upcoming Events and New On-Demand Videos
Packed with valuable insights from top Anaplan experts and thought leaders, Anaplan Live! is a free, virtual event series designed with model builders, end-users, and learners in mind. The reoccurring event lets attendees interact in real-time with presenters and fellow Anaplanners, getting all the benefits of an in-person…
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Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly: A Supply Chain Optimization Journey
During the past months, the supply chain world has experienced several major disruptions (COVID-19, the Suez Canal blockage, etc.). Agile supply chain planning and fast decision-making have become more important than ever. On the other hand, due to the increasing complexity of value chains, decision-making is becoming more…
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Thank You, Anaplan Community
During the last year—amid some very different and challenging times—we’ve seen the importance and impact of community. Whether it’s the physical community we live in or the community we choose to be part of, having a group of people to lean on helps us meet challenges through a shared purpose and journey. Our Anaplan…
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5 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Anaplan Groups
Anaplan Groups exist to help you go further in your Anaplan journey by sharing and collaborating with like-minded peers. In essence, Groups are micro-communities within the larger Anaplan Community, each built around a specific region, topic, or another unifying theme that brings people together. Groups provide places to…
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Scenario Planning in Anaplan, Part I: The Power of 'What If'
The term VUCA—an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity—was first leveraged in the business environment in the late 1980s, but the impact of that term in our modern world has rarely met the tests that the year 2020 brought. Organizations around the world are united in finding ways to meet the…
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Capture the Value of Rebates Through Connected Planning
Large organizations receive a variety of discounts in the form of rebates. And while these rebates present a great opportunity, it’s far too easy for the company to lose track of the many offerings, receipts, invoices, and payments that come with them. This problem results in a decentralization of data—with information…
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Planning From the Ridge
In February of this year, I was in the middle of the third grueling 2,000-foot ascent up a mountain on the second day of a three-night backcountry yurt trip when I conceptualized the power of Anaplan’s Connected Planning solution. “Strategize and collaborate with agility amid constant change"—the words on Anaplan’s…
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Anaplan's Victor Barnes on Diversity in Tech
As Black History Month comes to a close, we turn to Anaplan’s newly appointed Senior Vice President of Connected Planning Victor Barnes for insight on diversity in the tech industry. Before coming to Anaplan, Victor spent 26 years at The Coca-Cola Company. During that time, he traveled extensively and worked…
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The 3 Pillars of Connected Planning: Part 4—Connecting the Pillars
In the first part of “The 3 Pillars of Connected Planning” series, the Community team spoke with Chief Planning Officer Simon Tucker ( @simon_tucker) about the importance of the 'people' pillar of Connected Planning and the need for a cultural shift within an organization. In part two, we took a look at the 'data' pillar…
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Announcing The Master Anaplanner Program 2020 Maintenance Requirements
The Master Anaplanner Program formally launched maintenance requirements, effective starting calendar year 2020. Participation is required for all members who wish to retain their designation as a Certified Master Anaplanner for the following year (2021) and will continue on an annual basis thereafter. The Master…
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Scenario Planning in Anaplan, Part II: From Insight to Action
In my recent blog post titled Scenario Planning in Anaplan, Part I: The Power of 'What If', I introduced the key steps needed for effective scenario planning in Anaplan and focused on the mechanisms to develop a forecast ('what') and evaluate the impact of forecast events ('so what'). In this second part, we look to move…
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The 3 Pillars of Connected Planning: Part 2—Data
In the first part of “The 3 Pillars of Connected Planning” series, the Community team spoke with Chief Planning Officer Simon Tucker about the importance of the “people” pillar of Connected Planning and the need for a cultural shift within an organization. In part two, we take a look at the “data” pillar and what…
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The 3 Pillars of Connected Planning: Part 3—Plans
In the first part of “The 3 Pillars of Connected Planning” series, the Community team spoke with Chief Planning Officer Simon Tucker about the importance of the 'people' pillar of Connected Planning and the need for a cultural shift within an organization. In part two, we took a look at the 'data' pillar and what companies…
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The Master Anaplanners' UX Cookbook
Please note: the links in this article are out-of-date. We're working on new resources. Thank you! Brought to you by Certified Master Anaplanners. “Our business owner (Finance Manager, FP&A) was ecstatic that this page empowers his team to recognize trends and evaluate variances much quicker compared to with the classic UX…
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#ChooseToChallenge on International Women's Day
Today we celebrate International Women's Day. On March 8 every year, we celebrate the social, political, and economic achievements of women. Beyond celebrating achievements, the day helps raise awareness about women's equality, lobby to accelerate gender parity, and fundraise for women-focused charities. This year's…
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A New Way to Give Your Feedback to Anaplan
At the core of Anaplan is our ‘customer first’ principle, as we have recently highlighted in our Anaplan Listens program. It revolves around creating products and features that improve the Anaplan experience for our customers. Through research, such as speaking to you about your day-to-day processes and asking you to test…
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Sales Planning Meets Production Planning
Planning complexity in manufacturing and order fulfillment stems from the attempt to “fit” forecasted demand with available production machines while hoping to leverage an algorithm that will provide the best “**** for the buck.” This algorithm normally incorporates Level 2 production machine metrics like run-rate, machine…
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Planning for a Company’s Most Valuable Asset—its People
The long-range sales forecast is set, and targets are being communicated throughout the organization. Next on the agenda are costs, margin, and expenses leading to the bottom line. Operating and planning a business is like solving a complex puzzle: an organization can have all the correct pieces for its business but at the…
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Meet our 2021 Community Bosses!
As we kick off 2021, we couldn’t be more thrilled to announce this year's Community Bosses! The Community Boss program aims to recognize customers, partners, and employees who go out of their way to encourage, advise, and share knowledge with their fellow Anaplan Community members. This select group of Community…
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Anaplan Extensions: Building Reports in PowerPoint to Present User Stories
Recently, I interviewed Jared Dolich, a Principal Consultant at Columbus Consulting, about his clever use of Anaplan Extensions as a consultant in an Anaplan implementation project. Q: Tell us about yourself and your Anaplan journey Well, first, Magali, thank you for your interest! It means a lot to me to have the…
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Demand Planning: A Cornerstone of Every Business Plan
Businesses and their environment are growing more complex by the minute. Despite the many approaches, stakeholders, and circumstances around it, there is one invariable truth: serving customer demand is the reason for the existence of any firm. In pursuit of better serving their customers, companies have adopted…
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Happy New Year From Our Family to Yours!
In 2021, we'll work to turn challenges into opportunities and drive transformative change! We'll fill the year with new ideas, bold plans, and big accomplishments. The new year is here, and we’re kicking it off by celebrating with you. From the Anaplan family to you, Happy New Year!…
