Blog

Articles about the Anaplan Community and Connected Planning

Announcing: Statement of Direction for Anaplan calculation engines
Anaplan has just launched the new statement of direction for Anaplan Calculation Engines The full statement of direction can be read here. What is a statement of direction A Statement of Direction is a public guidance designed to inform our customers & prospects about our strategic direction at product level. It provides…
Breaking into the Anaplan ecosystem
Author: Ayesha Zoha, Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Cervello. Throughout my career, I've had the chance to connect with individuals from diverse technology and business backgrounds, as well as countless college graduates eager to start their journey in the world of Anaplan. Over the years, I’ve noticed a…
Data integration and scalability: A framework for model assessment and optimization
Author: Avnish Goel is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Founder at ScriptStory. Recently, I led a model assessment initiative to identify suboptimal design elements in the data architecture for a leading investment banking firm. The project involved analyzing source systems and Anaplan models, leveraging both Anaplan best…
How to ask great questions in the Anaplan Community
Author: Seyma Tas is a Certified Master Anaplanner and product owner at Caliber Collision. A guide to help you get the answers you need The Anaplan Community is an incredible resource to share knowledge and get help. To get the best answers quickly, make sure you ask clear, well-crafted questions. Here are some tips on how…
Case study: Challenges faced before introducing Anaplan
Author: Jonathan Cushing is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Consultant at Vuealta Consulting. My first experience of Anaplan was building an FP&A model in the company I worked in group finance. The company operated within the construction sector all over the UK with regional offices along with a centralized group…
Share your ALM best practices — March 2025 Community Challenge
Today, we’re kicking off our first Best Practices Challenge of 2025! This challenge series is an opportunity for Community members to share their expertise on a specific topic, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. This time, we’re focusing on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). What is your overall approach to…
Start small to achieve larger implementation goals
Author: David Edwards is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Associate Partner at Columbus Consulting. Whether you are an Anaplan customer or implementation partner, it can sometimes be difficult to convince business stakeholders to invest in large digital transformation initiatives. This is often the case when positioning…
February 2025 Community Member Spotlight: Puneeth Kumar HP
We're kicking off 2025 with a Community Member Spotlight on @Puneeth H P! Puneeth has been a valuable part of the Community for nearly six years (with over 100 helpful comments!) and is a Community Boss. Check out his Anaplan journey and contributions below! About Puneeth I am currently working as a Solution Architect for…
How I Built It: Effective project-based planning
Author: Soumya Bhattacharya is a Certified Master Anaplanner and technology consultant at Accenture. In this ‘How I Built It’ tutorial, I show how Anaplan can be used to demonstrate effective project-based planning. Also, how integrating a custom workday calendar can enhance the flexibility and accuracy of your planning…
How I Built It: Dynamic source data selection
Author: Erik Svensson is a Certified Master Anaplanner and a Principal Solution Architect at Anaplan. Hello Anaplan Community! Thank you for checking out my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial. In this video, I showcase how you can set up end user selections to vary data sources across one or more hierarchies. This is a dynamic way…
The city of planning
Author: Arun Thakar, Certified Master Anaplanner and Vice President in the banking industry. Somewhere in the cloud lies Anaplanopolis, the city of planning. The airports and train stations are Data Hubs. Downtown is where financial planning models reside, and in midtown are sales and revenue models. The streets are paved…
Dear Anaplan, A love letter
My Dearest Anaplan, On today the day of love, I must confess deep and fervent feelings. I love you, I love you, I love you! From the early days of our courtship where you filled me with visions of possibility, to the late nights where I dreamed of solutions we may create together, I have loved you dearly. Past lovers be…
Recording available: Understanding the new Customer Care Portal
If you missed our event today, Understanding the Customer Care Portal, a recording is now available. In this event, I provide a demo highlighting the value of the new comprehensive case visibility, self-service tools, and dynamic case submission form to reduce resolution times. Topics covered include: Seamless access to…
How I Built It: Effective filtering in Polaris
Author: James Sharrett is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Sr. Principal Architect at Anaplan. Hi Anaplan Community, In this ‘How I Built It’ tutorial, I dive into a common problem people run into with Polaris, and a general approach to designing efficient exports in both Polaris and Classic. There are limits on applying…
Data validation overview
Author: Audrey Neet is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director at Tru Consulting. Data validation is the process in which business users ensure that the data in Anaplan ties to their source system. It's an important step in preparing a model for go-live as it ensures the data in the model is accurate and the end users…
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…
Top 25 Anaplan features released in 2024
Author: Misbah Ansari is a Certified Master Anaplanner, Anaplan Community Boss, and CEO/Founder at Miz Logix. Anaplan has released hundreds of features in 2024 to enrich its platform with more flexible planning, dynamic reporting, and scalable offerings. These features have been released throughout the year across all the…
AI and ADO brings planning innovation with Joe van Bolderen — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
We’re kicking off 2025 with a bang and an outstanding Community member for our first podcast of the year. Join me in welcoming Joe van Bolderen (@Joe_VBCG) to Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast along with host Dennis Lemoine, Director of Customer Engagement & Experience. Joe has been a Certified Master Anaplanner since…
How I Built It: Time and Version filters
Author: Stacey Gibbens is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Solution Architect, Financial Planning & Analysis at Globe Life. Greetings, Anaplanners! Today I’m excited to share my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial on minimizing import/export toaster time by utilizing time and version filters on source data saved views. In my video,…
Did You Know: Multi-dimensionality overview
Author: Allison Slaught is a Certified Master Anaplanner, Anaplan Community Boss, and Senior Principal Solution Architect at Anaplan. Hello Anaplan Community! The objective of this ‘Did You Know’ tutorial is to provide a brief recap of multi-dimensionality in Anaplan and provide a framework for identifying how formulas…
Five principles of solution architecture
Author: Arun Thakar is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Vice President in the banking industry. Whether you are just starting out as a solution architect, or you’ve worked on several models you may benefit from a refresher on some of solution architecture’s key principles. It’s important to remember that these are not…
Anaplan for housebuilder and construction forecasting
Author: Jonathan Cushing is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Consultant at Vuealta Consulting. The labor government is aiming to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2029; this could create an additional 350,000 jobs and a further £100 billion in economic activity compared with the last five years. Clearly this…
Planning for an impactful year: Community Bosses share their 2025 goals!
Whether you’re in recovery mode from the holidays or goal-setting mode for 2025, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to accomplish this year! To inspire you, five of our Community Bosses volunteered to share their plans for the year, what they hope to work on and achieve, and goals they are setting for…
January Q&A Challenge — share your reflections for a chance to win!
In the Anaplan Community, we believe that growth comes from connecting, collaborating, and sharing knowledge. Every day we see our members coming together to share ideas, solve problems, and support one another in forum discussions, blog posts, and beyond. As we start the new year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the…
Lessons learned in 2024: Trust the process
Author: Taryn Townsend is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting. It is always an honor for me to be able to share perspectives with you, the Anaplan Community, as I strive to learn and grow as a part of this ecosystem. As 2024 draws to a close to give way to crafting New Year’s resolutions…
Year in review: My 5 favorite 2024 Anaplan releases
Author: Chad Frantz is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Technical Associate at Alpha FMC. Here we are at the end of another year. A perfect time to look back and reflect on what’s happened and where things are going. As we’ve become accustomed to in the Anaplan environment, that includes looking at the updates and…
Ending the year with our Community Bosses — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
What’s that you say — 2024 is almost over?! I truly cannot believe we’re at the part of the year where we reflect on our personal and professional growth and look at what we want to accomplish in 2025. I’ve not tackled that task yet, but I’m so excited to share that three of our Community Bosses have and they are here…
How I Built It: Football Survivor tool
Author: Ryan Rist is an Anaplan Solution Architect at General Atlantic. Hello Anaplanners! I’m happy to share my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial today; a fun football game/tool. Football Survivor is a competition where people select one team per week. If that team wins, they move on. If that team loses, they are knocked out.…
UX source model auto updater
Author: Abhishek Roy is a Certified Solution Architect , Sr. Platform Architect at Equinix and a member of their Anaplan CoE team. This article primarily covers a less explored API functionality that the Anaplan UX is based on and adds an element of automation and easy configuration to the otherwise manual time-taking and…
Setting up action naming conventions that will withstand the test of time
Author: Taylor Giesler is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director, Enterprise Performance Management at Alpha Alternatives. I have been a consultant for nearly four years now, and I have seen a lot of models, some easier to follow than others. The person building the model isn’t always the same person maintaining it…