Blog

Articles about the Anaplan Community and Connected Planning

October 2023 Community Member Spotlight: Anirudh Nayak
Let's celebrate @anirudh as our featured Member Spotlight for October! He has been in the Anaplan Community for over six years, a Group leader for our India Community Group, and recently appointed Anaplan Community Boss! Continue reading to get to know Anirudh and his Anaplan journey, expertise, and Community…
How I Built It: Combining two custom time schedules
Author: Moriah Reyes is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Lionpoint Group. Hello Anaplan Community! I’m excited to share my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial with you all. This video shows how you can cleverly use an index list and text list to combine two custom time schedules. Building a custom time schedule can be…
Model change best practices (Sept 2023 Community Challenge recap)
Author: Julie Ziemer is a Certified Master Anaplanner, Anaplan Community Boss, and Solution Leader/Business Analyst at Akili. There were so many detailed answers to the September Community Challenge — it was a challenge just to sort through all the great information! To help the Community, I thought it would be helpful to…
How I Built It: Two-step approval process and audit trail
Greetings fellow Anaplanners! In this episode of ‘How I Built It’, I show you how I build a typical two-step approval process and corresponding audit trail in Anaplan. This functionality accomplishes the following requirements: Analyst users can submit a batch of process data or model results. The manager user then can…
2024 Recertification Requirement Announcement: Using Workflow in Anaplan!
We're thrilled to announce our 2024 recertification process for Certified Model Builder, Certified Solution Architect, and Certified Master Anaplanner. Being a Certified Model Builder, Certified Solution Architect, or Certified Master Anaplanner means that you’re a highly qualified and valued part of the Anaplan ecosystem!…
Top five most useful recent updates and features
Author: Kathleen Sullivan, Certified Master Anaplanner, Solution Architect, and Manager at Cervello. Anaplan is constantly releasing new features to the modeling experience and to the user experience. These spark so much excitement for all Anaplan users because it increases usability for everyone, administrators, model…
A conversation with Shrankhla Singh — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
October may be Global Diversity Awareness Month, but the diversity in the Anaplan ecosystem is something we are proud of and celebrate every month! In our seventh episode of Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast, we are excited to introduce a new host to help showcase the variety of talent in our ecosystem. Bringing in new…
How I Built It: User-friendly hierarchy management
Author: Nikko Koutas is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Manager at Lionpoint Group. Hi Anaplan Community! Welcome and thank you for checking out my ‘How I Built It’ tutorial. In my video, I will showcase a user-friendly NUX page that can be leveraged by your end users to manage their manually maintained hierarchies. I…
Navigating pitfalls in solution delivery
James Snyder is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Practice Director - Supply Chain at Allitix Inc. As a consultant, my purpose is to build solutions for my clients that deliver value. I take great pride in my work and in driving meaningful change in organizations. However, the best laid plans can unravel as you move…
Remembering to keep the F.I.T in your model retrofit
Author: Taryn Townsend is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Manager at Deloitte Consulting. As technologists and planners, our reflex is to look to the future. We strive to keep up-to-date on the newest and most optimized solutions for our clients and users. This can often lead us to opportunities to give our legacy…
IMPRESSIVE! Community Q&A Challenge recap
Earlier this month we launched our inaugural Community Q&A Challenge, where we presented an Anaplan-related question to our Community to answer and share their perspective. We asked, “As an Anaplan model builder, what steps do you take to ensure that changes you make to an existing module don't create unexpected results in…
A conversation with Clarissa Hassfurder — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Join Dennis Lemoine, Sr. Program Manager of Community Events, for our sixth episode of Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast. This month we bring you Clarissa Hassfurder (@clarissa), Certified Master Anaplanner, Certified Solution Architect, and CEO at Double10 Consulting. Clarissa has over a decade of software…
Changing production models: corporate psychology vs. customer satisfaction
Author: Jared Dolich is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Partner and Founder at Retailitix. Consider this cartoon from Clowncurls. Maybe a bit exaggerated but sadly not too far from how Anaplan change requests come in. The question is how should you respond? Long ago I was a service desk manager for a 5000-store retailer,…
September 2023 Community Member Spotlight: Alejandro Gomez
Let's celebrate @AlejandroGomez as our featured Member Spotlight for September! He has been in the Anaplan ecosystem for nearly a decade, a Certified Master Anaplanner for five years, and recently appointed an Anaplan Community Boss! Read on to explore Alejandro's journey, expertise, and his meaningful contributions over…
Managing a distributed Center of Excellence
Author: Kevin Cho is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Anaplan Team Lead at Atlassian. Managing an Anaplan implementation used by a geographically dispersed team can be challenging. There are the standard challenges of remote working — fewer direct and spontaneous interactions, isolation and lack of team bonding —…
Anaplan training resources and tips from a Certified Master Anaplanner
Author: Hem Maan is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Director at Bolt Consulting Group. Anaplan is a fantastic platform that not only allows businesses to achieve their objectives, but also the flexibility it offers also allows model builders to fully utilize creative problem-solving skills. It’s important to be on top of…
A conversation with Stacey Gibbens — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Join Dennis Lemoine, Sr. Program Manager of Community Events, for our fifth episode of Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast. This month we bring you Stacey Gibbens (@Stacey_Gibbens), Certified Master Anaplanner, recently appointed Community Boss, and Solution Architect at Globe Life. Stacey is a seasoned IT professional…
How I Built It: Solving world’s hardest Sudoku with Anaplan Optimizer
About the Author: Tristan Colgate is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Managing Director at Fidenda. Hi Anaplan Community! I’m excited to bring a new and fun video to the Community ‘How I Built It’ tutorial series. In my video, I’ll walk through how I used Anaplan’s Optimizer to solve the world’s hardest Sudoku puzzle. In…
Community perspective: How to vary model inputs using optionality
Sandi Duffy is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Finance Manager at Challenger Limited. With Anaplan, it is easy to run multiple scenarios within the same model by using optionality. A common use for this would be during the budget setting process. Say, for example, you have a budget model but would like to see what…
Unveiling the path to success: Tips for new Certified Master Anaplanners
Author: Wendy Wen is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Director at Globalization Partners. Greetings, fellow Master Anaplanners and aspirants on this remarkable journey! As a seasoned Certified Master Anaplanner, I've had the privilege of experiencing the transformative power of Anaplan firsthand. Today, I'm…
NEW Community Q&A Challenge — join the discussion and collect a badge!
In the Anaplan Community, we believe that success stems from members connecting, sharing, and helping one another. As we witness members supporting each other daily in forum discussions, sharing ideas and best practices, and showcasing their expertise across various content, we are excited to introduce a new challenge that…
A conversation with Jon & Zack from Zenix Consulting — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Join Dennis Lemoine, Sr. Program Manager of Community Events, for our fourth episode of Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast. This month we bring you Jon Ferneau (@JonFerneau) and Zack Fennessy (@zackfennessy) from Zenix Consulting. Jon is passionate about developing solutions for inefficient business processes and…
August 2023 Community Member Spotlight: Steve Bows
Join us in celebrating @sjbows as our featured Community Member Spotlight for August! He has been in the Anaplan ecosystem and in the Community for five years, a Certified Master Anaplanner for the last four years, and is currently a Group leader for the ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) - Sustainability. We're…
How I Built It: Fantasy Football draft
Author: Zach Hird is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Senior Consultant at Peloton Consulting Group. Hello Anaplanners! Learn how I used Anaplan to aid my fantasy football draft experience in this fun and different ‘How I Built It’ tutorial. I use live fantasy football data to give myself a competitive advantage while…
How I Built It: Dynamic month, quarter, and year filter
Hello Anaplanner Community! I’m excited to participate in the ‘How I Built It’ video series with a dynamic month, quarter, and year filter tutorial. This video will walk you through how a dashboard can dynamically update time on all tables and charts. This enables multiple users to have different filters enabled on the…
Meet Certified Master Anaplanner Jose Maya
Meet Jose Maya (@josemaya) — Certified Master Anaplanner and Business Intelligence Architect at LafargeHolcim in Australia. Jose has extensive experience in engineering, logistics, workplace health and safety, and teaching. He describes himself as intellectually curious and a creative thinker with a passion for management,…
Passed your L2 exam? Now what?!
Author: Hillary Sich is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Consultant Manager at Allitix. P.L.A.N.S. is the underlying guide to building a good model — and following these model building best practices will insure you're building the best model! If you've passed your L2 test and are diving into work, here are some…
Maximize your Anaplan experience: Tips to unlock the power of the platform
Author: Shivankur Sharma is a Certified Master Anaplanner and assistant manager in the consulting industry. Anaplan is a versatile cloud-based planning and performance management platform that empowers businesses to make informed decisions and drive operational excellence. But it can be overwhelming to get started in the…
Maximizing momentum: The pre-kickoff checklist
Author: Joe van Bolderen is a Certified Master Anaplanner and founder of Van Bolderen Consulting Group. Initiating an Anaplan implementation correctly is building the solid foundation necessary to having a successful implementation. If you're looking for a magic wand, you're in the wrong place. Anaplan implementations take…
Integrating AI with Anaplan to summarize table formatted data
Author: Henrikki Lehtola, Certified Solution Architect and Anaplan Consultant at twoday Finland. It's undeniable that artificial intelligence has revolutionized the way businesses operate. An example of this revolution is ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language model developed by OpenAI, that has the ability to understand…