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My journey on Workflow implementation — Part 1: the buildout
Author: Kevin Beltz has been a Certified Master Anaplanner since 2018 and is writing this blog on behalf of Wildflower Aspect.
Hello Anaplan Community!
Today I’m happy to share Part 1 of my Workflow journey. I segmented the blog into three sections: the state of Anaplan at my client, live build thoughts, and a summary section. These sections encapsulate my experiences and insights gained while understanding the technical aspects of Workflow. In the live build thoughts section, I documented my journey of setting up Workflow for the first time in April 2024. This journey is punctuated with enhancements, challenges, and moments of excitement.
Looking ahead, Part 2 is slated for a few months from now, by which time I anticipate having navigated through numerous workflow iterations with two distinct teams. Then I will present a comprehensive set of best practices, comparative metrics, and pre and post-release of Workflow to users. Stay tuned for that! Let’s get started…
The state of Anaplan at my client
The primary audience at 'my client' has been engaged with Anaplan for over two years. However, we have encountered resistance to the platform, and transitioning the team from Excel to Anaplan had proven to be a challenge at times. Recognizing this, our Anaplan Center of Excellence (CoE) identified Workflow as a cost-effective strategy to encourage users to adopt the Anaplan platform. We anticipate that Workflow — by providing a structured set of instructions — would facilitate a more complex business process. This, in turn, will encourage more users to review calculations and approve them, ultimately enhancing the Anaplan model and user experience.
Live build thoughts
Distribution v1 represented my initial foray into Workflow creation, characterized by its simplicity. I assigned myself as both the Assignee and Approver and found the process of receiving email notifications for each completed step enjoyable. I quickly realized that group tasks offered more flexibility than page tasks, providing backup coverage in case an employee is unavailable. The setup process for the Workflow was straightforward, intuitive, and quick for a linear workflow.
To gain further insights, I revisited the video #3 here: Lesson 3: Workflow Owner platform how-to and practice, a resource for Certified Anaplanners.
In Distribution v2, I experimented with the 'Assign to users from a line item in a module' feature to leverage boolean driven line items for submission and approval processes, aiming to drive Dynamic Cell Access in the model. However, I encountered a challenge when I realized that the workflow might not be synced to the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) in the same way as models, which was a cause for concern.
The first step of the planning process required users to select the L1 in page selectors, fill out a form (via grid card type), and click a process button to create the L2. I created the User Workflow Module on the L1 dimension, which is the same dimension as the form. In the Workflow settings, I referenced the same item that drives Step 2 “Create ... ” in the screenshot below.
I set myself as the Amount to Allocate and Approve (two distinct Workflow steps) user and initiated the template, and quickly realized that I did something wrong. The Workflow started for all list members of L1 instead of just one member! I’m trying to create a process for events “forecasts” that are ad-hoc and are all on different schedules for each L1 member. Unfortunately, I am not able to use the more powerful “Assign users from a line item in a module” and I will go back to Distribution V1. Good thing I used the “Duplicate Template” button!
Thank goodness for the ‘cancel Workflow’ button!
I went back into the Workflow assignment on the task and discovered the “context setting.” I picked one list member.
This would be a great spot for my purposes if I could choose this context setting when kicking off the template, instead of buried down in a task. If I have 20 tasks with the same context setting, I as the Workflow owner need to update each task. You are able to do it for the time dimension but not any other lists. Anaplan needs to stop building special functionality for native time!
Update: In mid-May 2024, I discovered this in Workflow — you can sync the dimension to the Workflow. When you start the Workflow, you can check this. It would be great if you could do this for all twenty tasks at once, instead of five clicks into each task!
Distribution V3: In this version, the goal is to create a highly detailed Workflow. The process has numerous non-mandatory tasks, leading to variability in task execution. Sometimes task X is performed, while at other times, the process jumps straight to task Y. The starting point for this version is the ideal Step 1 of the process, which begins with different users, model, and app.
The notify step was tested to understand its functionality. Initial thoughts raised questions about the need for a pre-selected user and message. While pre-selecting a user seemed logical, the inability to customize the message was seen as a limitation. Further consideration led to questioning the purpose of this step, as a change in assignee between Step 2 and Step 3 would result in the new assignee receiving a notification upon completion of Step 3.
In Distribution V3, one Page’s process has been streamlined into six sequential steps in the Workflow, mirroring the instructions on the page. The first step involves loading the most recent distribution from Model AB to Model AC. This process, which runs overnight, captures any changes from the Workflow steps "Review Process A" and "Review Process B". The machine task workflow step was utilized for this process, proving to be intuitive.
For page steps 2A and 2B, utilizing boolean driven line items to drive page step 3 could be beneficial. However, a challenge arises when the same user accomplishes all steps simultaneously, eliminating the back-and-forth interaction between User 1 and User 2. This suggests that if only one user is responsible for the entire process, it may not be the most effective solution. Further investigation is needed to understand where approvals fit into the process. Despite these challenges, the original 8 steps on the page were successfully condensed into seven workflow steps.
Upon initiating the Workflow, I discovered that it's possible to edit the users and due dates for each task, even after the workflow has started. This flexibility in editing the template post-launch is quite beneficial.
Running the detailed Workflow
Right away, I noticed is that my images are not downloading automatically in Outlook. Work with IT to get emails to automatically download from no-reply@anaplan.com, otherwise the email is ****! The second piece I noticed immediately, was that I made a typo in the Workflow name, and I am unable to change the name once the workflow is running! This is quite unfortunate, but I will carry on.
As a training exercise, I found keeping the Workflow task menu open by clicking “Go to Task Inbox” is a better experience than clicking emails that open up new tabs.
I am dazzled by the machine task. It automatically triggers when the step before it is completed. I have a UX choice — should I separate all of the pages to apply to each Workflow step and remove the blue action buttons from them? I almost triggered Step 3 process instead of hitting the “complete task”.
Early lessons learned
* It is more effective to rewatch the Workflow trainings and follow along while building live, rather than just watching the videos and their prompts.
* Group tasks are preferred over page tasks, as they allow for writeback into the Anaplan model and facilitate easier task user setup in a module.
* Users can complete the Workflow using the app/pages instead of the Workflow dropdown. This was observed during a test workflow where users insisted that the capital event was complete and data was extracted to load to our accounting system, even though the team was only at Workflow step 2 of 10.
* It may be necessary to work with IT to enable automatic email downloads from no-reply@anaplan.com, or adjust settings to automatically download if permissions allow.
* Creating Workflow-friendly pages is beneficial, especially when the page has one or more process buttons that are part of that page's workflow. Machine tasks can be used to run the process instead of a user clicking the process.
* Users should be trained to keep the Workflow menu open in their browser and navigate to the next steps from there.
* It is recommended to run through the entire workflow individually, then with power users, before opening it up to the team.
* Create a page that displays the Workflow steps and the current progress in the process is helpful.
Great things about Workflow
* Setting up Workflow in Anaplan was straightforward, with a 21-step process created in about an hour.
* Reviewing the entire planning process for a model/app is beneficial. It helped identify pain points in the processes and app that were not previously expressed by users or caught by me. At the very least, this is a great review exercise.
* The ability to export the Workflow steps after completion was appreciated, as it will be useful for audit purposes.
* Machine tasks were found to be highly effective, as they can eliminate all the buttons on pages that users often forget to hit.
* The flexibility to edit users and due dates mid-process was a valuable feature.
My thoughts on future enhancements for the Workflow team at Anaplan
* Page selectors within Workflow should sync from one workflow step to another, similar to how they do in apps.
* When initiating a Workflow based on a template, it would be beneficial to input a due date for when the Workflow needs to be completed.
* In addition to linear Workflow, branching Workflow should be considered.
* It would be advantageous to have dynamic text capability in the title and instructions to match a list selection or a key input when duplicating or initiating a template.
* The ability to edit Workflow steps in the middle of the Workflow would be helpful, as most Workflow steps are quite similar and recreating them for changes can be tedious.
* Workflow templates should be ALM enabled and synced.
* The ability to change Workflow names and descriptions after they have been created would be beneficial. This would prevent the need to restart the entire process due to minor errors like typos.
* Integrating Cloudworks processes into Workflow should be considered.
* Decision tasks should be able to reference a module, similar to group tasks.
* The name and description of a Workflow template should be written into a module, ideally the same module where users are selected and their progress is tracked.
* When using a module with dimensionality, all tasks should be set to "sync to Workflow" instead of individually.
Stay tuned for part two later this year — I’ll cover best practices, comparative metrics, and the pre and post release of Workflow to users. Thanks for reading and let me know if you have questions!
………………
Appendix
: This is what I am calling “Workflow steps”:
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ADO Access
Hi Everyone,
Can anyone will help me how can i get the access for Anaplan Data Orchestrator(ADO).
Regards
Rakesh ****
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Did You Know: Mastering Anaplan color matching
Author: Brent Orr is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Global Data Architect at Accenture.
Hello Anaplan Community!
The objective of this ‘Did You Know’ tutorial is to guide users on how to match the background colors of Anaplan management reports to maintain consistency with other pages in Anaplan.
The video is below, but here are the key steps:
* Right-click anywhere on the background of the page you want to match the color.
* Select "Inspect" at the bottom of the menu that appears.
* Look for the "background" attribute under the "style" section in the HTML elements.
* Identify the specific color by scrolling through the code or using the search function.
* Copy the color code.
* Go back to the report you want to edit, enter the edit mode, and navigate to the background settings.
* Replace the default color code with the copied color code.
* Save and publish the changes to apply the new background color.
Cautionary notes:
* Be careful not to modify other elements of the code while searching for the background color to avoid unintended changes.
* Ensure that the color code copied is accurate to achieve the desired color match.
Tips for efficiency:
* Use the color sample provided in the code to narrow down the search for the specific background color.
* Experiment with different color codes to find the perfect match for consistency across pages and slides.
* Utilize corporate colors or specific color schemes to maintain branding consistency within Anaplan reports and presentations.
https://play.vidyard.com/wUxz4u6pCrg8MpCZk38SFJ
Questions? Leave a comment!
P.S. Check out my other tutorial — How I Built It: Optimizer for work and play. In the video, I give a live demonstration of how to use Optimizer. I show an example of creating the modules necessary to set up a successful Optimizer run, and then use the tool to solve a fun golf problem that I recently experienced.
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Formula based on List top level
I have a module with one of the dimension as a list 'Prod Type', with items HW1, HW2 and this list has a top level 'All'.
In one of the line items in this module i want to apply a formula like below :-
If<top level of Prod Type> then <Task1> else <Task2>.
At first i thought of using parent(item(list)) as for top level this will return blank, but the module is having other hierarchical lists as well for dimensions due to which this formulation is not working for me.
Is there any work around for this?
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"Unable to Find Workspace Model Data - Check your connection and try again" Issue in Anaplan
Hello Anaplan Community,
I am encountering an error message in Anaplan: "Unable to find your workspace Model Data. Check your connection and try again." This issue seems to be related to the connection, but I’m unsure of the exact cause.
Has anyone experienced this before? What could be the potential reasons for this error, and how can I resolve it? Any help or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
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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! As stewards of Anaplan, our goal is to ensure your expertise stays relevant, regardless of when you were certified. Staying current with the latest Anaplan product releases and best practices will maintain your certification and enhance your expertise.
This year, the certification maintenance requirements for 2024 details that a course — Using Workflow in Anaplan — is required to be completed prior to January 31, 2024 by all Anaplan Certified Model Builders, Certified Solution Architects, and Certified Master Anaplanners. If you are not certified but still wish to complete the Workflow course, it is available here.
Certified Model Builder and Certified Solution Architect
The requirements to maintain certification are the same for both a Certified Model Builder and a Certified Solution Architect.
2024 Maintenance Requirements (valid through December 31, 2024):
* Complete Using Workflow in Anaplan (approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes)
* Completion of the Workflow training course will re-certify you for 2024
Certified Master Anaplanner
The requirements for Certified Master Anaplanners (CMAs) to maintain certification include maintaining your certification as a Certified Solution Architect and completing the CMA contribution activity requirement. CMAs may read more about the contribution maintenance requirements here.
2024 Maintenance Requirements (valid through December 31, 2024):
* Complete Using Workflow in Anaplan (approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes)
* Collect the required contribution activity points prior to the end of the year* Need points still? Please email masteranaplanners@anaplan.com
* Completion of both the Workflow training course and your required contribution activity points will recertify you for 2024
* Questions on your status as a CMA should be directed to masteranaplanners@anaplan.com
For general questions, please reach out to academy@anaplan.com, or leave a comment!
Please note: We are excited to announce that the Japanese version of the course will be available soon! 🇯🇵
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2025 Recertification update
We're working on enhancements to the certification program, focused on further elevating the quality and credibility of our certified professionals. These improvements will highlight the expertise of our super users to provide a distinct advantage in the competitive market. We expect to share more details in the spring of next year.
Certified Model Builders and Solution Architects
While we work on these enhancements, all existing certifications for Certified Model Builders and Solution Architects will remain valid until the new certification program is officially announced in Spring 2025.
Certified Master Anaplanners
No changes will be made to the annual contribution activity requirement. However, the technical requirement is waived for the 2024 program year certification maintenance as a result of the updates to the certification program.
Please refer to 2024 Certification Maintenance Requirements to review the list of applicable contribution activities if you still need to complete your activity requirement prior to the December 15th, 2024 deadline.
For Certified Master Anaplanners certification maintenance inquiries, please reach out to masteranaplanners@anaplan.com.
For general questions or clarifications, please reach out to academy@anaplan.com.
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Driving business transformation with Alessio Pagliano — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Tune in today for a conversation on driving business transformation as a CoE Leader! We welcome Alessio Pagliano (@Alessio_Pagliano) to Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast along with host Dennis Lemoine (@DennisL), Director of Customer Engagement & Experience.
Alessio has been in the Anaplan ecosystem for seven years, wearing various hats for major multinationals. His journey spans both end user and consulting roles, covering a wide range of use cases. He is a Certified Master Anaplanner, Anaplan Community Boss, and currently works as a solution architect at Puig. Alessio super active in the Community; he was spotlighted as a featured member in February and has a really useful blog post on UX design tips and references.
Learn about how Alessio came to work with the Anaplan platform, how he built a Center of Excellence, why the Certified Master Anaplanner designation is important, what he is excited about, and more.
“Getting up to the Certified Master Anaplanner certification forces you to study and acquire knowledge that you wouldn’t otherwise have because maybe you are specializing in a project that doesn’t integrate in a certain way. Whereas if you studied for the certification, you would know all the possible ways of integrating, so you are forced to cover the entire ecosystem one way or another.“- Alessio Pagliano
https://play.vidyard.com/6wa5pkun2Z3MYJCWShg538
Thanks for tuning it, and let us know what people and topics you would like to see in future episodes.
View all past podcast episodes here.
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How I Built It: Integrating Hierarchy Cards, Anaplan Connect, and Outlook
Author: Kamal Verma is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Solution Lead at Accordion.
Hello Anaplanner Community!
I am excited to participate in my second ‘How I Built It’ tutorial. Many clients want to be informed via an email notification when changes occur in their models.
This video will present one method to extend the functionality of Hierarchy Cards and Anaplan Connect to integrate with Outlook to automate approval notifications. This ‘How I Built It’ tutorial provides the high-level steps for a model builder to configure Anaplan to export a CSV file which can be used by a VBS script to email approval changes to relevant end-users.
Key features:
* Display employee attributes and approval status within a hierarchy card.
* Utilize a job scheduler to run an Anaplan Connect job, create an export file, and run a VBS script.
* Utilize Anaplan Connect to export a CSV containing the email recipient, email subject, and email body to be transmitted when changes occur.
* Utilize a VBS file to call a local Outlook instance to generate an email notification with the appropriate details.
https://play.vidyard.com/dLCAaVCRsKh6jfXWzni62i
Leave a comment if you have questions!
P.S. Check out my other ‘How I Built It’ here on Extending LISS capabilities.
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Certified Master Anaplanner Exam
Certifications offer a way to prove your skills. When you want to be recognized for achieving the highest level of skill, that of a Certified Master Anaplanner, you want to be sure the testing process is secure and that all applicants are treated fairly. To achieve that end, we have partnered with Kryterion Global Testing Solutions to administer the Certified Master Anaplanner Certification Exam.
Once you are qualified, you can sign up to take the 90-minute exam. It can be taken online as a proctored exam or at any Kryterion Testing Center. The exam is made up of 60 multiple choice questions that focus on the areas of modeling, data integration, and Center of Excellence principles.
There is a fee of $550 + local tax rate for each attempt.Frequently Asked Questions
How do I qualify for the Certified Master Anaplanner Certification Exam?
Please visit the eligibility page to review the qualifications for the Certified Master Anaplanner Certification Exam.
All Anaplan Certified Solution Architects automatically qualify for the Certified Master Anaplanner Certification Exam.
How do I access the Certified Master Anaplanner Certification Exam?
If you are an Anaplan Certified Solution Architect, you will be able eligible to sign up for the exam. Please follow the steps on the Certified Master Anaplanners Introduction page.
The first step is to create an account on Kryterion’s testing platform, Webassessor. Follow the links on the page to get this set up, using the same email as your Learning Center account. After creating your Webassessor account, the Certification Program Manager reviews your eligibility and approves your account. These approvals occur every Friday. After you are approved, you can register for either a proctored online exam or an in person exam at a Kryterion test site.
Why can’t I see anything past Step 1 on the Certified Master Anaplanners Introduction page ?
To be able to see the full list of steps outlined, you must meet the eligibility criteria by becoming an Anaplan Certified Solution Architect.
If you have completed this under a different email or company, please email Academy@anaplan.com to transfer over your learning records account.
Is there a fee for the Certified Master Anaplanner Certification Exam?
To cover the cost of the proctored examination, there is a fee of $550 plus regional taxes per scheduled exam.
How do I take the Exam?
You can find a list of testing centers here or take a proctored online exam. If you are taking the online proctored exam, please review Kyterion’s Online Testing Requirements. One of the requirements for the online exam is to download and install Kryterion’s Sentinel software, which may require Administrator privileges on your computer.
After your account is approved in Webassessor, you can register for either a proctored online exam or an in-person exam at a Kryterion testing center. The exam is timed and will take 90 minutes to complete. Please plan for testing of the proctoring system at the beginning of the online exam. This may take up to 15 minutes.
What happens if I applied before and didn't qualify?
All applicants will follow the same application-to-certification process regardless of the original application date.
Does this impact Current Certified Master Anaplanners?
No. Current Certified Master Anaplanners do not have to take the updated exam or pay any fees as long as their certification has not expired.
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How I Built It: Data locking and validation within processes
Author: Noah Jackson is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Principal Data and Insights Architect at Anaplan.
Hello Anaplan Community! I’m excited to share this ‘How I Built It’ video with you.
In this tutorial, I walk you through two types of actions that you can add to your Anaplan processes to improve your data access control and validation:
* A “Lock” action and an “Unlock” action that you can use to easily toggle access between different steps of a process.
* A “Data Check” action that we will set up to intentionally fail and halt the process when further action is needed.
In my sample model I use the “Lock / Unlock” actions to allow a non-Admin end user to import into a table for which they should generally have read only access. I use the “Data Check” action to draw attention to when a new product is added and requires a decision point, which avoids having to re-run imports and reduces the risk of missed steps.
I think these concepts and some of the tips and tricks I cover could be useful in all sorts of contexts; leave a comment if you see something that you think might fit in your models!
https://play.vidyard.com/ycCpnCW4aBTGucaYP8oc6V
Happy planning!
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2024 Certificate Maintenance for Certified Master Anaplanners
The 2024 Certified Master Anaplanner Program has begun and there's incredible opportunity for 2024 Certified Master Anaplanners (CMAs) to demonstrate their thought leadership, technical expertise, evangelism, and mentorship capabilities across the entire Anaplan Ecosystem!
At their core, a Certified Master Anaplanner is someone who elevates others in the Anaplan ecosystem through the many ways they share their expertise. They do this through their mentorship, sharing their community perspective and technical architecture thought leadership, demonstrating innovative solutions, providing product feature insight, ideating and inspiring others in the Anaplan Community to define the future of the platform, leading COE development, developing innovative roadmaps to scale the platform for business decision-making, and championing for Anaplan in the competitive market.
Engagement Zones
The 2024 Contribution Activities list is attached to this post, accessible for CMAs to download (last updated 8/1/2024):
2024 CMA Contribution Activities.pdf
Each contribution activity is mapped to four engagement zones to understand and communicate how Certified Master Anaplanners are driving impact within the Anaplan ecosystem. As mentors, thought leaders, Connected Planning evangelists, and technical experts, Certified Master Anaplanners are critical to elevating the broad Anaplan ecosystem and driving immense value through the many ways they share their expertise!
Each engagement zone is important to the Certified Master Anaplanner Community, the entire Anaplan Ecosystem, and the Anaplan Community! Our goal in highlighting these zones is to give each of you, as Certified Master Anaplanners, the opportunity to easily align your experience and personality with activities that are best suited for you to make a significant impact in a particular area of the Anaplan ecosystem. To that end, we ask that you select an engagement zone to focus on for your primary contribution activities or choose the unique blend of engagement zone activities you want to be recognized for. Will you aim to be one of the few Certified Master Anaplanners who complete activities in all four engagement zones during 2024?
We will be taking an agile approach towards contributions in 2024; therefore, we will review this list at least quarterly and share new contribution activities throughout the year as we determine a need.
Certification Maintenance Requirements
Certified Master Anaplanners must meet two key requirements during 2024 to renew their certifications for 2024. Unsurprisingly, the 2024 requirements are reflective of similar requirements in place during 2023.
* Complete Contribution Activities for 400 points (due December 15th, 2024)
* Remain/Renew Certification as a Certified Solutions Architect (update as of 10/16/2024: The technical requirement is waived for the 2024 program year certification maintenance as a result of the updates to the Anaplan certification program. See the announcement here.)
Also included again this year is the mid-year check-in requirement. The goal for this requirement is to create greater visibility into where and how Certified Master Anaplanners are contributing, as well as to assist Certified Master Anaplanners in proactively planning how they will attain contributions throughout the year.
There will be a mid-year check-in requirement for Certified Master Anaplanners to complete half (200 points) of the annual points requirement by June 30th, 2022, or ensure they have activities totaling 200 points lined up and confirmed by that date.
If you are a Certified Master Anaplanner who has any questions about the requirements for annual certification maintenance, your status, or how to engage, please email MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com.
If you are interested in the Certified Master Anaplanner Program and wish to learn more about how to become a Certified Master Anaplanner, please review the resources here and reach out to Certificate@Anaplan.com with any questions.
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What are the limitation of Cloudworks Integration?
Hello Community,
I am new to the Anaplan cloud works. I just want to know what are the important points we should keep in mind, while creating cloud works integration.
some where it is mentioned that per tenant the limit of integration is only 500. What does that mean? after 500 do I need to purchase any subscription for it ?
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Issue with Cloudworks Scheduled Process Not Updating Target Modules
Hi Team,
I am facing an issue with Cloudworks. When I run a process manually, it updates the data in the target modules. However, when I schedule the same process in Cloudworks, it runs successfully but the data is not copied to the target modules. There are no Selective Access or DCA applied.
Is anyone else facing the same issue?
If anyone knows the solution, please help me.
Thank you!
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Master Anaplanner Requirements
Dear All,
I just wanted to know if there are any other requirements, apart from being a Certified Solution Architect, to apply for the Master Anaplanner exam?
Thanks
Ashutosh
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Kickstarting your career in the Anaplan ecosystem: A beginner's guide
Author: Einas Ibrahim, Finance and SPM Consultant and Certified Master Anaplanner.
Embarking on a journey in the Anaplan ecosystem offers a unique blend of challenges and opportunities. As someone who started from the basics and advanced to being recognized as a Certified Master Anaplanner, I've gathered numerous insights not only from my own experiences but also from supporting many others during their Anaplan journey. I've seen firsthand where learners often struggle and succeed. This blog aims to guide new learners in establishing a robust foundation in Anaplan; sharing key strategies and insights that have been pivotal in my development.
Tips to getting started in the Anaplan ecosystem
Learn the basics with Anaplan Academy
Depending on your background and familiarity with multidimensional systems, you might consider starting with the Anaplan Essentials courses (Academy login required) at the learning center. These fundamental courses lay the groundwork for understanding the platform’s core concepts and multidimensional modeling. If you lack experience with multidimensional systems like Anaplan, I recommend beginning with the Essentials of Model Building course. This course, which simulates end-user experiences, can provide a practical understanding, setting a strong base for your advancement. I have observed that these initial steps are crucial for some learners before they dive into Level 1, as they prepare you to grasp the basic functionalities before tackling more complex scenarios.
Advance with certifications
Advancing to the Model Builder Certification (Level 1, Level 2, and the Anaplan Way (TAW)) is essential after mastering the basics. These certifications deepen your understanding through complex model building and advanced scenario analysis. Each level builds upon the last, improving your skills and preparing you for more detailed challenges in enterprise planning. To reinforce this knowledge, I recommend that learners rebuild the models they've created during certification training independently, without the aid of step-by-step guides. This practice not only reinforces learning but also cultivates an intuitive grasp of Anaplan’s functionality.
Emphasize best practices and Planual guidelines
A critical component of development in Anaplan should include a thorough understanding and application of the Planual — Anaplan’s manual for Connected Planning best practices. Adhering to these guidelines ensures model optimization and efficiency, which are vital for handling complex projects. Also, following the Best Practices suggested by Anaplan's Operational Excellence Group (OEG) can greatly improve your model-building process. This will make sure you follow industry standards and improve the overall performance of your solutions.
Take time before advancing to Solution Architect
Before rushing into the Level 3 Solution Architect certification, it's essential to take time to practice and apply the skills learned from earlier certifications. Building a variety of models across different scenarios improves your practical experience and prepares you for the challenges of the solution architect role. This measured approach allows for deeper understanding and more effective application of Anaplan’s capabilities in real-world situations.
Achieving Certified Master Anaplanner status
Achieving Certified Master Anaplanner status is a significant milestone that marks the pinnacle of Anaplan certifications. This achievement not only validates your expertise but also enhances your credibility within the Anaplan community, allowing you to mentor others more effectively. For those interested in the details of my journey to becoming a Master Anaplanner, I invite you to watch my interview where I share experiences and insights that could guide you on your path.
Practical application and Anapedia
Utilizing Anapedia to deepen your understanding of Anaplan’s capabilities is essential. This online resource provides comprehensive information on functionalities that are crucial for refining your modeling techniques, especially after moving past the structured lessons of certification courses.
Hands-on practice with Talent Builder Program
Engaging with Anaplan’s Talent Builder program to apply what you've learned is helpful for practical experience. Additionally, participating in community challenges can further refine your skills and expose you to a broader range of platform applications, ensuring that your learning is well-rounded and focused on real-world applications.
Engage with the Anaplan Community
Active participation in the Anaplan Community has been a rewarding aspect of my journey. Being recognized as a Community Boss reflects my commitment to assisting other Anaplanners through their learning paths and has allowed me to make a significant impact on others' experiences in the ecosystem. Get involved in Community — it'll help others and keep your skills sharp!
Build and showcase your portfolio
Compiling a detailed portfolio of your Anaplan projects is crucial. This portfolio should document the challenges you've tackled, the solutions implemented, and the results achieved, providing a tangible demonstration of your capabilities and professional growth.
Continue your learning and professional growth
Keep learning about Anaplan's changing platform. This will help you regularly improve your skills and stay competitive in the field. There are monthly updates and quarterly events to help you in this area.
Conclusion
From taking initial steps in learning to reaching Certified Master Anaplanner status and sharing my insights, my journey in the Anaplan ecosystem has been a rich tapestry of learning and growth. Each phase of development has been an opportunity to deepen my understanding and refine my skills, paving the way for professional success. By sharing my journey, I hope to inspire you to seize each learning opportunity and community interaction, leading you to your own success in the dynamic world of Anaplan.
Questions? Leave a comment!
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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 2012, mathematician Arto Inkala created what’s considered to be the hardest Sudoku puzzle to solve and I’ve never been able to solve it, so I brought in some assistance from my favorite tool!
Optimizer is a really important part of the Anaplan platform. It can be used by organizations to find the optimal solutions to business problems where there is a need to optimize a business outcome that has multiple moving parts and constraints. In doing so it automates business decisions that are impossible for humans to thoroughly analyze. For example, I have implemented it at a media organization that needed to decide which new television program projects they should invest in to maximize ROI, whilst observing other targets such as minimum hours of programming needed per genre.
Check it out and let me know if you have questions!
https://play.vidyard.com/Dkwo7eMRBe7Fe8kCEuFDm6
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All the 'How I Built It' tutorials can be found here.
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A conversation with Lis de Geus — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Today we're excited to share episode 16 of Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast. Our host, Dennis Lemoine (@DennisL), Director of Customer Engagement & Experience, chats with Lis de Geus (@lis.degeus) — Certified Master Anaplanner and Principal Solution Architect at Bedford Consulting.
Lis has been in the FP&A space on both the customer side (Procter & Gamble, Booking.com, kpn) and now the partner side (with Bedford Consulting). She moved from Brazil to the Netherlands to take on an intriguing new role called “Anaplan model builder" — and her Anaplan career took off from there! In today's podcast, she talks about moving from the customer space to the consulting space, the difference between the two and what she has learned, how she approaches client conversations, and so much more. Tune in to this conversation that is guaranteed to offer perspective on Anaplan no matter what your own role in the ecosystem!
“Being alone [learning] on the customer side… it was really great to know I had Community there to go to when I needed.” - Lis de Geus
https://play.vidyard.com/8tZFKbBbcqWcFyXm1LkiiH
Thanks for tuning it, and let us know what people and topics you would like to see in future episodes.
Check Lis's blog posts in Community:
* Getting your users engaged by giving them … laptop stickers? (Mentioned in the podcast!)
* How I Built It: Waterfall calculation
* Smart Data Storage
View all past podcast episodes here.
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Inquiry Regarding Zero Chunk Count in Anaplan Integration API V2 Downloads
I am currently working with the Anaplan Integration API V2 to download a list of files and obtain their corresponding file IDs. In previous downloads, the chunk count for the files was correctly indicated. However, I have noticed that the chunk count for the same files now shows as zero, despite no changes being made to the model or files in Anaplan.
This discrepancy in the chunk count is preventing me from downloading the files as expected. Could you please provide some insights into why the chunk count has suddenly become zero? Additionally, why is Anaplan not allowing us to determine the appropriate chunk size for downloading files? Any guidance on resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.
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How I Built It: Limitless interdependent multi-select filters
Author: Daniel Badura is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Lead Architect at Dr. Oetker.
Hello Anaplan Community! In this ‘How I Built It’ tutorial, I show how you can build filters that filter filters, without using any dependent dropdowns. Each filter allows multiple selections, and they are all mapped using a single system module. This method offers a great deal of flexibility while being easy to build, maintain and extend.
This approach works best for big lists with many attributes, like products, campaigns, or accounts, especially when used in larger modules with few dimensions. It can be useful to uncover relationships and imbalances in master data.
Key features:
* A system module contains the mapping of each filter to the filtered list.
* Each filter has its own module with the Users list.
* The filters are displayed in single-column grids.
* Making a selection in one filter not only filters the data grid, but also the other filters.
https://play.vidyard.com/M3HtGXRVFAS9QYEXYaVh1k
Questions? Leave a comment!
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All ‘How I Built It’ tutorials can be found here.
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A conversation with Kevin Cho — Journey | Anaplan Community Podcast
Welcome to episode 15 of Journey, an Anaplan Community podcast. Tune in today to hear host Kas Gengadaren (@KasG), Anaplan’s Senior Program Manager of Global Ecosystem Experience, chat with Kevin Cho (@kevin.cho) — Certified Master Anaplanner, Community Boss, and Planning Systems Manager at Atlassian.
Kevin is an experienced application manager with a demonstrated history of supporting finance teams across their planning journey. Currently the Anaplan Team Lead at Atlassian, he champions the FP&A teams set of Anaplan models. He has a keen interest in all things Anaplan connectivity related, especially the extensibility of the platform surrounding data integration and the API suite. Kevin joins us from Sydney, Australia.
In this episode, you’ll learn about Kevin’s journey in the Anaplan ecosystem, his experience going through the Anaplan training pathways, how he develops his team, community building, and more.
“Over the years I’ve really appreciated how close-knit the Community is. I’ve had the opportunity to present at a couple of Anaplan Connect [events] — different sessions on model optimization and CoE best practices — but I’ve also had the opportunity to connect directly with other customers as well and it’s always been really good as a mutually beneficial relationship.” – Kevin Cho
https://play.vidyard.com/8DLPniUSSp8KMhACyQp1gC
Thanks for tuning it, and let us know what people and topics you would like to see in future episodes.
Check Kevin’s blog posts in Community:
* Managing a distributed Center of Excellence
* Python and Anaplan: Pt 1 — Setting Up Your Environment
* Python and Anaplan: Pt 2 — Anaplan Model Registry Case Study
View all past podcast episodes here.
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June 2024 Community Member Spotlight: Rob Marshall
This month we are thrilled to feature @rob_marshall as our Community Member Spotlight! Rob is our first-ever Anaplan employee member spotlight, and we wanted to highlight all the incredible contributions he has made over the years. Additionally, he’s part of our Community Boss Employees program, which we just launched last week.
Rob has been with Anaplan for nearly 10 years, is an employee Certified Master Anaplanner, and one of our most active users of all time since the Anaplan Community launched. Some fun stats to share: Rob has 220+ discussions, written 2,200+ comments, and has 250+ accepted answers in Community.
Learn more about Rob's Anaplan background and impressive contributions below!
About Rob
We asked Rob about his background and history with Anaplan. Here’s what we learned!
My name is Rob Marshall and I have been here at Anaplan for almost a full 10 years (start date was July 7, 2014) and I work in the Operational Excellence Group (OEG). Our main role is to define modeling best practices and educate the ecosystem on the most performant ways to build models. We accomplish this by writing articles for Community, answering questions on Community, as well as speaking at customer events like Anaplan Connect and ACE. Additionally, we help our customers, partners, and internal folks optimize poorly performing models.
We asked Rob a few questions to get to know him.
Share one project you’ve worked on at Anaplan that you’re particularly proud of.
I would say two projects, the first being co-author of The Planual. The second is MAPS (Model Analysis Proactive Solution). It started being an internal project but it has grown into much more than we thought. Mark Warren and I created a model called MAPS where we bring in data from our logs and we can see how a model has been built, from a structural standpoint. We have incorporated logic and analyze the data against the Planual which our Customer Success Business Partners can share with customers.
What are the most innovative ways you’ve seen Anaplan being used in your time here?
In our T&Q app, we created a binary list to figure out if an account matches a Territory Rule. Since the binary list goes from 0 to all 1’s, it has an inherent weighting as part of it. We put a top level on it and changed our summary to Last Non Blank so now the most granular rule will always be chosen.
What is a fun fact that nobody knows about you?
I almost quit working at Anaplan six months into my tenure because I couldn’t figure out the difference between a LOOKUP and a SUM and when to use them.
What's one thing on your bucket list that you hope to accomplish in the next year?
Bucket list — having both of our girls graduate from high school and moving them into their college dorms. Now that my wife and I are empty nesters, we have no idea what we are going to do with our time as we are no longer Ubering our girls to club soccer games or tournaments.
…..We hope you enjoyed learning more about Rob in this month’s Community Member Spotlight. Thank you, Rob, for being an outstanding Community contributor and advocate!
We asked Rob to share his favorite articles he’s written, or co-wrote in Community. They include:
* The Planual
* Data Hubs: Purpose and Peak Performance
* Decreasing the length of your formulas
Want to learn more about our Community Member Spotlight series? Check out this post.
Do you know someone in the Community who you think should be featured in a Community Member Spotlight? We want to hear about it — please nominate them here.
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