Anaplan Partners for FP&A
Hey there,
Has anyone implemented Financial Planning & Analysis in Anaplan for an organization without an Anaplan partner or a light one? If so, how was your experience?
Thanks!
Andrew
Best Answer
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@Aenenmoh - great question!
I was part of a lift and shift implementation moving from a different FP&A planning platform to Anaplan - we took a lighter approach with consulting as we already knew our system requirements and we really just needed the upskilling to understand Anaplan. Our partner provided a week long boot-camp style training class and then we had a played a coach/guide role with our internal FP&A team doing all of the hands on build.
For me it was a great experience because we were intimately familiar with everything in our model and 100% able to support the go-forward needs. However, bear in mind our initial implementation was focused on replicating an existing process not really a transformation project. We did end up rebuilding large components of the model over time and adding purpose driven spoke model to enhance the legacy process. In the end it was the right approach for us but go-fast comes with trade-offs and you need to be comfortable with some level of rework later.
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Answers
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Hi @Aenenmoh!
I was involved in such an implementation on the partner side. The client had a ready model in another system and it required changes. There were also specialists from the business side who were ready to deal with the implementation.
I (from the partner's side as an architect & PM) gave the customer a two-day training on modeling and building their solution architecture. Further colleagues were trained by Anaplan and we met with them for 1 day a week to discuss issues/architecture/progress/form the backlog for the week.
So in about three months they reworked their budget model. The labor for consulting was about 120 hours (training and support).
But this case is the exception rather than the rule. A good implementation would require an experienced architect to tackle the most complex issues and lay the right foundations for the model. You can build it without him, but after a while you will have to redo it 🙂
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Appreciate the insight!
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I appreciate the insight! May I ask, did you all receive consulting for the replication of the of the legacy model also?- or just for the transformation project? I'm prepared to do some rework at some point if it means I'll be more intimately familiar with Anaplan and the model.
Best,
Andrew
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@Aenenmoh - our consulting usage was focused on only the skilling for replicate the legacy model. Once we had the baseline knowledge we drove our own transformation (i.e. the rework) with no external consulting. I think you are on a great path and I wish you much success!!
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Hello. I would like to have your opinion on this: My Concern About Anaplan’s Lack of Predefined Validations and Processes
We are currently implementing Anaplan in our company, and during the process, we have noticed a critical issue: Anaplan does not come with predefined validations or standard processes, unlike other financial planning software such as SAP BPC, Oracle PBCS, or Tagetik.
This has led us to feel that we are essentially developing a software solution from scratch, rather than implementing an enterprise-ready planning tool. While we understand that Anaplan is designed to be flexible and adaptable, we expected the tool to come with at least basic built-in controls and validation mechanisms—such as ensuring that accounts, cost centers, and currencies are valid, or that all Budget items exist in Forecast 1 and Forecast 2.
The Main Problem
No built-in validations: In other software, validation rules ensure data integrity automatically. In Anaplan, everything must be manually configured.
No standard processes: Other tools provide preconfigured workflows for budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation. In Anaplan, everything has to be built from scratch.
Dependence on consultants: Because of the lack of out-of-the-box features, the quality of the implementation entirely depends on the consultants, and if they do not apply best practices, the system ends up being just an expensive version of Excel.
My Questions
1. Do other companies face the same problem?
2. Is it normal for Anaplan implementations to lack predefined validations, requiring everything to be manually built?
3. How do companies ensure best practices when even experienced consultants do not seem to include standard validation processes?
4. Does Anaplan provide guidelines or best practices to its partners (consulting firms) to ensure implementations follow structured validation and control methodologies?
At this point, it feels like Anaplan is too open-ended, requiring excessive manual setup for even basic financial planning features. I would appreciate insights from others who have implemented Anaplan to understand how they tackled this issue.
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