Introductions

AMora · 2023-05-11T14:06:02+00:00

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I did not already see a place for this so figured we could have this as a place for all to go through and provide introductions.

If you're new here, we'd love for you to introduce yourself to us and others in the group! If you feel comfortable, start by sharing:

Where you are based?
What brought you to the Higher Education User Group?
What challenges you are solving or hope to solve with Anaplan?

I'll go first! Hello everyone, Allen Mora here, I'm with the University of Miami in sunny South Florida. We are currently in the process of implementing Anaplan.

We chose Anaplan as our new system to replace an existing one given the speed, flexibility and hopefully scalability of the solution. We are excited to hear from everyone and are thankful to our partners for getting this group going!

Comments

FXA13

Hi all,

My name is Frank Ayata. I live in Doylestown PA in the greater Philadelphia area. Currently I’m seeking a position in higher education or finance domain as an Anaplan model builder. I am finishing up my PhD degree in educational leadership program at Penn State University. I have worked for public schools for the past 16 years as Business Manager. I learned about Anaplan about 4 four years ago. I tried to implement it into my workplace. I really think anaplan is a great program for educational organizations. That’s why I am here.

Looking forward to more collaboration with everyone here

etbell

Hi Allen! Welcome to the group and thank you so much for posting this to provide a spot for everyone to make introductions.

skarki

Hi all,

I am Sahil. I am from Reno, Nevada. I am Anaplan model builder, currently working with university of Nevada, reno. At this moment, I am helping university to maintain their financial and strategic models through Anaplan. Apart from that, I am working to implement API for automation purpose and implement new UX.

My purpose to join this group is to learn, share or explore new ideas with members. This group could be good initiative for collaboration between different higher ED institute in efficient and effective manner.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Sahil Senior Anaplan Model Builder, University of Nevada, Reno

MGerke

Hello,

My name is Megan. I live and work in Las Vegas, NV. I work in Higher Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), an R1 Research Institute. We are one of seven state institutions with one research institute and one system administration under our Higher Education Board. We implemented Anaplan system-wide during the pandemic and went live in February 2021 for the FY22 Budget cycle (FY July-June). We are currently in our third budget season using Anaplan. We use Workday for our financial system, which is integrated into a Data Hub for Anaplan and flows into our spoke models. I assist with maintaining both our Data Hub and spoke models for our Financial Planning, Budget & Analysis office. The UNLV budgets include state appropriations, student tuition and fees, sales and services, and other sources. We have both centralized and decentralized budgets and we budget down to the position level at our institution.

I joined the Higher Education group hoping to connect with others in public institutions who have implemented Anaplan to share ideas, knowledge, and any tips or tricks they have learned. Our current challenges are maintaining our model when new changes are made in Workday and having enough time to build from our long list of roadmap items. I also have no issues meeting with folks in the process of or considering implementation to share our experience and lessons learned.

I look forward to meeting and getting to know others in this group.

FXA13

Anyone will be in San Diego on June 6th from this group? I'll be there.

MGerke

@ Frank Ayata, I am at the Anaplan conference in San Diego. Will be at the welcome reception this evening if you would like to connect. Feel free to message me.

Megan Gerke ( Megan.Gerke@unlv.edu)

rtbarber789

I'm Rebecca Barber, Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis at Michigan State University. We just purchased Anaplan here, although this will be my 2nd time implementing it at an R1 institution. Out use cases here range the gamut - starting with operational budgeting, but moving into capital planning, debt and cash management, and possibly into managing faculty time as an inventory-type problem. I am hoping to make lots of contacts with other forward thinkers of how we can use this tool to transform our institutions.

etbell

@Rebecca Barber Welcome! So glad to have you join the group! We hope this group can be exactly what you are looking for; a way to connect with other forward thinkers and explore ways to use Anaplan to transform financial planning and analysis for MSU.

mrobins303

My name is Marshall Robinson and I live and work in Columbia, SC. I am a Budget/System Analyst at the University of South Carolina where I am the model builder and maintainer of our Data Hub and spoke models. We began implementation of Anaplan during the FY22 fiscal year to assist with budget development, planning, reporting, and analysis.

I hope to connect with other likeminded individuals to learn, share, and explore other ways of using the Anaplan tool.

Garth

Howdy everyone,

Where are you based?

University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ - Bear Down!

What brought you to the Higher Education User Group?

Always looking to learn and connect.

What challenges you are solving or hope to solve with Anaplan?

Full spectrum of planning needs. We are starting with multi-year planning, then moving on to annual/monthly budgets and monthly forecasting. After that I am looking to replace our in-house budget journal voucher tool, create a commitment tracking module, and create some workflow around our capital planning processes. I have dreams beyond that, but that's a good place to start.

Take care,

Garth

cwilliamshbu

Hi everyone,

I'm Candace D. Williams. I'm a Business Systems Analyst at Houston Christian University. (Formerly Houston Baptist University, we're going through a name change) I've been a member of the community for a while but never introduced myself. My organization is based in Houston, Texas. I started off as the project manager for the Anaplan implementation at my institution and after turn over, started studying to become a model builder.

My organization has configured how the budget should be maintained within Anaplan. We're now looking to collaborate and learn from others as we continue to build functionality. We also just hosted an Anaplan User Group on our campus and would love if you came to future User Group meetings. Send me an email at cwilliams@hbu.edu if you're interested!

Thanks,

Candace D. Williams

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