[Part 1] Enhanced Reporting of the Anaplan Audit Log Summary

AnaplanOEG

As organizations continue to embrace Anaplan's powerful platform for connected planning and decision-making, maintaining robust security and compliance measures has become increasingly essential. The Anaplan Audit Log serves as a critical tool in achieving these objectives, providing granular insights into user activities and data changes within the platform. However, unlocking the full potential of the audit log and utilizing it effectively for reporting purposes presents its own set of challenges.

The primary purpose of this article is to explore these challenges and offer practical solutions to help organizations overcome them, thereby enabling them to harness the power of the Anaplan Audit Log for comprehensive reporting and analysis. By addressing the complexities associated with audit log reporting, organizations can strengthen their security posture, improve compliance, and enhance overall operational efficiency.

Efficiently fetching and formatting the audit log data for reporting purposes can be a complex and time-consuming task. In this article, we will explore the Anaplan Audit History Python project available on GitHub that automates the process of fetching Anaplan audit history, transforming it into a meaningful and reportable format, and loading the data into an Anaplan Reporting Model. Data that is captured includes user identification, the timestamp of the activity, the specific event type, and a description of the action taken. This data is recorded in a consistent and structured format, making it easy to filter, sort, and analyze.

By leveraging the power of Python, organizations can save valuable time, enhance reporting capabilities, and uncover valuable insights from their audit log data. The following diagram illustrates the process:

Next, learn how to deploy this solution by reading the second installment of this series: [Part 2] Enhancing Anaplan Audit Log Data Extraction with Streamlined Python Solutions.

Author: Quin Eddy, @QuinE - Director of Data Integration, Operational Excellence Group (OEG)

QuinE

That is correct @jerecha3. Thank you for pointing this out.

mhinnes

This is a fantastic article and helps us solve a number of inquires we have from Customers. Well done!

QuinE

Exciting news! The Anaplan Audit History Python solution is now cross-platform, supporting Windows, macOS, and Linux. 🎉 To upgrade, first uninstall the old libraries: pip uninstall jwt and pip uninstall pyjwt. Then, reinstall pyjwt with pip install pyjwt for enhanced functionality. #happyauditing #anaplan #python

QuinE

Exciting News Update! In response to your valuable feedback and requests for enhancements, we're thrilled to unveil two new improvements in this project. Here's what's new:

1. Expanded Authentication Options: We've listened to your needs and now offer enhanced support for authentication. You can now choose between basic username and password authentication or utilize certificate-based authentication.
   
2. It is your choice - Names or IDs: You now have the freedom to input either the workspace and model names or their respective IDs.

david.savarin

Hi @QuinE interesting article, our CSE mentionned in a tricky discussion we have :

Can we leverage this solution to document namely the imports to Anaplan at the detailed level (e.g. Source —> Mapping —> Target (module ) ?

As a bank we have compliance regulations that require to document the full lineage of data going through systems, including Anaplan as a data processing entity

QuinE

Hi @david.savarin - Thanks for your question. I understand your concern, but unfortunately, there is currently no way to expose this via the Anaplan REST API. I will share your input and insights with our product management.

david.savarin

Thanks for the answer. I would be interested in the rationale there. All the information (target module, ids, import definitions...) are all visible and we clearly see them surface in the alm change analysis reports when we change things in the imports definitions.