Ensure community members are fully on top of new enhancements (improving comms and alerts)

As a community member I like/need to be on top of any new enhancements that are made available.

Most recently it seems the strategy, alerting, comms has changed and it's more complicated to be on top of new enhancements, plan, test and deploy them as quickly as we would love to.

Could we improve the comms by creating a very easy to follow process where any community member, if interested, could be notified and kept in the loop accordingly ?

I will know this idea has been delivered when I will be notified right away or, even better, with some notice on any enhancement that become available.

I think this would be extremely beneficial to everyone and shouldn't be too complex to achieve.

PS I already followed the instructions on this link, keep my profile up to date, attend partner roadmap webinars and consult the relevant sections but lately it seems this isn't enough (platform updates and product news&releases)

Thanks!

Alessio Pagliano

CC @EricS

Comments

aaron_overfors

Agree. There are occasionally feature/functionality changes that are not communicated via platform updates and it is difficult to confirm new behavior. Consolidation and comprehensiveness of platform updates would be much appreciated!

brettnish

Also agreed, a recent example of this would be that Tenant Admins can now rename workspaces without going through Anaplan support. There's constantly small changes like that that will get documentation updated in Anapedia but are reflected nowhere in the release notes / platform updates

EricS

Hi everyone,

We appreciate your patience on this topic as we work through some changes that have occurred internally. This is in the process of being streamlined, as there have bee multiple avenues/pages where people can subscribe, but those pages are not necessarily tied to the correct systems for publishing, or receiving timely updates in order to alert folks "in the moment."

Thank you,

Eric

Alessio_Pagliano

Thanks @EricS , good to receive an update on this topic. Is there an ETA for this and would you be able to drop a final update on here, once available ?

EricS

Hi @Alessio_Pagliano there are a lot of moving pieces from around the org, so it's a matter of coordinating the what and when. I'll certainly post here as we approach the ETA. Part of the solution will be to ensure you've "subscribed" to this page: https://community.anaplan.com/categories/platform-updates by clicking on the "bell icon" (see picture) at the top of the page. We are looking at potentially recreating that page with sub-sections, each of which would also have an option for "subscribing" but we've not solidified that quite yet.

brettnish

Another new example we noticed today, when did the ability to restore a deleted page go live? Not mentioned in any release notes anywhere

https://help.anaplan.com/delete-or-restore-a-page-fb286baf-7348-4841-b5f8-33c3f5aee9c8#restore-a-deleted-page says it was updated Jan 19

Alessio_Pagliano

Hi @EricS any updates on this ? If a more comphrensive approach isn't doable in the short period, is it not possible to put together a short term plan where stream leads would update a "permanent" post whenever something is dropped into EA and production ?

Now that I'm back into an end customer role I feel I have even less visibility as I am no longer receiving the "Partner Update" newsletter. My only way is to keep an eye on here :

https://product.anaplan.com/

But there wasn't a December or January releases and sneak peek. 😓

brettnish

User Subsets went live today, not mentioned in the platform releases, not mentioned in the maintenance notes, another feature that we wouldn't know about unless we are scouring every single forum post on a daily basis

brettnish

We just noticed today that the new module view is live for certain tenants and haven't seen that posted anywhere yet

Alessio_Pagliano

Mmm :-| true !

I now see the new modules view in my tenants

I hope this comms gap can be filled asap as it's been ongoing for some time 😥

Alessio_Pagliano

I have just seen a post saying show/hide on data grids and cascade on management reporting are now live ?

We just went live yesterday and the show/hide is particularly impactful for end user.

Not ideal. I hope this ongoing community gap is going to be filled asap.

EricS

Hey everyone,

It's been several weeks in the making, but I'm happy to announce (and you'll see a blog post on the same topic shortly) that we've recently enhanced our Platform Release Community section!

You can now subscribe to the monthly platform releases from this page:
https://community.anaplan.com/categories/latest-platform-releases (click the bell icon to subscribe). You'll notice on that page, we've designed it to show releases on a "per month" basis so you can easily find the topics aligned with the month they released! We realized some recent changes to pages on community, along with support, made it confusing where to get these much needed updates. I'm happy to share the page above is the only place you now need to follow 😀😁

Additionally, based on your feedback above and from other community members, I'm pleased to announce we are starting a new (technical) customer webinar series that will highlight the details of each platform release. Our OEG (Operational Excellence Group), headed by Stephen Rituper, will be doing a deep-dive, "how-to" presentation and demonstrating the recent updates from within the platform, along with a live question & answer session!

Our first webinar, meant for model builders and end-users, will be April 30th, 8am PDT. You can register here: https://info.anaplan.com/resources_webinars_gen_fy25_q1_apr_glob_gen_wbnr_quarterly-customer-product-release.html

After checking out the above platform release page, please let me know if that hits the mark! We're always looking to enhance the site and make it easier to use for you!

All the best, and thank you all for your patience and also supporting the community!

Eric

Alessio_Pagliano

Thanks a lot @EricS , much appreciated and fab news ! I have subscribed to both the page and the event (will it be recorded?) and reviewed the latest March release article.

It seems this is going to fill the gaps but we can continue to use this post for a little while for further suggestions, praises, etc if that's ok ?

I love the fact that each of the platform releases for March has a recorded video or animated gif. I suggest for this to be kept as the standard. The material could then be incorporated in Anapedia, training & re-certification requirement stuff.

I also love the introduction to the quarterly release platform session led by OEG. With this what's available for customers it's going to get closer to what was available for partners only with the highspot related material. I think this is definitely instrumental to ensure value add for customer investing in Internal CoEs, Master Anaplanners and any other professionals that want/need to keep up to date with the latest info.

When it comes to the release board I would love to see the introduction of a structured product release calendar which would link the wider roadmap and Idea Exchange to the single individual enhancements, ideally tracking :

Title (a short description)
Stream (eg PlanIQ, Workflow, Modeling, etc)
Fed by (eg Product roadmap, Idea Exchange, Bug, etc)
Status (eg Assessed, Planned, Rejected, In Analysis, Planned for [QX FYXX], Replanned for [QX FYXX], In Development, In Testing, in GA, Released in Production)
Comments
Documentation links (eg links to videos, Anapedia, Demo Hub App models, etc)

I think this type of approach would provide more transparency between the roadmap/ambition and actual roadmap and would help customers and partners to plan accordingly.

Thanks!

Alessio

Alessio_Pagliano

Hi @EricS I just came across this :

https://community.anaplan.com/discussion/158045/great-spot-by-andrew

Which is key outstanding feature I have been waiting for a very long time. In reviewing your post it seems we would still missing a key gap which is making sure there is full prompt visibility in whatever is promoted live or even GA (I know there are some plans internally to make this happen…not sure if it's an initiative led by Support, but they are certainly stakeholders).

In the short term, why not getting the product managers to create a post in the community ? Monthly news are good, but aren't enough.

Thanks!

brettnish

Hi @EricS,

Has there been any update on this yet? Especially now that they've also stopped posting the sneak peak blurbs for the next month as well

EricS

Please see my comment from March. You can subscribe to monthly platform release information, along with subscribing to announcements of our quarterly platform release webinar series that's now underway.

See here: https://community.anaplan.com/categories/platform-updates

You can subscribe here:
https://community.anaplan.com/categories/latest-platform-releases which is updated every month

https://community.anaplan.com/categories/quarterly-event-series which is presented by Anaplan employees for customers

Best,

Eric

EricS

Hi folks,

If the above updates/enhancements isn't doing the trick, let me know as I'd be happy to schedule a call with all of you and walk through your ideas on ensuring the right details are provided in a timely manner. There may be some confidentiality or roadmap disclosures that cannot be shared based timelines, but if a meeting would be helpful, let me know and I'll set something up for us (PM'ing me is probably best).

Best,

Eric

Alessio_Pagliano

Hi @EricS ,

Thanks for this update. I can definitely say it's not getting any easier to stay on top of updates/enhancements so I'd definitely be happy and volunteer to help shaping something that works for all.

I have the feeling that my former colleague @brettnish would feel the same ? And I know I am not the only one.

Perhaps this could be material for a wider call with a few selected people and/or with the Community Bosses and/or Master Anaplanner group? A little bit like what was facilitated with the OEG by @becky.leung a while ago.

My gut feeling is that there will be more key streams developing at speed (ADO, AI, Apps, etc) and even more "steam" driven by the injection of budget & investment.

To be entirely honest I am feeling that being back on a end-customer role has taken away some "privileged access" I used to have as a Master Anaplanner. However, being a Master Anaplanner no longer gives me this type of opportunity and I believe it's key to be on top of it all (or as much as possible).

Thanks for listening and for following it up !

Alessio

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