alternative hierarchy

LouiseBourgonjon · 2024-07-23T11:57:04+00:00

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Hi Anaplan community,

I get a request from the business to add another view to the aggregation of the organizational hierarchy in an existing model.

Currently we have a couple of sites, rolling up into platforms, rolling up into "Global Manufacturing" or "Global Overhead". This is currently setup using hierarchical lists (not numbered).

The request is now to add an additional way to represent the hierarchy, taking out one platform out of the total and then reporting as rolling up into "Global Manuf. excl. Platform X".

Knowing that the whole model is already built, what would be the easiest way to accommodate this request? Also noting that the original hierarchy also needs to stay available for reporting.

The idea I tested out is to setup an alternate hierarchy (so duplicating the existing lists and then changing the names to specify that the roll-up excludes Platform X, and removing the sites of platform X) and working with a mapping module to link the original site list with the alt site list (giving both list items the same code). Then duplicating the reporting modules and updating the list dimension to the alt list and using LOOKUP to the SYS mapping module to retrieve the data from the original module. The drawback is that this is a lot of work: duplicating every reporting module and also creating new dashboards for the rollup excl. platform X, since I cannot merge the Global Manuf. w/o platform X into the existing list structure.

I was also thinking of adding a subset to the original list, but the issue I see is that I am unable to map to a subset of a parent list, so I need to keep the original names of the parent list, which would confuse end users because the name would not mention that it is excluding a part of the business…

Does anyone have another idea that would be less time-consuming?

Thanks in advance!

Accepted answers

All comments

seymatas1

Creating a new hierarchy to exclude a single list item can increase both size and complexity of the model.

Create separate UX pages for reports that exclude Platform X. Title these pages clearly "Excluding Platform X".
Rename line items accordingly, such as Global Manuf. w/o Platform X and Global Manuf. w Platform X.
You can also publish both Global Manuf. w/o Platform X and Global Manuf. w Platform X line items on a UX page for comparison.
Create a filter module with a Boolean line item "Include in Global Manuf.w/o Platform X View" that flags the list items you want to include. In the reporting module create a line item Global Manuf. w/o Platform X and write formula:

IF Filter Module.Include in Global Manuf.w/o Platform X View THEN Amount ELSE 0

5. If you have enough workspace and it aligns with the business needs, you can copy the model and remove Platform X from the lists and data sources of the copy model. After you copy the model, you will have admin tasks like remapping modules, entering global variables, and recreating automated actions.

LouiseBourgonjon

hi @seymatas1 , thank you for coming back to me.

Global Manuf. with or without platform X are not line items, but the parent in the hierarchy. Therefore your suggested approach will not work in this use case.

seymatas1

I did propose four other options in my initial response. Review those as well to see if they might be adaptable to your scenario.

2. Rename line items accordingly, such as Global Manuf. w/o Platform X and Global Manuf. w Platform X.

Regarding the line items, my intention was to suggest renaming the line items that display the amounts in related modules, such as changing “Sales Amount” to “Sales Amount (Global Manuf. w/o Platform X)” and “Sales Amount (Global Manuf. w Platform X).”

LouiseBourgonjon

Hi @seymatas1 ,

Thank you for your suggestions.

See my comments on each of them:

creating UX pages excluding sites from platform X and platform X using show and hide in filters will not work as these values will still be taken into account in the aggregation at the highest level will still be incorrect
Renaming line items is too simplistic: I am using the site list as a dimension in many modules, but I do also have modules where I use a line item subset. In addition, this is gonna make the views very crowded and is a lot of additional work.
same comment as above: a lot of additional work
confusing for end user: when showing the sites in the rows, we will see the sites from platform X with line item including platform X and line item excluding platform x. Not suitable for end users
I might consider this option

seymatas1

Hi @LouiseBourgonjon

Thank you for your feedback and detailed review of my suggestions.

Options 1 and 2 work after you create the subsets and aggregate the numbers in different modules. They just deal with the end user confusion that you mentioned in the first message.

I was also thinking of adding a subset to the original list, but the issue I see is that I am unable to map to a subset of a parent list, so I need to keep the original names of the parent list, which would confuse end users because the name would not mention that it is excluding a part of the business…

Excluding one list item in some reports is a big enhancement to the model and most solutions will require a lot of effort. Creating subsets and renaming related modules, line items, and UX pages properly can be the optimal solution in cases other than yours.

If you could replicate the structure in a sandbox model and share the levels you need to roll up, it might be easier to understand the complexity of the problem and provide a better solution.

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