How to take full advantage of the new Hierarchy Card feature
Author: James Cannon is a Certified Master Anaplaner, Solution Architect, and Senior Manager at EY.
In the ever-evolving landscape of planning and business modeling, Anaplan continues to separate itself from the pack and lead the charge with innovative solutions that streamline and enhance the end user experience. One recent innovation is the introduction of the new Hierarchy Card in the Anaplan UX. This new UX feature can be leveraged in all three UX page options: boards, Worksheets, and Reports. The Hierarchy Card is primed to transform how users interact with hierarchical data, making it easier to visualize, navigate, and manage complex data structures within Anaplan models.
By integrating the Hierarchy Card into boards, users can benefit from a comprehensive visual and dynamic interactive overview of hierarchical data. Within Worksheets, the Hierarchy Card enhances data entry and analysis workflows, enabling users to drill down into specific levels of detail without losing sight of the overall structure. In Reports, the Hierarchy Card offers a clear and customizable presentation of hierarchical relationships, making it simpler to communicate insights to stakeholders.
Moreover, the Hierarchy Card's intuitive design and flexible customization options empower users to supplement their data views to meet specific business needs, whether they are tracking organizational structures, analyzing sales performance, or managing supply chains. As Anaplan continues to roll out expanded reporting and customization features, the Hierarchy Card stands out as a powerful tool that enhances the overall user experience, driving greater efficiency and effectiveness in business planning and modeling activities.
Overview of the Hierarchy Card
The Hierarchy Card is a dynamic and interactive visualization tool designed to represent hierarchical data within Anaplan. It allows users to view and interact with multi-level hierarchies in a more intuitive and user-friendly manner. Key functionalities of the Hierarchy Card include:
- Interactive visualization: Users can expand and collapse different levels of the hierarchy to focus on specific areas of interest.
- Drill-down capability: Easily drill down into lower levels of the hierarchy to analyze detailed data.
- Customizable views: Configure the card to display the most relevant information, such as key metrics, data attributes, and performance indicators, at each level.
- Easy customization: Out of the box, the hierarchy card allows users to expand the hierarchy either top down or bottom up, additionally, users have the option to display the hierarchy in a leveled view or compact view.
Benefits of using the Hierarchy Card
The Hierarchy Card offers several significant benefits to Anaplan model builders and end users:
- Enhanced data visualization: It transforms complex hierarchical data into a clear and navigable format, making it easier for users to comprehend and analyze relationships within the data.
- Improved user experience: By providing an intuitive and interactive interface, the Hierarchy Card reduces the learning curve and enhances user engagement.
- Efficient data management: Users can quickly navigate through different levels of the hierarchy, facilitating faster decision-making and data manipulation.
- Customizable insights: The ability to customize the displayed information ensures that users can focus on the most critical data points relevant to their specific needs.
Practical use cases
The Hierarchy Card can be effectively used in various real-world scenarios, including:
- Financial planning and analysis (FP&A): Visualize and navigate through organizational or general ledger account hierarchies, such as cost centers or GL accounts, to analyze financial performance at different levels.
- Sales performance management (SPM): Manage and analyze sales data by regions, territories, and individual sales representatives, providing insights into sales performance at each level.
- Supply chain management (SCM): Monitor and manage supply chain hierarchies, such as bill of materials (BOM), suppliers, products, and distribution centers, to optimize supply chain operations.
- Workforce planning (WFP): Visualize organizational structures and workforce hierarchies to analyze headcount, span of control, staffing levels, and workforce distribution.
Tips for optimizing the Hierarchy Card
To maximize the potential of the Hierarchy Card in your Anaplan models, consider the following best practices:
- Define clear hierarchies: Ensure that your hierarchical data is well-defined and structured to take full advantage of the Hierarchy Card's capabilities.
- Leverage conditional formatting: Use conditional formatting to highlight key metrics and performance indicators at different levels of the hierarchy.
- Combine with other cards: Integrate the Hierarchy Card with other cards, such as charts and grids, to provide a comprehensive view of your data.
- Regular updates: Keep your hierarchical data up-to-date to ensure that the Hierarchy Card reflects the most current information.
Conclusion
The addition of the Hierarchy Card in UX is a very welcomed enhancement in how model builders and end users interact with hierarchical data. By offering interactive visualization, drill-down capabilities, and customizable views, the Hierarchy Card empowers users to navigate and manage complex data structures with ease. Whether it's for financial planning, sales performance management, supply chain optimization, or workforce planning, the Hierarchy Card is a powerful tool that enhances the overall user experience and drives better decision-making. Integrating the Hierarchy Card into your Anaplan UX applications will undoubtedly lead to more efficient and insightful data analysis!
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