August 2024 Community Member Spotlight: Timmy Thomas

becky.leung
becky.leung
edited September 18 in Blog
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This month, we are excited to feature @TimothyThomas as our Community Member Spotlight! Timmy has been a vital part of the Anaplan ecosystem for the past four years, bringing his expertise and passion as a Certified Solutions Architect and Community Boss. With over 125 comments in Community, Timmy is known for his willingness to lend a hand and share his insights. His commitment to the Community doesn't stop there — Timmy is also a key player behind the scenes, offering valuable suggestions that shape the experience for Community members. Discover more about Timmy's Anaplan journey and his impressive contributions below.

About Timmy

We asked Timmy about his background and history with Anaplan. Here's what we learned!

I currently work as a Senior Anaplan Model Builder sitting on the Anaplan Center of Excellence (CoE) at Autodesk. I was first introduced to Anaplan in early 2020 when I became an FP&A Analyst at Roseburg Forest Products, a wood products manufacturing company. They were relatively early-on in their Anaplan implementation, so I had the chance to jump in the deep end and learn a ton while helping shape their early models. After a year and a half in that role, I had the opportunity to take an Anaplan-specific role at the company, which was a pivotal decision for me as I always envisioned myself following a traditional FP&A career path. However, I decided to go for it as I was really enjoying model building — and I’ve never regretted that decision!

We asked Timmy a few questions to get to know him.

Please share an Anaplan success story you're proud of.

Going back to my time at Roseburg Forest Products, I still remember the first model I worked on from scratch. It was a Cost to Serve model, which primarily helped us identify which product/customer segments were most profitable, as well as identifying areas to improve within our supply chain. It was a new type of model for me conceptually, so there was a lot to learn from the beginning. With the guidance of our Solutions Architect, I learned a lot and felt like I played a key role in getting the model to an MVP state. I will never forget that first official model release kickoff, and seeing our business partners benefit from using the model that we had built!

Please share something you can teach about Anaplan – any tips and tricks you'd like to highlight?

  • Simpler is better: Coming from an FP&A background using a lot of Excel, I think this was something that took a while for me to really understand/follow. When building in Excel, you’re usually not too concerned about formula auditability or model organization, because there will generally not be too many people editing the formulas. I remember creating insanely complex formulas and being proud of them!
    • When I first started model building it took some time to unlearn this. Within Anaplan, it’s always better to keep your formulas as simple as possible. This relates mostly to the Auditable pillar of PLANS. I now try my best to break up formulas as much as possible where it makes sense, along with explaining what I’m doing through documentation along the way. This ensures that a) I think twice about whether I’m building in an efficient, best-practice manner; and b) other model builders can quickly understand the purpose of what I’ve built.
  • On that note, document document document! Documentation is an oft-overlooked aspect of Anaplan models, but it's very important. I won’t go too in depth, but to read more on the topic, check out this Anaplan Community article I wrote on the topic!
  • Utilize the Community: There is so much great content out there in Anaplan Community. If you have a question, it’s likely that someone else has had the same question in the past and asked/had it answered on Community. If not, go ahead and ask it and it'll likely be answered very quickly! The nature of Anaplan means you will doubtless run into tricky situations that are difficult to figure out. The Community makes sure you don’t have to face these problems alone!

What do you enjoy about the Anaplan Community?

There are tons of things that I love about the Anaplan Community, but what I love most is the lack of ego. There are so many brilliant folks working within the Anaplan space, many of whom seem to know everything about Anaplan. However, there is never any arrogance within the Community. Everyone is always very welcoming and truly tries to help each other out, regardless of skill level. I remember feeling intimidated when I first joined the Community, but quickly found it to be a very welcoming space. If you have a question, ask! If you have ideas to contribute, do so! You will no doubt receive a positive response no matter what.

What’s a hobby or interest of yours that most people might not know about?

I am a huge fan of hip-hop and minored in Musicology in college! As a Senior, I co-instructed a Freshman class called Hip-Hop & the Politics of Race. As part of the class, we threw the UO Hip Hop Jam, which consisted of putting together a free show on campus. I helped lead the students in fundraising, gathering acts/equipment, marketing the event, etc. As a result, we had a great turnout of 300+ and had a great time (see attached picture)! We were even able to bring in a rapper who I grew up listening to (Chali 2na of Jurassic 5), and it was incredible meeting and working with him. I’m still a huge fan and try to get to as many nearby shows as possible!

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With the approach of football season I’d also be remiss to mention that I’m a huge college sports fan (as evident from my response to the August Community Challenge 😉). Go Ducks!!

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We hope you enjoyed learning more about Timmy in this month’s Community Member Spotlight. Thank you, Timmy, for being an outstanding Community contributor and advocate!

Check out Timmy's Community content:

Want to learn more about our Community Member Spotlight series? Check out this post.

Do you know someone in the Community who you think should be featured in a Community Member Spotlight? We want to hear about it — please nominate them here.

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