Modify API data limitation for Excel Extensions

philip.austin

Some customers have dimensions/lists with more than 1,000,000 list items. When leveraging Anaplan's options for connecting Excel to an Anaplan Module, the user will usually filter the selection (and the user may be limited to a subset based on Selective Access), so the user will not need the full data set.

Unfortunately the API will not connect to a module that has a dimension with more that 1,000,000 list items. So, even if the user intends to filter to a small subset of the data, before being allowed to apply a filter the API rejects the connection.

One example with such a large list can be a Supply Chain case where a dimension = SKUs, especially if there are products in many factories / distribution centers. The Supply Chain planners would not be able to use the Excel extension tools to connect to any module where SKUs are a dimension, which for Supply Chain would be an important proportion of the modules.

We understand that we cannot import an unlimited amount of data from an Anaplan Module into Excel - Excel has limits. But as it is now the users cannot connect to the module to apply filters on the subset of the data to pull.

Solution ideas:

• 1st preference: Modify the APIs to allow connect to the module regardless of the size of the dimensions, but then apply a limitation based on the volume of data that the planner selects. For instance - a maximum number of selected data cells, or even at this point a maximum number of selected rows in any dimension.
• Alternative: raise the limitation on the API to a higher number, like 5 million.