Q&A from the Day.

mhemphill_*10266

1..Why did you decide not to use relative years to current years? Adds extra thing to do at year end having static years...

Ans:  The high-level summary is actually pretty simple: There is clearly a requirement for ‘dynamic’ time ranges, but we had to decide whether it was within v1 scope (‘mvp’ if you like). It would have taken significant extra effort to code, test, document, etc. And requirements at a detail level were not exactly clear. So we decided not to delay v1 by including support for this requirement. It will now have to do battle with other RFEs (e.g. more fine-grained definition of time range extent, revising behavior of time period format).

Currently it is not easy to roll-on the definition of time ranges – you have to edit each one individually. This is made harder because the time ranges grid is read-only. This was also a v1 simplification – it’s not straightforward to simply re-use existing grid behavior (unfortunately), and it would have been relatively tricky to cope with things like whole row/column selection, selection of multiple rows, copy/paste, etc. However, there is a plan to return soon to upgrading the time ranges grid – hopefully this will make it easier to manually roll-on time range definitions (e.g. by using copy/paste). But note that there is not yet a firm date or scope for this work.  

It would be good to add support for dynamic time range definitions, it’s been requested quite a lot. But I don’t know when this might make it onto the roadmap. And we’d have to be careful – it could be easy to destroy large amounts of data if time ranges updated automatically, so we’d have to have good warning messages, at the very least.

 

2.. Probably a development question, are we going to be able to put a comment on a particular cell, to explain that number?

Ans: Recognised as a gap.  Will be on new release of the User Interface but not this year. 

 

 3.. Can we have a master button which turns on the active tool bar for all grids in a model at once. Good for retro fitting this improvement everywhere at once.

Ans: No. This would mean upsetting the arrangement of existing dashboards. 

 

4..Can we get a copy of the slides?

 Ans: Of course.  If you dont already have them they will be on way soon.

 

5.. When or are we able to add pictures or images on to anaplan dashboards??

Ans: Yes, June release.  Can link image to individual sku code if desired.

 

 6..Using Dynamic cell access can the system sum up only those cells being shown? From the example it was all or nothing

Ans: awaiting internal response

 

 7.. Are there going to be upgrades to the available formats and fonts available any time soon?

 Ans: New User Interface bringing more functionality back end of this year.

 

 8.. How much is anaplan hub?

Ans: Free. Just need to register.  https://www.hubcomestoyou.com/london/

 

9.. Does dynamic cell access work in a excel add-in

Ans:  awaiting internal response

 

10.. What is the Best Anaplan way to optimise your dashboard for different screen sizes? What tools are there to make this process less painful for a modelbuilder?

 Ans:  awaiting internal response

 

11.. Are you planning to enhance the customer portal ? Eg chat, screen sharing, SLAs, case updates, escalations, etc?

Ans:  Very timely question.  I am currently sitting with our team and the consulting company to scope Phase 2 of the Case portal.  We are working on improving the experience.  We are also working on updating our SLAs to include resolution timing, etc.  We are very invested in making the Case portal the main source of information and interaction with the customer.

 

12.. Has the new features thread been locked/moved elsewhere now ?

Ans:  https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Upcoming-Features/Upcoming-Features/ta-p/32570