The Evolution of the Anaplan Community

emilydunn
emilydunn
in Blog

It may seem hard to believe, but the Anaplan Community will be six years old this spring! From its humble beginnings, to all things “Anaplan,” to becoming the go-to spot for Connected Planning thought leadership, the Anaplan Community has had quite a ride. In the spirit of the new year—a time for both reflection and anticipation—let’s look back at the evolution of the Community and look ahead at what’s to come.

2013

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It’s year one! You can see that Anaplan brand colors at the time were blue, red, and white, so we made as much use of them as possible! The Anaplan Community was created as a place to house Anapedia (Anaplan’s repository of technical documentation) and other training and product information to support our early customers after they had received training. At the time, the Community was only accessible to our customers.

2014-2015

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During this time period, we redesigned the Community look and feel to align with Anaplan’s refined brand colors, focused on enhancing our forums experience, and expanded the product content offered through Anapedia. In late 2014, we launched the Anaplan App Hub, and soon after began featuring it on the Community. The App Hub is the place to find pre-built models to accelerate your planning journey. With this addition, we reinforced our commitment to building a one-stop shop to support our customers.

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As Anaplan grew, we needed the Community to grow with it. We saw an increase in the numbers of customers coming to the Community for the latest and greatest about our product releases, Calculation Functions, and so much more. With the evolution of our product, our customers and partners expressed a need for a space dedicated to the topic of Data Integration. Ask and we shall provide! Meanwhile, we were also working behind the scenes on the backend of our Community to ensure we were providing the best experience possible.

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"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." —Buckminster Fuller 

THE BIG ONE! 2017 was a massive year of change for the Anaplan Community. In March, we launched our new Community, which included:

  • A new online experience, featuring improved forums, articles from internal experts, new ways to engage (Kudos and badges), and so much more.
  • A new look and feel to match Anaplan’s updated logo.
  • Opening the doors to all. Our leadership team decided it was time to share our content with the world. Since then, an Anaplan login is no longer required to access the majority of content on the Community.
  • Ongoing research. Hearing from our Community users became a huge focus for us, so we initiated biannual user research sessions to continuously improve your experience.

2018

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Based on the user research we gathered in 2017, we made major changes throughout 2018 in direct response to what you, our users, told us. These included:

Today and the rest of 2019

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So what’s next? This year we’re focusing on fun and engaging content and new user experiences. What does this mean for you?

  • More articles on planning and Connected Planning, from internal and external experts.
  • Additional ways to connect with your fellow Anaplanners.
  • Improvements to your online experience. (Remember: you’re talking and we’re listening!)

A community is not a community without its users, and the success of the changes we’ve made over the years is reflected in our user metrics. We are excited to see that you are visiting more often, staying longer, and expressing your opinions about the quality of the content we, and others, are providing in the Community. Keep sharing ideas in the Idea Exchange, trading tips and solutions in the forums, and contributing best practices articles through our Community Contribution program.

We have lots more plans and ideas for this year and we are excited to share them all with you. So please stay connected with us. Join a User Group. Participate in an AMA. And have a fantastic 2019!

If you have feedback about improving your Community experience or have other thoughts to share, drop us a line at community@anaplan.com.

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