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How to create an alternate/Parallel hierarchy

avinashshinde

Hi Team,

I am new in the Anaplan. Could you please explain me how to create an alternate hierarchy with example?

Thanks!

Accepted answers

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anirudh

Hi Avinash,

What do you mean by an alternate hierarchy?
Do you mean an alternate hierarchy for time?

avinashshinde

Hi Anirudh,

Please find the below sample hierarchies which I want to create in a single list, where the cost centers have two parent in a single list.

Total Geographic

North

Cost Center A

Cost Center B

South

Cost Center C

Cost Center D

Total Functional Area

Cost Center A

Cost Center B

Head office

Cost Center C

Cost Center D

Regards,

Avinash

anirudh

Got you now!

You can achieve this by:
1. Creating a numbered list
2. Having a unique code for each of the members in your sample hierarchy
3. Upload this data (finally the list should have 14 members)
4. In a text property upload the names (Total Geographic, North, Cost Center A etc)
5. Set this text property as the display name

Let me know if you need more help

Regards,
Anirudh

avinashshinde

Hi Anirudh,

Thanks for your reply. Will try this and let you know if need any help.

Regards,

Avinash

rob_marshall

@avinashshinde ,

Presently, this can not be done within one list but you can "fake" it out by using filters. To do this:

Create both main lists (Geography and Functional Area)
Create the Cost Center list
Create a module named SYS Cost Center Flat and create two line items (Geography Parent and Functional Area Parent)
Create a Geography Rollup module dimensionalized by Geography and Cost Center
Create a Filter (boolean formatted) linking back to the SYS Cost Center Geography line item
Do the same thing for the Functional Area

Functional Area:

Hope this helps,

Rob

einas.ibrahim

Hello @avinashshinde

This is a bit confusing topic to explain but extremely important to understand.

Let's agree that Alt Hierarchies are mainly used to display the data by different grouping, not to recalculate data.

For example, you might want to display Product revenue based on Department for one User Role and on Distributor for another User Role.

Since the Product revenue won't change if we group it under Department or under Distributor, we really should not recalculate the Product revenue under Distributor but rather retrieve the same product revenue under Department.

To do so, we should first create the Alt list hierarchy (Distributor list)

The original L2 Product List aggregates to L1 Department
Create another L2 Alt Product list that aggregates into L1 Distributor List
The Product Code (or Name but I prefer Code) should be the same in both lists for Example Product A will have the Code 001 in L2 Product --> L1 Department and will also have Code 001 in L2 Alt Product --> Distributor

You already have a module that calculates Product Revenue By Department (Module A) --> Dimensioned by L2 Product
Now you want to create another module that displays the Product Revenue by Distributor (Module --> Dimensioned By L2 Alt Product.

Even though we will have a list item in Module B named Product 1 and a list item in Module A also named Product 1, from Anaplan's point of view these 2 list items are completely different even though they have the same name and code.

We need to Map each L2 Alt Product list items under the Distributor list to its equivalent in the L2 Product under the Department list.
To achieve that we do the following:

Create a System module dimensioned by L2 Alt Product list (Mapping Module)
Create the following line items
- Distributor Product Code -- Text
- Department Product Item --- List Formatted Line Item, using the L2 Product list **
(pay attention here) We need to return the Product list item from the L2 Product list under Department that matches the Product list item from the L2 Alt Product list under Distributor. How do we know they match? because they have the same Code, we designed the lists this way as mentioned at the top.
To achieve this:
- Get the L2 Alt Product list Code in the line item Distributor Product Code ==> CODE(ITEM(L2 Alt Product))
  Assume this will return 001 for Product 1
- Use the Code retrieved above to find and return the equivalent list Item in the L2 Product list in the Line Item Department Product Item ==> FINDITEM(Department, Distributor Product Code)
  This will return Product 1 (from the L2 Product List) as a List item

Now that we have the mapping ready, we can return the Product Revenue Data in the module dimensioned by the L2 Alt Product list (Module B) from the already calculated Product Revenue Data in Module A for L2 Product, using the following formula
Module B.Revenue = 'Module A'.Revenue[LOOKUP: Mapping Module.Department Product Item]

It looks complicated but it really isn't if you understand some basics about how data - especially in lists - relate to each other.

My intention is to create some screenshots, If I forget please remind me

If you have any questions please let me know.

DavidSmith

Hi All

This topic is very interesting for me, as we are exploring this topic as a future development

We are looking to build functionality that will allow multiple parents off a single child member and specify which hierarchies should be used in which part of the model

This will obviously save a lot of the complexity and mapping (as above), as well as saving model space, because the data does not need to be repeated for the child member.

It is also very relevant for our new calculation engine as difference levels within hierarchies are a key component of the calculations needing to be performed

To help me capture a full set of use cases please could you reply with examples of how and why this functionality would help you (i.e. industry, use case, complexity etc.)

I have a lot "in my head" already, but it will be great to validate those against the field requirements

Many thanks in advance

David

kadejosephson

Screen shots?

KaveengaWijayasekara

Any update on the simplified multiple/alternate hierarchy creation capabilities?

Thanks.

rohan.deo

@einas.ibrahim - Would you be able to post screenshots of the example you described above please?

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