I'm at Houston Christian University. We partner with TruEd on building out our Anaplan database. I'm constantly looking for webinars to learn and improve and wanted to share their upcoming workshop. It's titled "Tru Consulting Workshop: How to Build Management Report Pages in Anaplan"; scheduled for April 4, 2024 at 1:00PM CST.

Use this link to register: https://truedconsulting.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_caQwKhhLRqyzKNIwCp8mgA#/registration

If you're new here, we'd love for you to introduce yourself to us and others in the group! If you feel comfortable, start by sharing:

• Where you are based?
• What brought you to the Higher Education User Group?
• What challenges you are solving or hope to solve with Anaplan?

I'll go first! Hello everyone, Allen Mora here, I'm with the University of Miami in sunny South Florida. We are currently in the process of implementing Anaplan.

We chose Anaplan as our new system to replace an existing one given the speed, flexibility and hopefully scalability of the solution. We are excited to hear from everyone and are thankful to our partners for getting this group going!

Following the Model builder forum on Friday February 23rd, I wanted to provide a build along example that is more specific to higher education. I have put together an example of position planning as it relates to budget development and split funded positions and recorded a video walking through it (here is the link to the video). I am also providing the mock dataset (attached) I used to produce the numbers you will see in the recorded video so that you can use this as additional practice if you wish to build along. Hopefully this will give you all a good idea of how Anaplan can help with split funded positions and position planning in general. Please feel free to reach out to myself or Spaulding Ridge if you have any questions on this or anything else higher education specific.

Happy Anaplanning,

Sean McDonald

Going forward we will hold these sessions quarterly. Each of these sessions will be led by either someone from Anaplan, or we will be rotating in different Anaplan Partners that focus on higher education. This session will be led by Sean McDonald from Spaulding Ridge.

If you would like to build along, the prerequisites are noted below.

When: Feb 23rd, 11a-12:30p CT

If you have not received an invitation to this event, please contact Robin Salk at robin.salk@anaplan.com

Here is the agenda for this session:

• Build along:
  • Sum vs. lookup
  • Model readability and naming conventions
  • UX walkthrough
• Model demos:
  • Tuition and Aid
  • Position Planning and Distributions
• Ask the expert:
  • Lightning round open Q&A on how / why / best practices  

Prerequisites for build along are:

• Level 1 completed model (either your own or the downloaded example model)
• Workspace admin access (in your tenant) 
• Page builder access (ability to create apps / pages)

If you don’t already have a completed Level 1 model, go to  and in section 1.4.1 is the downloadable model https://learning.anaplan.com/mod/scorm/view.php?id=18662

It's Time to Rollover

For many institutions, it’s that time of year or very close to it at least. You know what time I’m talking about – model rollover time. Whether you are in the midst of rolling over your models or preparing to rollover your models, we hope that this article provides some insight for you and sparks discussions around lessons learned, tips and tricks, and rollover best practices.

A quick aside before we begin, there are various names used to refer to the model rollover process and there is no consensus regarding which term is the standard. Some of the terms you may be familiar with include model rollover, roll-forward, or cutover. For the purposes of this article, we will use the term rollover.

Model Rollover Defined:

At a basic level model rollover refers to the set of tasks that a workspace administrator must perform to transition a model from one planning cycle to the next. Commonly, an Anaplan model is configured to support a specific planning cycle and all model configurations are oriented with respect to that cycle.

For example, consider a university that has implemented Anaplan to support their annual budget development cycle. The university operates on a fiscal year that runs from July through June of the following calendar year. The university’s annual budget development cycle opens on November 1st and runs through September 30th of the following year with two distinct phases: (1) the preliminary budget phase and (2) the final budget phase. Figure 1 below depicts the university’s budget cycle over several fiscal years along with key milestones for each annual cycle.

Figure 1: Annual Budget Development Life Cycle

In the example outlined there is a natural break in the university’s planning cycle between October 1st and November 1st; this window of time will be used to transition the Anaplan model from one budget year to the next. For example, between October 1st and November 1st of 2023, the workspace administrator will close out the FY23 budget development cycle and transition the model to open the FY24 budget development cycle. The tasks involved in this transition are collectively referred to as a model rollover.

Common Rollover Tasks:

It’s critical to note two things regarding model rollovers. First, each model will require its own set of rollover tasks and requires careful consideration for the design of those tasks. Second, it is likely that a business process may span multiple models and that the tasks involved in a full rollover will require the coordinated rollover of all models involved in the business process.

With those two things in mind, let’s talk about what may be included in a model rollover. Some common rollover tasks include:

• Copying and archiving a model
• Running processes to export data to an enterprise data warehouse or other data store
• Running processes to snapshot data that may be referenced in the next planning cycle
• Running processes to stage data that may be create a baseline for the next planning cycle
• Updating the model calendar and/or time ranges
• Updating non-native time lists, if applicable
• Running cleanup to remove unused list members, if applicable
• Running cleanup processes to clear module data, if applicable
• Renaming any module line items that may have time references in the line item name
• Updating any UX pages that may use Show/Hide to create highly tailored, custom views

Model Rollover Best Practices:

Be Intentional

First, and perhaps the most important, recommendation we can provide regarding model rollover is to be intentional from day one. The model rollover process is a critical, but often overlooked, aspect of a model’s life cycle. When architecting a model (or models) the model rollover tasks should be considered and thoroughly mapped out as part of the overall architecture from the very beginning. They should never be an afterthought.

Automate, Automate, Automate

Second, minimize the amount of manual tasks involved in a model rollover by automating wherever possible. At a minimum, processes such as exporting data, taking data snapshots, or staging data that are related to the model rollover should be supported by dedicated saved views, actions, and reusable model processes.

Other automations may include using dynamic filters that automatically adjust based on a time settings configuration module so that ‘Show/Hide’ can be avoided on a UX page; automating the maintenance of non-native time lists by creating processes that link them to the model calendar, or creating processes that automatically rename any module line items that have time references in the line item name.

For a tutorial on how to dynamically rename module line items, check out Dynamic Renaming of Line Items by Master Anaplanner Upali.

Document

Third, document the rollover process early and update the documentation regularly as the model changes to facilitate a smooth rollover. Since the model rollover process happens infrequently, it is easy to forget small steps involved in the process and these forgotten steps can lead to broken models and big headaches. Additionally, the rollover process is often sequential in nature and getting the order of each step correct is as critical as remembering each step. A best practice is to create a model rollover checklist that can be used during the process to ensure each step is executed properly and in the proper sequence.

For more details on model rollover documentation and checklists, check out Five Tips for a (Mostly) Painless Model Rollover by Master Anaplanner Clarissa Hassfurder.

Simulate

Lastly, like any other aspect of an Anaplan model, the model rollover processes should be tested. If possible, a dry-run or simulated rollover should be executed before go-live to ensure that this critical aspect of your model’s life cycle is setup for success.

Discussion Questions for the Group:

What does model rollover look like for you at your institution?

What are some pain points in your rollover process?

What are some nifty rollover solutions you have found?

What is one thing you wish you knew about rolling over a model when you first implemented Anaplan?

Bonus Question:

Do you call it a model rollover, roll-forward, cutover or something else entirely? And why?

Have feedback on this content? Let us know in the comments below!

Contributing authors: Ethan Bell, Lauren Newbauer, and Brinia Colbert

Title Photo by Behnam Norouzi on Unsplash

In this article series we will explore the Higher Ed honeycomb – the various use cases that Higher Ed institutions rely on to help them navigate the challenges they face every day and prepare to face the unknown that lies ahead.

What’s the point?

Before we dive into an overview of some of Higher Ed’s most common Anaplan use cases, let’s stop for a second and ask ourselves why all this matters – what’s the point?

Each Higher Ed institution has a distinctive mission; one that defines their reason for existence, informs their decisions, and guides their path. Although each institution is unique, at a fundamental level every Higher Ed institution exists to serve students and advance society’s collective knowledge, understanding, and human potential.

To realize their missions’, institutions must outline a vision, proactively define goals, and develop a plan to achieve those goals. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry states in his profound, witty, and charming book, The Little Prince, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” The point of all of this is to better position your institution to achieve its strategic goals and as a result, better serve your students and help society progress together.

Key Activities and Use Cases

The activities involved in developing, executing, and refining good plans are expansive and may vary in importance from institution to institution. However, there are some key activities that are common across all Higher Ed institutions. The graphic below provides a visual of some of the most common Higher Ed planning use cases that support four key planning activities: strategic planning, budgeting, forecasting, and monitoring.

Key Activities

Strategic Planning – Generally, institutions develop a strategic plan that outlines the goals and objectives that will be implemented over the next 3-5 years to help advance their mission. These plans are not inherently financial; however, they must be supported by a 3-5 year strategic financial plan, often referred to as a long-range plan.

The typical output of a long-range plan is a set of multiyear, pro-forma financial statements along with key financial ratios that help the institution’s leadership assess the financial viability of their plans and inform strategies to mitigate risks posed to their plans. Leadership will often use the information provided to them in the long-range plan to inform the parameters used for upcoming planning cycles such as budget parameters and targets.

Budgeting – Budgeting is generally focused on developing a detailed financial plan for the upcoming year’s operations and a plan for the purchase, acquisition, and development of long-term capital assets. In other words, institutions develop two key budgets: an operating budget and capital budget.

Budget development is a deeply connected process and involves extensive coordination across the campus to ensure success. The focus is on aligning resources with institutional and departmental priorities that ultimately coalesce with the institutions strategic plan.

Although typically an annual activity with an emphasis on the upcoming or recently started year, some institutions generate a multi-year budget that allows them to have a more detailed look at the institution’s expected performance over the next 1-3 years.

Forecasting – Forecasting can be broken down into two key activities: in-year forecasting and multiyear forecasting. In-year forecasting focuses on re-forecasting the operating results of the current year on a regular cadence such as monthly or quarterly. This allows institutions to quickly identify any unfavorable trends and enact plans to mitigate or nullify the impact of those trends before they are unavoidable. Multiyear forecasting often extends the in-year forecast by layering on management assumptions for the future years to create a projection of the next 1-3 years that can provide an early warning system by visualizing trends over a longer time horizon.

Monitoring – Monitoring activities allow an institution to see how well actual activity is tracking to their various plans. Some common monitoring activities include variance or flux analysis, trend analysis, and benchmark analysis. Variance analysis is one of the most common monitoring activities and may include budget-to-actual variances, year-over-year actual variances, and forecast-to-actual variances. Trend analysis seeks to identify trends in planning data over time including both historical data and projections. Benchmark analysis may include reports comparing the results of an institution to a peer or competitor group or comparing results to industry averages.

Bringing it All Together

Each key activity outlined above is critical to an organization’s success; however, to gain the most value from these activities they must be interconnected. The sum of the parts does not equal the whole – the whole has a higher value when each part is working in concert to guide the institution, enable them to adjust to changes quickly and efficiently, and ultimately achieve their mission.

For anyone involved in the planning activities outlined above, you know that the process of planning for a Higher Ed institution is anything but simple. It is deeply complex and interconnected. In this article series, we will continue to delve into the world of planning in Higher Ed. In each article we will expand on the key activities and use cases outlined in this article and highlight how connected planning in Anaplan can better position your institution to successfully achieve its mission.