[Start Here] PlanIQ overview and resources

AnaplanOEG
edited February 2023 in Best Practices

 

You are interested in starting time series forecasting with PlanIQ on Anaplan, but you don’t know where to start? You have come to the right place!

This article is the pathway to all things PlanIQ.

First things first

What is PlanIQ?

PlanIQ is an easy to use time-series forecasting tool directly integrated with the Anaplan platform. It allows users to accurately predict future values based on historical data, attributes, and other related data. PlanIQ enables intelligent planning backed by advanced machine learning and statistical forecasting, supporting planners and business stakeholders in shaping future outcomes by making data-driven decisions.

Who is it for?

Screenshot 2021-06-07 at 12.11.01.png

Use case examples

Demand planning
Improve the accuracy of your demand forecasts and quickly get to a consensus demand plan with collaborative planning.

Marketing and promotional spend optimization
Improve the ROI and develop more effective marketing programs programs by understanding the drivers that impact demand uplift.

Financial planning
Quickly generate OpEx forecasts and analyze new scenarios, variances, and opportunities so board members can speed decisions.

Assortment planning
Reduce SKU proliferation by designing the optimal assortment for each segment, channel, and category based on internal and external signals.

Workforce planning
Reduce operating costs and plan for the right levels of staffing and skills by accurately predicting volume and variety of tasks.

Inventory optimization
Reduce inventory carrying costs by optimizing inventory levels across the supply chain without affecting service levels.

Now, let's go under the hood

To get started

We recommend taking the E-learning course and reading these articles:

  1. Anapedia
  2. Design and build your item list for forecasting
  3. Probabilistic forecasting using forecast quantiles
  4. How to use item attributes to refine your forecast
  5. Join our User Group dedicated to PlanIQ

Once you get more comfortable

Let’s dig a little deeper with the following:

  1. PlanIQ – Considerations Before Starting to Forecast
  2. New product introduction - all you ever wondered about starting your forecast from scratch
  3. Algorithm selection by item - Mix and Match your Forecast!
  4. How to manage NULL values?
  5. Dealing with outliers
  6. PlanIQ: Introduction to forecast evaluation

Deep dive on algorithms

If you are interesting learning more about the different algorithms available in PlanIQ, please look at this article:

Support

Finally, to support you best in your experience, please refer to the Support self-service article

 

Got feedback on this content? Let us know in the comments below.

Contributing authors: Nitzan Paz, Christophe Keomanivong, Frankie Wolf, Timothy Brennan, Andrew Martin, and Evgenya Kontorovich.

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Comments

  • Hi Anne

     

    Thanks for the awesome content.

    But first thing first, how can I get access to PlanIQ? It is not under my home dropdown list. I'm a solution architect based in Singapore. Is there any application process involved or is it not released to us yet?

     

    Screenshot 2021-06-11 at 2.37.53 PM.png

     

    Thanks!

    Tingting

  • Hi,

    Please reach out to me on Slack and I will help 🙂

  • Hi @tingtingxia 

    PlanIQ is an add-on feature, please reach out to the Anaplan Account Team for more details 🙂 

  • Hi @annejulie , is there sample model (with historical data) that can be used with the E-Learning course?

     

    Regards,

    Andre

  • @andre.lie - the files are available as part of the https://learning.anaplan.com/mod/scorm/view.php?id=17397 course.

  • @EvgyK , thanks for the response. The link returned this error message. Can you please advise the course name?

     

    andrelie_0-1631164064601.png

     

  • Let me check that

  • According to our team the link should be working.
    Maybe the right approach will be to reach out Academy support

  • @EvgyK , I have setup the historical data collection as per recommended course above, created forecast model (Anaplan Auto ML) and action, and imported the forecast results back to the model.

     

    I wonder if there is any further course that walk us through how different algorithms affect forecast results based on the same sample historical data collection. I understand there is 'Deep dive on the algorithms under the hood' but it might be too high-level to understand how each affects the forecast results.

  • @andre.lie - I understand the question but I think the possible answer is not as detailed as well. We might create a more detailed description. Right now we also have the https://help.anaplan.com/90c7424a-7b6c-4ffa-b788-f0de4c2bc00e-Understand-algorithms but it might be a bit high level as well.