Introduce Yourself!

[ChrisWeiss]

Hello and welcome to the Centers of Excellence Community forum!

We hope you find this dedicated section of Community useful on your CoE journey, whether you're just getting started or have a fully-operational mature CoE and are looking for new ways to grow and improve. We’d like to invite you to take a moment to introduce yourself and start connecting with others who are on a similar path. Some things you might share:

• Your name
• Your company
• Where you are on your CoE journey
• If your CoE already exists, how long has it been around, and what is your role
• What you hope to get out of this CoE section of Community (we constantly monitor this and are always looking for ways to improve!)

Thanks, looking forward to connecting with you and welcoming you to the Anaplan CoE community!

[DSP]

Name: Demian Shinzato Perren. (www.linkedin.com/in/demian-shinzato-perren)

Company: RB (Reckitt Benckiser)

Role: IT Finance Manager, aka "The Anaplan Guy".

I've built RB Global CoE back a couple of years ago and I've been working for several years now in the pursuit of the "Holly Grail of Planning".

I would like to exchange ideas of this journey and see if there are any others out there looking for something similar. 

Feel free to reach out if you want to have a chat!

Cheers,

Demian

[Jsalvata]

Name: Julia Salvata

Company: Blackstone

Role: FinTech Business Expert & Anaplan Solution Developer

CoE Journey: Always growing!  Once our first use case was completed a little over a year ago we began to build out our “CoE” to better organize and develop the large pipeline of projects we plan to implement across the firm.  I look forward to sharing ideas and learning from others journeys!

[bdeaton]

• Your name – Brittany Deaton
• Your company - Unum
• Where you are on your CoE journey – We are still a fairly new COE but have been building models at Unum since 2017. Although we weren’t officially a COE until 4Q18, our models to-date have been limited to within the GFP&A group, so we self-managed and have continued some of the same trends we established during the first two years into our official COE.
• If your COE already exists, how long has it been around, and what is your role – we established the COE officially in 4Q18. I am currently a Director, Actuary and leading the COE team.
• What you hope to get out of this COE section of Community (we constantly monitor this and are always looking for ways to improve!) – I would love to have opportunities to hear and share ideas and best practices, especially around model governance. One of my goals for our COE initially is to make sure we make a solid transition into a place of stability (building models is no longer a new thing to Unum so we should be working to achieve a maintainable pace and build a solid governance structure).

[mb250575]

• Your name : Mark Beese
• Your company : NCR 
• Where you are on your CoE journey: Our CoE exists to some extent, but we are trying to combine all Anaplan model builders under one team. We want Anaplan to be a shared platform between business units. 
• If your CoE already exists, how long has it been around, and what is your role: CoE has been around for 6ish months. My role is to be the main Anaplan point of contact.  Today I fill Scrum Master, BA, Business POC. 
• What you hope to get out of this CoE section of Community (we constantly monitor this and are always looking for ways to improve!) : Looking for other customers experience and what works for them. 

[Megan_Carrozza]

• My name is Megan Carrozza and I am on Groupon's Anaplan COE team.
• Groupon formally established our COE team in 2017 (although informally existed prior to that) and we've grown and evolved this then.I am a Master Anaplanner on the team who loves to lead projects that add value back to our org. Check out my post here for all the details on Groupon's COE journey!
• I am hoping to connect with other like-minded Anaplan COE members on this section of the community. In my 3 years as an Anaplan model builder, I have found that I learn the most through others that have been on this part of their journey before me. 

[usman.zia]

• Your name : Usman Zia 
• Your company : Lionpoint Group - Anaplan Gold Partner - Specialising within the Alternative Investment Sector.
• Where you are on your CoE journey: As a consulting partner for Anaplan we have developed and are always continuing to develop our CoE. We have also developed in house best practice tool kits, acelerator models and process documentation to support our clients. 
• If your CoE already exists, how long has it been around, and what is your role: Our CoE and Best Practice tool kits have been around for since we began our Anaplan journey but have been update regularly. I am a consultant and Master Anaplanner, so my role is to advise on Anaplan Model Building and everything associated with the implementation process and maintenance process of Anaplan Models.
• What you hope to get out of this CoE section of Community (we constantly monitor this and are always looking for ways to improve!) : To meet other partners and customers and understand the real world problems we face and how to best approach them. As the technology landscape changes and the business process, how are we approaching this with our Anaplan models. How are we integrating new product developments and how do we add this to our CoE best practice and processes. 

Great to meet you all @Megan_Carrozza @ChrisWeiss @mb250575 @bdeaton @Jsalvata and learn about your current state and experience. 

Thanks,

Usman

[Romain_Colin]

Name: Romain COLIN

Company: Moët Hennessy (LVMH group)

Role: Anaplan Solution Owner

I have been hired to implement a Center of Excellence in my company. The Anaplan journey started 3 years ago, and it became today essential to bring more structure. What I really enjoy in my position is the ability to build anything from scratch. As I am really passionate about Anaplan, I have many ideas !

I hope to find here people to connect and share ideas around Anaplan and CoE.

Feel free to contact me ! (https://www.linkedin.com/in/romain-colin-a02b8269)

[rachel_goering]

• Your name: Rachel Goering
• Your company: DaVita
• Where you are on your CoE journey: DaVita’s CoE is well-established. We support approximately 5,000 users across the enterprise. We currently have 9 dedicated individuals in the CoE (6 in the model building lane and 2 in the data integration lane) as well as 30+ model builders with varying levels of expertise outside of the CoE (called “franchise builders”). The CoE is responsible for: (1) the development of more complex models, (2) communicating best practices to our franchise builders to ensure a consistent user experience across models, (3) the creation and maintenance of data hubs, (4) access management, and (5) training franchise builders. Franchise builders help us support the 100+ Anaplan models across the organization.
• If your CoE already exists, how long has it been around, and what is your role: DaVita’s CoE formed in 2014. I manage a team of 5 model builders and lead the CoE.
• What you hope to get out of this CoE section of Community (we constantly monitor this and are always looking for ways to improve!): I would love to learn from others who have a large user base to discover best practices for communication and change management.