Summarized Feature Request
End users need the ability to manage list items, i.e. metadata, via the Excel add-in.
By far the highest-priority and highest-value need is to add new list items.
Situation
Users switching from Oracle Hyperion / Essbase love the Essbase SmartView Add-in for office. One of the reasons they love it, is they can enter data at the intersection of dimensions in a very sparse cube (module, in Anaplan). Effectively they are able to quickly use Excel to load data into any intersection of dimensions in very sparse cubes/modules, and not have to worry about creating items, metadata.
In Anaplan, we use composite hierarchies to manage sparsity, performance, and ensure calculations happen in real-time. This enables us to have models that are lightning-fast and calculate in real-time, BUT, if users want to create data at the intersection of multiple sparse dimensions (e.g. at the intersection of Company, Cost Center, Product, GL Account) then we've probably used a composite hierarchy to capture this data, and to capture it, we need to enable a user to add an item to that composite hierarchy.
Challenge / Pain Point
The pain here is two-fold:
1. Anaplan users have to think about both metadata and data whenever they want to store data in a composite hierarchy, performing 2 steps; first, create the composite hierarchy item, a step that is inherently data-driven; second, store the data at that intersection
2. Anaplan users cannot manage metadata via the Excel add-in, making it virtually impossible to rely on the Excel Add-in for production data entry in a Corporate Finance setting where new composite hierarchy items are being added all the time
In the web interface, adding a new item to a list can be done using various types of actions and via the Edit > Insert feature, but no such ability exists in the Excel Add-in.
First...a couple of acknowledgements
As an Anaplan evangelist, let me first acknowledge that:
1. Users should not be using Excel to submit data; just use the web interface!!!
2. That other technologies enable users to create intersections amongst sparse dimensions can cause some big issues, and can enable users to balloon the size of their cubes inadvertently, causing a drag on performance
Now...the question...
How can we simplify the user experience for users who want to submit data to items in composite hierarchies that represent net new intersections of planning dimensions (e.g., Entity, Cost Center, Product, GL Account)?
This, bringing us to feature parity with the Essbase Add-in for Smart View.
And what is the business value?
Requested Enhancement
Our clients are requesting the ability to (1) add composite hierarchy items to Anaplan lists via the Excel Add-in, and (2) add those items at the same time as they add data.
Acceptance criteria:
Per #1 above...
- Ability to point the Anaplan Excel Add-in to an Anaplan list
- Ability to *retrieve and read* all items from that list, including its parents and ancestors, into an "active grid" that is in sync with metadata in Anaplan
- Ability to add a row to that "active grid", enter in values, and *submit* those values; if the values are unique and in all other ways valid, an item will be added to the list in Anaplan
- Ability to enter and *submit* property data to a list for one or more items (nice-to-have)
Per #2 above...
- Ability to submit data (existing functionality, today), and in doing so, create a composite hierarchy item for that data to be stored at, if the composite hierarchy item does not already exist
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