About StaceyBrooks

The Anaplan Performance Triangle details the relationship between the number of users and the level of complexity in an Anaplan model to the performance of an Anaplan model, as explained by Mark Warren, Operational Excellence Group Platform Specialist in this article. The Performance Triangle considers: How many end-users are in the model and encourages concurrency testing and consideration of blocking actions that occur in the model (Planual 5.01-03). Model complexity, from the overall design to the actual line-item level and use of blocking actions. Performance and alignment with Planual best practices. In a recent roundtable discussion with a small group of customer Certified Master Anaplanners, we discussed the Anaplan Performance Triangle and it became clear there are additional key external factors that impact each angle of the performance triangle that cannot be ignored. Leadership support is a critical requirement to support the definition and alignment of the planning process The Anaplan platform is dynamic, flexible, and creates connectivity and collaboration between teams and business units executing a business process. Model architecture should be built to be capable of adapting to business changes over time and process inefficiencies should be corrected prior to the model development. All Certified Master Anaplanners on the call agreed that leadership’s support and involvement in defining the vision and cohesive business process during an Anaplan implementation is required to achieve buy-in and positive change management across business units for an optimized business process supported on Anaplan. When there is a lack of leadership involvement in the definition of the business process, there is also a risk of implementing a fragmented, inefficient, overly-complex model that may have an increased requirement for otherwise avoidable time-spend on maintenance and a potentially decreased end-user experience that carries forward pre-existing business process pain points. Those implementing an Anaplan model must understand and push for business unit alignment with leadership support, traverse the performance triangle as they develop the architecture of the model, and ensure the business process has an optimized, sturdy foundation.  Certified Master Anaplanner, @Prince.Ayinde, reflected in his statement, “ Process alignment enables the solutions implementation teams to create a framework of tradeoffs. This framework empowers business leaders to make strategic decisions with a clear understanding of the business process optimization journey.” Be open to change On every new Anaplan project, investigate what the current process is and ask the following questions: what they like, what do they not like, what do they use, what do they not use. Write it down on one board, and on another board ask — ideally and without any limitations — what they want Anaplan to do and how they want the process to work in the future with an improved process. This helps everyone understand the requirements but also approach the possibilities of how the process could work in the future with open minds that are willing to adopt changes to the historical process. The benefit of an Anaplan implementation is more than just implementation of a powerful tool, it is an opportunity to improve your overall process. “We have leveraged our successes from initial Anaplan deployments to encourage other business areas to embrace the opportunity for transformation. The flexibility of the platform has allowed us to add an enterprise framework to risk-prone processes, while making our existing staff more effective with limited training needed," notes Certified Master Anaplanner, @josh.baker, as he recounted the benefits of transforming business processes with reduced risk through implemented Anaplan solutions.  Don’t boil the ocean The term “boiling the ocean” in terms of a transformation project refers to making the scope so large that it becomes unmanageable or unnecessarily large or complex. Although it may sound counterintuitive, Anaplan works best when you split out models, modules, line items, and logic. When this approach is taken, you utilize the multi-threading capability of Anaplan’s calculation engine which results in performance increases and less concurrency. You also have an opportunity to limit or prevent the likelihood of end users executing blocking actions that could detract from the overall end user experience with the ability to add only the necessary users to the models that truly need access. This limits the size of the model's user list thereby reducing the size of any line items dimensioned by the user list. The result is successfully being able to avoid creating a complex model with a high propensity for blocking actions executed by end-users that deters a positive end-user experience. By rebuilding one giant model that originally supported multiple use cases into multiple models to avoid “boiling the ocean” within one large, inefficient model, one Certified Master Anaplanner highlighted how they were able to resolve performance issues and create a more seamless and positive end-user experience.  Certified Master Anaplanner, @andrewtye, highlighted the value gained for his organization as he explained, "by splitting a high complex model into two, it meant that end users no longer see the “Model is Busy” error message and with our [UX] apps, most end users don’t even know they’re using two models just running a couple of extra processes". Assuming proper security is set up, end users are not impacted by separated models supporting their experience when they access Anaplan pages in the UX, so separating use cases or large processes into multiple models has little to no impact on end user experience if the models are built to support consistent naming conventions, lists are synced, and security is managed appropriately. Final takeaways The Anaplan Performance Triangle highlights that model performance is a balance of complexity and user concurrency, and reducing either of these can improve it. What we learned in our roundtable discussion with Certified Master Anaplanners is that strong leadership support, starting with a clean, well-aligned process, and creating logical separations in model architecture to avoid "boiling the ocean" are key factors capable of having a significant impact to the three angles of the performance triangle: complexity, user concurrency, and model performance.  Check out blogs in Community from the Anaplan Operational Excellence Group: Tech talk: UX adoption and experiences Pro tips: Troubleshooting calculations UX Demonstration — check out the new features! ... View more

I'm excited for the upcoming Q1 Product Webinar occurring tomorrow, April 7th at 8 AM PT/11 AM ET! This webinar will be featuring Certified Master Anaplanner, Andrew Tye,  and will include highlights of the newest Anaplan products and features, with a specific focus this quarter on the New Modeling Experience, Integrations, and the UX. If you haven't registered yet, don't miss your chance!   Register Here  ... View more

During 2021, Certified Master Anaplanners demonstrated their thought leadership, technical expertise, and evangelism for the amazing ways Anaplan can solve problems, drive innovative solutions, and help organizations adapt quickly and effectively to internal and externally changing environments. As we drive forward into 2022, we want to recognize Certified Master Anaplanners for demonstrating these traits. Certified Master Anaplanners must meet two key requirements during 2022 to renew their certifications for 2023. Remain/Renew Certification as a Certified Solutions Architect Complete Contribution Activities for a total of 400 points There will be a new mid-year check-in requirement for Certified Master Anaplanners to complete half (200 points) of the annual points requirement by June 30 th , 2022, or ensure they have activities totaling 200 points lined up and confirmed by that date. There will be more to come on this! If you have any questions on your current 2023 re-certification status, send an email to MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com Unsurprisingly, these requirements are reflective of the same requirements in place during 2021. However, new this year is the mid-year check-in requirement. The goal for this requirement is to create greater visibility into where and how Certified Master Anaplanners are contributing, as well as to assist Certified Master Anaplanners in proactively planning how they will attain contributions throughout the year. This year, we are leaning in to recognize the differences of everyone within our Certified Master Anaplanner community and the amazing perspective that brings to our community! The valid 2022 contribution activities will be categorized by engagement zone which highlights the three types of Certified Master Anaplanners: Connected Planning Evangelists Thought Leaders Technical Experts Each zone is important to the Certified Master Anaplanner Community, the entire Anaplan Ecosystem, and the Anaplan Community! Our goal in creating these zones is to give each of you the opportunity to easily align your experience and personality with activities that are best suited for you in order to make a significant impact in a particular area of the Anaplan ecosystem. To that end, we ask that you select an engagement zone to focus on for your primary contribution activities. We will be taking an agile approach towards contributions in 2022; therefore, we will review this list at least quarterly and share new contribution activities throughout the year as we determine a need. More details for Certified Master Anaplanners are available in the Master Anaplanner User Group and will continue to come out throughout the year.   Technical Expert Contribution  Relationship Type Description Availability Submission Process Points “How I Built It” video series Customers, Partners Inspire and educate other model builders by showcasing your skills in specific areas of the Anaplan platform. Any time; limit 1 video each Submit your interest, including details about the topic you would like to discuss, to communitycontent@anaplan.com.  300 How-To articles Customers, Partners Share your expertise around Anaplan technical functionality or a Connected Planning business process. Any time; any quantity. Publication is not guaranteed. For topic ideas and content submission process, visit our How To Contribute Content guide. Points will be awarded if your content is published. 200 Persona Hub Quick Tip Videos Customers, Partners Share your quick-tip on how to best use features/functionality within the Anaplan Platform in a short video the Community Content team will help you record. Any time; any quantity. Publication is not guaranteed.  Send @Community Content your quick-tip topic and outline, they make sure the tip/topic isn’t a duplicate and make light edits, then they set up a time for you to record with the Community Video Producer (one hour). See examples of completed quick-tips here.  200 Voice of the Customer Product Update Customers Showcase your technical expertise! Participate in the brand new Voice of the Customer Product Update Webinar, speaking on the benefits of newer Anaplan platform features. You will also gain direct access to the Anaplan Product and Product Marketing team during the preparation period. CLOSED The Q1 Webinar will be April 7th and will highlight you as an expert on the following features. -NMX -Integrations (APIs, Anaplan connect, Power BI connector) -UX   CLOSED:  Q3 webinar will be held on Oct. 6th. A customer speaker is needed to speak about Polaris and Management Reporting.  1-2 customer speakers, upon approval Submit your interest to participate as a speaker in this webinar to MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com 400 Customer Spotlight Blog Series Customers We need a limited number of Master Anaplanners to apply for a new Customer Spotlight Blog series in which you will be featured inside the Anaplan Community and within Anaplan's main website to showcase the value of how you used Anaplan to solve a problem and the difference it made in your organization.  Upon approval, one submission per person Email your submissions to communitycontent@anaplan.com and copy MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com. Add a note in the email that you are applying for the Customer Spotlight Blog Series. 400 CLOSED:  Host an ACE Networking Table on November 9th & 10th Customers, Partners Host an ACE networking table where ACE Attendees will be able to join your virtual networking table to connect and ask questions about your specific product feature you select for your networking table. The networking table will need to be open for 1-1.5 hours during the ACE event. Upon approval, Any quantity Sign up by emailing MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com. Confirm your time-block and submit your specific featured product feature you wish to focus on for approval. Product feature must be specific (example: not just API's, choose specific feature such as REST API) 400 CLOSED:  Breakout Session Producer for ACE Events on November 9th & 10th Internal Help prepare breakout speakers for their sessions, ensure they have their content prepared, be easily accessible the day of the presentation and help resolve any technical issues, ensure speakers are where they need to be the day of the presentation, and shares links and time reminders in the breakout session. Upon approval, Any quantity Sign up by emailing MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com 400 Immediate Need: Provide UX & Management Reporting Layout Examples Customers, Partners, Internal Provide screenshots of 3-5 examples of UX Page or Management Reporting Design Layouts that have been well-received by end-users. Include a short description explaining which key elements make this layout successful with end-users. The screenshots should be provided in a format that can be shared with the broader Anaplan Community. Blacked out data points are acceptable. The goal is to create reference-able templates for community members to mirror when designing for analysts who need to review large amounts of data (the UX) and for presentation materials that provide higher level insights to leadership (Management Reporting). Any quantity, upon approval Email submission to MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com 100     Thought Leader Contribution  Relationship Type Description Availability Submission Process Points CLOSED:  ACE Event Mainstage Chat Engagers Customers, Partners, Internal Sign up to share your thoughts and expert perspectives in the chat during the main-stage events, share links to content that is relevant to the presentation material in the chat, and help answer questions by other attendees. For each main-stage session you commit to, you will receive 100 points. You must sign up in advance and you must complete the activity during ACE to receive points. Sign up by emailing MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com 100 CLOSED Persona Hub Creation: CoE Leader Persona Hub Master Anaplanner Persona Hub All 3 Master Anaplanners are needed to help plan and create each planned persona hub. This is a limited availability opportunity and a great way to complete all the contribution activity points you need for this year! Volunteers are needed no later than March 11th, 2022. The Persona Hub content needs to be finalized by March 23rd, 2022.  We will set up a call to specifically outline what's needed and being asked for once you volunteer.  Email your intent to volunteer for this activity to MasterAnaplanners@anaplan.com.  400 CLOSED Persona Hubs content All Contribute or curate content for upcoming new Persona Hubs (Centers of Excellence, Master Anaplanners, more to come). Any time Email your submissions to communitycontent@anaplan.com. Watch the Master Anaplanner Group in the Community for specific requests related to Persona Hubs. 200 Persona Hubs Event Series All Share your expertise live with our new event series focused on Persona Hubs (UX Designer, Model Contributor, more to come). Upon approval Indicate interest by emailing dennis.lemoine@anaplan.com. Watch the Master Anaplanner Group in the Community for specific requests related to Persona Hubs. 200 Community Podcast Series All Share your expertise during our new podcast series. Upon approval Indicate interest by emailing dennis.lemoine@anaplan.com.  Watch the Master Anaplanner Group in the Community for specific requests. 200 CLOSED Speak at Anaplan Live! Customers, Partners Share your expertise live at the Anaplan's premiere event. Upon approval Indicate interest by emailing dennis.lemoine@anaplan.com. If selected, points are contingent upon participation in all pre-event rehearsals and meetings.  400 Speak at an Anaplan Connect Event Customers, Partners Share your expertise by presenting at an Anaplan Connect event. Upon approval Send an email to MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com confirming your completed presentation and sharing your presentation slides from your Anaplan Connect Event presentation. 400 Centers of Excellence content Customers Create thought leadership content for the CoE section of the Community. Any time; any quantity Email content to Beauram.Hur@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded if your content is published. 200 Call for Community Content All Write (or co-author) a blog post for the Anaplan Community blog on business processes, Connected Planning, career paths, new platform functionality, or other topics that excite you. Check here for topic suggestions and submission process information.  Any time; max of 3 posts for points. Email CommunityContent@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded if your content is published.   No submissions in November/December.   No guarantee of publication, so submit early for best opportunities. 200 Speak at a Group event All Share about a specific topic at an Anaplan Groups event. May be as a solo presenter or part of a panel, and may involve live Q&A. Any time; any quantity Email Groups@Anaplan.com with your interest. Points will be awarded after you speak at the event.  200 CLOSED Center of Excellence: Templates and Internal Resources Customers Submit templates for emails and other internal resources: Established processes that you are most proud of. Some examples are: - How your CoE communicates upcoming system downtime or platform changes - How the CoE takes requests and prioritizes them - Great ways to structure your CoE team calls Submissions must be received by May 31, 2022.  Email beauram.hur@anaplan.com 200 CLOSED Center of Excellence: Push for internal training/enablement Customers Help other CoEs ramp up by sharing examples of your CoE’s Anaplan enablement offerings beyond Anaplan Academy Submissions must be received by May 31, 2022.  Email beauram.hur@anaplan.com 200 CLOSED Center of Excellence: Examples of CoE Culture Customers Inspire other CoEs by sharing what your CoE does that’s unique (celebrations, show and tells, beer-and-build) and fostering a connected culture Submissions must be received by May 31, 2022.  Email beauram.hur@anaplan.com 100 CLOSED Center of Excellence and the Anaplan Community Customers Share examples of internal resources (one-pagers or decks) on how your CoE positions Anaplan Community to end users and new model builders Submissions must be received by May 31, 2022.  Email beauram.hur@anaplan.com 100   Connected Planning Evangelist Contribution  Relationship Type Description Availability Submission Process Points Serve as an Anaplan Group Leader Customers, Partners Connect like-minded peers for meaningful discussions online and/or at events. Any time Apply in the Community here Points will be contingent on successful completion of requirements at the end of the Leader's term. 400 Serve as a MA Cohort Call Leader Customers, Partners, Internal Lead monthly Certified Master Anaplanner Cohort Calls from August through December and to assist in curating monthly agendas. Required to commit to leading one call per month. Available to all Certified Master Anaplanners. Email MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com 400 Customer Advocacy Customers Become a customer advocate and share your passion for Anaplan with other customers. Must have already completed Advocacy Program sign-up form and been accepted to the program (all customers are welcome to sign up). By invitation Master Anaplanners will meet with the advocacy team; they will then determine appropriate opportunities for participation. Points will be awarded at the discretion of the advocacy team. 100 User Research Program Champion Customers The Anaplan Research team needs to connect directly with end users so they can weigh in on future designs and ideas.  Any time; must get all 5 end users to sign up Sign up yourself and get 5 end users to sign up for the User Research Program Sign Up Here  100 Host a Group event All Collaborate with a Group Leader to create an event on the topic of your choosing.  Any time; any quantity Email Groups@Anaplan.com with your interest. Points will be awarded after you host the event. 300 Complete a Gartner Peer Insights Review Customers, Partners Complete a 20-minute online survey, vetted by Gartner before publishing anonymously.  Any time; 1 review/market Send proof of completed review to CustomerMarketing@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded upon receipt of your submission. 200 (Customers and Partners Only) Complete a G2 review Customers, Partners Complete a 10-minute online survey, vetted by G2 with an option to publish anonymously. Any time; 1 review/person Send proof of completed review to CustomerMarketing@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded upon receipt of your submission. 100 (Customers and Partners Only) Complete a TrustRadius review Customers, Partners Complete a brief online survey about your experiences with Anaplan.  Any time; 1 review/person Send proof of completed review to CustomerMarketing@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded upon receipt of your submission. 100 CLOSED (Customers Only) Complete a Dresner Wisdom of Crowds Survey: Direct link here. Customers Complete a brief online survey about your experiences with Anaplan.  Survey responses must be submitted prior to March 31st, 2022. Responses are not able to be submitted after this date. 1 review/person. Send proof of completed review to CustomerMarketing@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded upon receipt of your submission. 100 Submit a completed CoE Charter Customers, Partners Start building a Center of Excellence at your company and share your Charter providing a high-level overview of your CoE.  Any time; 1 charter/company Email completed charter to Mariam.Azeez@Anaplan.com. Points will be awarded after your charter is approved. 400 Mentor 1 Model Builder through Anaplan Academy Training Courses Customers, Partners Support a new model builder in successfully completing their Anaplan training courses: -Level 1 and The Anaplan Way (50 points for each course) -Level 2 (100 points) -Level 3 and Solutions Architect Design Review (200 points) Any time; any quantity After their training is complete, ask your mentee to email MasterAnaplanners@Anaplan.com and designate you as their mentor. Points will be awarded once the data is verified.   Courses must be completed during 2022.   To receive points for Level 3 Course and Design Review, the mentee must submit and pass design review and receive confirmation of becoming a Certified Solution Architect. Grading of the design review may take a few weeks, and this confirmation of your mentee passing the design review must be received prior to the end of this year. Please ensure any of your Level 3 mentees have this step completed with ample time to account for the grading process if you require these points to re-certify at the end of 2022.  Varies by Course   ... View more

There are several types of functions in Anaplan: aggregation, numeric, financial, time and date, logical, text, call center planning, and miscellaneous functions. As a model contributor, you are probably already aware of the SUM function in Anaplan, which is an aggregation function, but how many other aggregation functions exist and how can you use them? Have you run into a need to check if any or all booleans are selected? Do you have a need to aggregate data across time periods?   This 9 minute micro-training (Aggregation Functions other than SUM) may be very helpful to understand what's possible when using other, perhaps less familiar, aggregation functions in Anaplan!    Share a note below if you find this helpful, note what challenges you've run into with aggregation functions, or share what your favorite aggregation functions are and how you use them. ... View more

When a table is published on a Report Page, and one of the formats is selected that has every other row shaded, I lose the ability to see the conditional formatting applied to that line item for every row that is shaded by the table format applied. It would make much more sense for the conditional formatting to be visible over the table format. .    Table formatting, with conditional formatting not visible on every other row.   Table formatting that does not shade every other row, demonstrating correctly visible conditional formatting:     ... View more

The export functionality within the Administrator section does not export what is filtered on the screen at the time of export.    For Example: Within the Administration view, under Access Control --> Roles. When I click on the number shown under field "Users Assigned", my screen correctly displays the users assigned to that role. For this example, I clicked on the number for Page Builders. I see the correct list of page builders.    The error occurs when I click the EXPORT button in the top right corner. This export button exports a CSV file with a totally different number of rows, and totally different users than what is displayed on my screen. It would be very helpful to have this export functionality resolved so that accurate data is exported when the export button is utilized.    This export issue seems to exist throughout the Administration view, not just within the Page Builders filter that I used for example purposes.      ... View more

The Planual 2.01-11 states that dimension order should remain consistent among modules to ensure faster calculations so that common dimensions are in the same order as the applies to. I know I am able to click into the Applies To section for a module or line item and then click "OK", and that this will re-sort the list dimensions. However, I feel that Anaplan should be re-sorting dimensions in all modules/line items automatically.   I would love to see Anaplan release this platform improvement because it will improve model performance for all customers and all Anaplan models that exist now and in the future, rather than the miniscule improvement with high manual effort that would be gained by one lone model builder going in to a model to manually re-sort the dimensions module by module.    @AnjuR  2.01-11 Keep the Dimension Order consistent  ... View more

I am excited we now have the ability to point multiple models to the same page, however with this new functionality, we have also found some frustration. We need the ability to set a default model when multiple models are assigned to a page. If I have a DEV model and a PROD model pointed to the same page, I want the ability to assign a default model so that I do not need to manually change the model the page points to each time I open the App unless I intentionally want to work in the non-default models pointed to that page.  ... View more