About Jared Dolich

Jared Dolich

@jbrass Great question! I think there's lots of ways to solve this but the one that comes to my mind is just to use the RANK function. This will generate a Rank # within your products (make sure to use the SEQUENTIAL so you get a unique number in case of tie) Then concatenate the product and rank together. That should generate a unique ID for you.

Jared Dolich

@Bob-Bachynsky, @KayneSchwarz , @Miran , @Prakash , Just finished going through these videos and workbook and wanted to give a resounding applause. Thank you for putting this all together - I can tell you put a lot of time into this. I have two questions though regarding the roles. In almost every implementation I've been part of there's a dedicated data integration for Anaplan specialist. Having served in this role I understand why - It's truly a full time job, especially at the beginning. I guess my question is do most customers consider the solution architect for this role or do you think this deserves an honorable mention as a suggested role? Also, I've found that having someone that's really good with change management helps. I suspect the CoE lead and the business lead are meant to be champions which helps, but there's so much more that seems to be appropriate for someone that serves as that ambassador - communication, training, point of contact, etc.. Great job! Really enjoyed this course.

Jared Dolich

@tejaswini Great question - the short answer is yes, the more users you have the more it will impact performance. @rob_marshall pointed you to the best practice articles. I would also highly recommend reading those. In particular read how to perform concurrency testing by @andy_tarr and @elizabeth_schaf https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Model-Concurrency-Testing/Model-Concurrency-Testing-Process/ta-p/27185 This will really open your eyes to what's going on. I refer to this article all the time. I particularly like how they organized by team responsibility. You can add this directly into your project plan or master bucket if you happen to be using the Anaplan Way!

Jared Dolich

@tejaswini I have four possible suggestions for you. Some if this depends on what kind of retention you want. 1. Use List Subsets 2. Use Versions 3. Use Lists 4. Use Booleans (my recommendation) 1. You can create a list subset. For each scenario you can "checkbox" the regions you want to include. This would likely mean that you would have to create a separate module for each scenario. Another problem with this method though is that you would probably have to expose the list subset to the user if it needs to change. 2. You can use versions. Read David Smith's "To Version or not to Version" first though. There are some pros/cons to this approach. But each scenario could be saved into a version and then you can easily compare them all. 3. Use Lists. You can create a "scenario" hierarchy and through actions or just manual intervention you can plan the various scenarios. 4. (Recommended) Use Booleans. In this case you will create a Boolean that includes the regions you want. From there you create the scenarios which only includes the Regions you want. Pros of this method is that it's simple but you do have to put conditionals in your line items that measure your scenario output. Cons is that it's one at a time. I suppose you could combine this method with one above too. If any of these seem close to what you were looking for let me know. I'll create a quick sandbox example for you.

Jared Dolich

@DingZ @Noemi.andres suggestion is a good one. Additionally, you can create what's called a system module, a separate module that only contains the annual inflation rates. Then you can just look it up from you calculation module. Check out DISCO method.

Jared Dolich

@obriegr - this looks amazing - probably worth it to itemize all the features as individual ideas. There's 10-12 really cool things this add-on does. Just curious, when you say you don't have permissions is it because you can't add Chrome add-ons? Also, do you know if all Anaplan users must have this add-on in order to see the changes you made, or is this just for modelers browser and does not affect other users?

Jared Dolich

jedge@dsi.com Just a guess. Make sure that the summary level of the line items are appropriate for the Booleans you're working with. Try adding a mocked up screenshot or example (no sensitive data) - of the dashboard and the blueprint of the source model. If we know specifically what's happening we can be more helpful.

Jared Dolich

@ckryan Just adding to @rob_marshall export Afterwhich, you can then re-import the data into your module. I think that's what you were after. If you can automate that, that would be a pretty nice workaround.

Jared Dolich

@iWonder You'll thank yourself 10 times over following the best practice outlined by @Misbah Just remember your smart-key needs to be 60 characters or less. Since you have quite a few dimensions, you may need to code the dimensions. Those codes will then have to be part of your master data strategy, whether that's managed outside of Anaplan or within. But do try to avoid using sequential numbers, even for quick tests.

Jared Dolich

Hi @nagarajut80 Welcome to the Anaplan world! You'll love it. @Misbah is correct. You can also check out the pricing schedule (click on this link) for basic, professional, and enterprise edition depending on what you had in mind. At the bottom of this link is a contact sheet. Fill it out and someone from Anaplan can talk to you about what you need. Jared

Jared Dolich

@Misbah I really enjoyed reading that and reinforces my belief that there's always something new to learn in Anaplan. Thank you for compiling that.

Jared Dolich

@pmehta Right now it's alphabetical. You can upvote the idea that @DavidEdwards posted. Click on this link.

Jared Dolich

Brilliant.

Jared Dolich

@dngingras I'm trying to think through the use case on this but I think I understand what you're trying to do. I like @cianna.bramley and @Ceri where you use a boolean, preferably from a system module (DISCO methodology) But if you don't want to add another line item - You can try using LEAD on the ELSE portion the same distance as the post. This will leave the value alone if it doesn't meet your condition. For example, IF Sales < 150 THEN POST(Sales, 2) + 100 ELSE LEAD(Sales, 2, 0)

Jared Dolich

I believe that question is referring to the model you built in the first certification. The two work together. My recollection is that somewhere in Sprint I early on, there should be some instructions on how to download a completed model.

Jared Dolich

@BahalR Great question. You can easily accomplish this with an import action. You can also do this with formulas and let them override but I'll tackle the import action here for you. Step 1 - Enter the base values. In this case I've added a growth % by country by month based on your example. Step 2 - Create a saved view that has the data you want to import. In this case we only want months, countries and the "base" assumption. Note: I used system modules to filter dates and countries. You should do the same. Step 3 - Create an import and use the saved view as your source. Under the scenarios mapping make sure you map base to whichever assumption you want. In this case I mapped it to Upside. If you want to also copy to downside, you have two choices. Run the import again but point it to downside or create another line item that is a copy of the base so you can map it to downside. Step 4. Audit your results. We successfully added growth % to the upside as a "seed".

Jared Dolich

@damianshameer2 , The client I work with now uses a CA certificate and crosses multiple workspaces but they aren't using SSO but it seems to me that if you can get it to work with one workspace it should work with others within the same tenant. Some suggestions for you: It might be time to reach out to support@anaplan.com and get some data integration SME's to help you out. You can also reach out to your Anaplan business partner - they will definitely get you the help you need. I just noticed that maybe the selective access is turned on for that list. Here's the screenshot you provided. Make sure that's not holding you up. Look at Org L1. If you do work with support, I hope you'll post the answer. I'm sure others will encounter the same issue.

Jared Dolich

@Stacey_Gibbens I always learn something new when it comes to Anaplan. @damianshameer2 I needed to learn more about SAML and I found this really good article and makes sense why SSO would use it.

Jared Dolich

@AlejandroGomez I've never tried a zipped file before. Not sure how I missed that. Thank you for sharing that - will be adding that to my personal best practices!

Jared Dolich

@damianshameer2 I'm just following this conversation - I'm not an integration expert - and had three "shot in the dark" ideas: - Not sure if this is necessary or not, but I couldn't tell if your system ID in the target workspace is set as a workspace admin. - You are using selective access on that list and wondered if in the target the system ID is set similarly. - Lastly, the system ID in the target won't need a pwd (since you're using the cert) but it will need network access to the source of the file you're importing. Just some ideas. Anxious to see the solution.

Jared Dolich

@PujithaB @LipChean_Soh is correct. Also, here's another link where someone asked the same question (and it was also answered by @LipChean_Soh!) There are some good statistics there about size limits. As a matter of data integration, if you use the API or one of the connectors in Informatica, Dell Boomi, or Mulesoft, there is a recommended size of file. I can't seem to find the link for that one but my recollection was around 20MB per chunk. Lastly, here is the recommendations for large import files from Anaplan. Great suggestions, many that @LipChean_Soh recommended.

Jared Dolich

Summary In the supply chain horizontal you may be asked to calculate a forward cover in Anaplan. In this article we modified a best practice suggestion from @nathan_rudman based on a question posed by @mikhivin about Accounts Receivable coverage which looks backward. See this post on count back for turnover. The example uses ending inventory as the basis and asked the question, "how many days or weeks will it take to sell thru the inventory?" Forward Cover or Forward Weeks of Supply Unfortunately, a forward cover function doesn't exist in Anaplan. @nathan_rudman devised a process that will simulate a backward looking function but it requires some brute force and a little creativity. The steps to accomplish a forward-looking solution is shown in this modified approach. The steps to accomplish this are as follows: Determine how many months it will take to exhaust the inventory. Calculate the Forward Cover Use the MOVINGSUM function to add up the sales forecasts and the number of days Obtain the statistics in the last month and bring them forward to the same month as the ending inventory being evaluated Determine the sales percentage over and use that ratio against the number of days Calculate the forward cover Results Here is what the final output will look like. Step 1: Determine the number of months to exhaust the inventory This is the hardest part of the process but can be accomplished rather quickly with two line items and one very small list. Create a list containing the number of months you want to look forward. In this example, I have chosen 12 months as a maximum forward look. We will need this list because every month will have to be evaluated to determine the one that finally exhausts the inventory. Make sure to add a top value, this will be needed to find the one month we need. Mine is called "all possibilities". Next, create a calculation module using this list and the time dimension. I called mine "Calc001 How Many Months". In this example, I am using months but it works the same with weeks. You'll just need to modify your list to be weeks forward instead of months. Add two line items that reference the sales and inventory output module which I called "OUT001 Forward Cover". Months needed simply tests every month to determine if we've exceeded the ending inventory. If we have then record the month number. If not, then use the ending inventory so we exclude that month when we summarize this line item. The Months needed should have a "Min' summary. The Min summary will take the lowest number, so using ending inventory will ensure we don't include it. If ending inventory is zero, then our forward cover will be zero. Moving Sum Sales | MOVINGSUM('OUT001 Forward Cover'.Sales, 1, VALUE(NAME(ITEM(Month Count Fwd Cover)))) Months Needed | IF Moving Sum Sales > 'OUT001 Forward Cover'.Ending Inventory THEN VALUE(NAME(ITEM(Month Count Fwd Cover))) ELSE 'OUT001 Forward Cover'.Ending Inventory Notice how the summary contains the correct number of months needed to exhaust the inventory. Step 2: Calculate the Forward Cover The last step is pretty straight-forward since we now know how many months it will take. Create the following line items to your output module. Some of these line items can be combined but I broke them up to illustrate the process which supports the PLANS methodology. And, finally you can see the results from the top of this article. Conclusions: I'll repeat a lot of what @nathan_rudman had to say because there are some pros/cons of this method. Limiting the number of months or the other dimensions like product and location will significantly help with performance since this is a rather intensive calculation testing every possible combination. Limit how far you will look forward. You can even start at month 2 or 3 if you think anything less than 8 weeks of supply is not worth analyzing. Utilize system modules to filter your data (see DISCO) Finally, impress your supply chain colleagues with this amazing statistic that can be created in Anaplan! Again, I want to thank @nathan_rudman for sharing his wisdom and creativity in solving the backward-looking solution. It made creating this article much easier.

Jared Dolich

@rob_marshall I love this post. I just finished loaded a years worth of transactions and tested both ways, the bad way and the good way. The good way was 82% smaller and 90%+ faster. AMAZING! Hope you include this best practice in the level 3 cert training.

Jared Dolich

@Sameer_Bajaj If you're able to create actions then @nathan_rudman suggestion is the best solution. If using an action is not possible you can create a list subset that only contains Italy. No actions will be required - you can use formulas. Here's an example using your data. Step1: Module A contains sales for all countries Step 2: Create a list subset on countries called "Italy Only" and checkbox Italy to "True" Step 3: Create Module B and set Sales = Module A.Sales 4. See results. You now have the module you wanted in your image.

Jared Dolich

Thanks @nathan_rudman! Good catch - I will definitely avoid that in the future.

Jared Dolich

Thanks @kavinkumar. Great article. I know you're also very familiar with the data integration side of Anaplan too. Any data integration cleanup suggestions? I was recently working with a client that was using practically every method available to integrate with Anaplan - Excel add-in, API with and without a certificate - mostly Python, Anaplan Connect, and the Informatica connector. Seemed to me that it would be a good idea to develop a consistent data integration policy. Maybe something that con be done during a cleanup activity. What has been your experience?

Jared Dolich

Thanks @kavinkumar. Excellent article and timely - this is when many models need to be annualized. I particularly like the idea of cleaning up those actions. I've seen models with hundreds of unused and undocumented actions - really makes it hard to find the ones that are really being used. Do you think it's also a good time to revisit those list subsets? Thanks for pulling this all together.

Jared Dolich

@svbhagat Awesome question. This can be done with complex nested if statements but the real answer is what you mentioned early on. Create two system modules. One for the Booleans that meet your conditions for rate increases. One for the rate increases per year (which will also contain the alternative (0%) if one of your Booleans is tripped) You will make your life SO much easier and also for those that need to support whatever it is you build if you follow the DISCO method. It's worth it. Trust me - I used complex, nested, if statements for so long. Once I went through the cert. level 2 course, it changed my perspective completely. There's no going back... If you want, we can carry this conversation offline. We can link up on LinkedIn - just search for Jared Dolich and I'll give you my contact info.

Jared Dolich

Thought I would post this here as a method to calculate Forward Cover or Forward Weeks of Supply. A year ago @AnaplanIdeas posted an idea for this which is great. I'd like to expand on this idea and also incorporate @nathan_rudman backward-looking suggestion. Summary: In the supply chain horizontal you may be asked to calculate a forward cover in Anaplan. Here's a suggestion from @nathan_rudman based on a question posed by @mikhivin about Accounts Receivable coverage which looks backward. See this post on count back for turnover. The example for forward-looking uses ending inventory as the basis and asks the question, "how many days or weeks will it take to sell thru the inventory?" Forward Cover or Forward Weeks of Supply Unfortunately, a forward cover function doesn't yet exist in Anaplan. But, @nathan_rudman devised a process that will simulate a backward looking function and requires a little creativity. The steps to accomplish a forward-looking solution is shown in this modified approach. The steps to accomplish this are as follows: Determine how many months it will take to exhaust the inventory. Calculate the Forward Cover Use the MOVINGSUM function to add up the sales forecasts and the number of days Obtain the statistics in the last month and bring them forward to the same month as the ending inventory being evaluated Determine the sales percentage over and use that ratio against the number of days Calculate the forward cover Results Here is what the final output will look like. Step 1: Determine the number of months to exhaust the inventory This is the hardest part of the process but can be accomplished rather quickly with two line items and one very small list. Create a list containing the number of months you want to look forward. In this example, I have chosen 12 months as a maximum forward look. We will need this list because every month will have to be evaluated to determine the one that finally exhausts the inventory. Make sure to add a top value, this will be needed to find the one month we need. Mine is called "all possibilities". Next, create a calculation module using this list and the time dimension. I called mine "Calc001 How Many Months". In this example, I am using months but it works the same with weeks. You'll just need to modify your list to be weeks forward instead of months. Add two line items that reference the sales and inventory output module which I called "OUT001 Forward Cover". Months needed simply tests every month to determine if we've exceeded the ending inventory. If we have then record the month number. If not, then use the ending inventory so we exclude that month when we summarize this line item. The Months needed should have a "Min' summary. The Min summary will take the lowest number, so using ending inventory will ensure we don't include it. If ending inventory is zero, then our forward cover will be zero. Moving Sum Sales | MOVINGSUM('OUT001 Forward Cover'.Sales, 1, VALUE(NAME(ITEM(Month Count Fwd Cover)))) Months Needed | IF Moving Sum Sales > 'OUT001 Forward Cover'.Ending Inventory THEN VALUE(NAME(ITEM(Month Count Fwd Cover))) ELSE 'OUT001 Forward Cover'.Ending Inventory Notice how the summary contains the correct number of months needed to exhaust the inventory. Step 2: Calculate the Forward Cover The last step is pretty straight-forward since we now know how many months it will take. Create the following line items to your output module. Some of these line items can be combined but I broke them up to illustrate the process which supports the PLANS methodology. And, finally you can see the results from the top of this article. Conclusions: I'll repeat a lot of what @nathan_rudman had to say because there are some pros/cons of this method worth mentioning again. Limiting the number of months or the other dimensions like product and location will significantly help with performance since this is a rather intensive calculation testing every possible combination. Limit how far you will look forward. You can even start at month 2 or 3 if you think anything less than 8 weeks of supply is not worth analyzing. Utilize system modules to filter your data (see DISCO) Finally, impress your supply chain colleagues with this amazing statistic that can be created in Anaplan! Again, I want to thank @nathan_rudman for sharing his wisdom and creativity in solving the backward-looking solution. It made creating this article much easier.

Jared Dolich

Make sure you are using offset on the same line item " $ Amount Forecast - 3". Also, the ELSE should not be zero but rather the actual amount. So something like this: $ Amount Forecast - 3 = IF NOT Is Actual Version? THEN OFFSET($ Amount Forecast - 3, -12, 0) * (1+Cost Escalation Factor) ELSE '$ Amount Actuals'.