The indispensable platform for the agile connected enterprise: New innovations from Anaplan’s product team

When it comes to effectively managing the intricacies of their global operations, today’s businesses face a myriad of challenges – from diverse markets and supply chains to rapidly shifting consumer preferences. To stay ahead of the competition, they need a holistic, interconnected view of their organization’s operations; one that allows stakeholders from around the world to plan and act based on data that is automatically consolidated into a single, unified environment. They need to harness the power of an immense amount of data to spot new opportunities, mitigate risks, optimize resources, and make the right daily planning decisions with speed and confidence. 

At Anaplan, arming businesses with this advanced, interconnected planning functionality is part of our DNA. It’s why we coined the term Connected Planning back in 2017 and continue to invest in the category; and why large, complex organizations around the world – brands like Google, Jaguar Land Rover, Netflix, Bayer, and Moët Hennessy – rely on our platform to drive their operations forward at scale, with insight, agility, and confidence.  

This commitment also fuels our innovative spirit, which is why today we are thrilled to introduce several new and enhanced product offerings, including Workflow, Geo-Mapping, our Territory & Quota Planning App, and Polaris. These new innovations will enable our customers to leverage large, complex data sets and out-of-the-box applications, create sophisticated models that capture the intricacies of their global operations, and plan at the natural dimensionality of their business. 

The first product offering we are thrilled to introduce is Anaplan Workflow, generally available this Fall.

With Workflow, businesses can simply automate their user-centric processes in the Anaplan platform, removing the need for central teams to constantly monitor progress while making certain elements of the planning process more repeatable and reliable. 

Whether it’s a simple task like updating a forecast, or a defined process like monthly assortment planning, Workflow enables businesses to eliminate the manual intervention required to run successful planning processes. Instead, clear call-to-action buttons notify users automatically when it’s their turn to submit an approval or rejection or to work on a task. 

Just think of the value this type of automation could provide to a monthly forecasting cycle. 

Each month, users would receive a notification taking them to the exact page in Anaplan where their work needs to be done. Once complete, they would have the ability to add notes to provide other planners in the forecasting cycle with the context needed for decision-making. If a team member was out sick and couldn’t complete their task on time, the process owner would be able to do so on their behalf – ensuring an unexpected absence wouldn’t delay a critical planning cycle. And, when it was time for senior leaders to sign off on the forecast, clear call-to-action buttons and seamless integration with the Anaplan Mobile App would make it easy for leaders to review task notes, check critical numbers, and approve or reject the work in real-time. 

Anaplan Workflow will not only speed up critical decision-making for our customers, but also reduce the need for complex training and excessive manual coordination, enabling teams to execute key tasks and processes in an efficient, and effective way. See Anaplan Workflow in action. 

The second new product offering we are excited to share is Anaplan Geo-Mapping – an interactive mapping capability within Anaplan that will also be rolling out in the Fall.   

With Geo-Mapping, customers will be able to visualize model data from a module as either a colored territory, displaying regions or areas on a map, or a marker, based on latitudinal and longitudinal points.  

For example, a CFO for a large national bank could use Geo-Mapping to visually showcase branch performance metrics across regions. And, since all map capabilities are context-aware, the CFO could simply click on a location marker to see the related data for each unique branch in the identified location.  

With dynamic mapping capabilities at their fingertips, Anaplan customers in any business function will be able to visualize key data points in exciting new ways, driving more informed reporting and decision-making.  See Geo-Mapping in action.

Next up, to help our customers stay ahead of the competition and drive profitable growth, over the next year we will also be unveiling a suite of Sales Applications. 

Similar to the Anaplan Applications for Supply Chain Planning we introduced earlier this year; Anaplan Applications for Sales will arm sales and revenue leaders with the confidence and agility they need to chart their organization’s path to revenue and respond to the real-world problems impacting their go-to-market strategy. 

With the out-of-the-box Territory & Quota Planning app– the first offering available in the suite– sales and revenue leaders will be able to get up and running quickly with a guided setup, pre-configured data integrations, and planning models based on sales planning best practices.

In a highly volatile market, where revenue streams are constantly in flux, our Sales Applications will enable revenue teams across industries to drive profitable growth, arming decision-makers with the data-driven insights they need to keep their pipelines healthy, their quotas attainable, and their sales teams motivated. See our Territory & Quota Planning app in action. 

Finally, we’re thrilled to share that Anaplan Polaris, our calculation engine for high dimensionality, is now generally available.   

With Polaris, businesses can leverage large, complex data sets to model at a massive scale and at the natural dimensionality of their business. They can slice and dice through every facet of the business – working with existing parameters, like dimensions or hierarchies, to spot key trends and uncover actionable insights at the speed of the market.  

For large, complex global organizations – the point of natural dimensionality at scale is one that can’t be overlooked. It means users can mass model the data most relevant to their business in real time and with very few limitations. A global supply chain leader, for instance, could model across geographical boundaries and time zones; across every SKU and every component required to produce each individual product; and across every factory, warehouse, and facility. They could drill into specifics with precision and granularity or leverage a fully informed view of their organization’s entire supply chain to make the most informed and actionable business decisions.

To date, Anaplan customers like Daimler and Dr. Oetker have already realized the value of Polaris, leveraging the calculation engine to model and optimize significant data sets in sales and supply chain for their large organizations. See Anaplan Polaris in action.

It’s no surprise that today’s businesses are operating in an increasingly challenging environment, where disruption and change are seemingly part of the status quo. But, with the right tools at their disposal and a comprehensive understanding of their operations, decision-makers can navigate complexity with confidence. 

At Anaplan, we are committed to helping our customers break free from the limitations of legacy tools and manual processes, and instead, leverage advanced capabilities to transform planning into a competitive edge. The offerings and enhancements we unveiled today are a testament to this commitment and underscore our dedication to supporting our customers’ growth and success by providing them with an agile, integrated planning platform that delivers real ROI, so leaders can manage volatility with confidence.  

We’ll be sharing more in the coming months about the value these exciting new features can bring to your business. In the meantime, follow Anaplan on LinkedIn to stay up to date on our latest news and insights.