An Anaplan model represents different aspects of your business that you can use for connected planning.
Before you build a model, it's important that you consider the business cases you want to address, such as budgeting, sales, and planning. Then, you can identify the facts about your business that help to create your model. For example, your locations, products, and people.
A model containsmodules, line items, anddimensions. Use these components to represent each aspect of your business.
Modules are key components of an Anaplan model.Each module represents a specific function, such as margin calculation, employee expense planning, or profit and loss reports. Use modules to enter data and calculate values.
You can categorize your modules into functional areas. Functional areas display in theTable of contents .
Publish module data to a dashboard to enable users to understand and work with a model. You can also save different data views from modules to analyse data from other perspectives.
Use line items to measure data in your model. For example, in a Profit and Loss module, you might want to measure revenue, cost of sales, margin, expenses, and profit. Add a line item for each business area, and configure each line item in the module's Blueprint.
Use dimensions to form the structure of a module. Pivot dimensions on a module's rows, columns, and pages.
By default, all models include the Time and Versions dimensions, and theOrganizationandUsersdefault lists. Other dimensions include lists, which you can use to group related items in a model, such as employees in a department, products, or geographic regions.
Use the Time dimension to set the timescale for your model's calendar. Depending on your requirements, you can specify if planning is done by months, quarters, or years.
Versions let you compare different scenarios in a model. Each model has two default versions: Actual and Forecast. For example, use versions to compare actual and forecast sales data in your model.
In a model, you can also:
You can enter data manually, import data from external sources, or use formulas to pull data from other line items in your model.
Model components, such as dimensions, are local to a model, but can be updated with data from another model.If you change any data directly in your model, the model automatically recalculates all affected cells.
FAQs
Model design process
- Document the business process.
- Determine the modules needed in the model.
- Identify the dimensions needed for each module.
- Design the user experience.
- Map the user and data workflow.
- Use 'No data' where possible.
- Merge line items into single line item if possible by combining formulas, still maintaining readability and traceability.
- Bring only relevant dimension values as line item that are key to aggregation for SUM function or LOOKUP function.
- Delete unnecessary line-items.
This handy acronym stands for Data, Input, System, Calculation, and Output. Each word represents a certain function (or responsibility) that each module with an Anaplan model should perform. The D.I.S.C.O. methodology provides an overview of how data should flow between modules and how your model map should look.
What is the Anaplan model? ›
An Anaplan model represents different aspects of your business that you can use for connected planning. Before you build a model, it's important that you consider the business cases you want to address, such as budgeting, sales, and planning.
What are the major steps in the model building process? ›
The model building process
- Define the purpose of your model, the problem you are trying to solve, or the story you are trying to tell. ...
- Determine the model boundary. ...
- Map the model. ...
- Build the model. ...
- Test the model. ...
- Create an interface. ...
- Share the model.
In regression analysis, model building is the process of developing a probabilistic model that best describes the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The major issues are finding the proper form (linear or curvilinear) of the relationship and selecting which independent variables…
What is the max Anaplan model size? ›
Anaplan models can be as large as 130 gigabytes. If you require a larger model size, up to 720 gigabytes, reach out to your Anaplan account team for more information about HyperModels.
How do you estimate model size in Anaplan? ›
Model size in Anaplan is based on the number of cells in the model and each cells takes up approximately 10 bytes of space. This converts to each cell taking up 0.000000009313 GB so the size of a 1 billion cell model in Anaplan could be estimated as 1,000,000,000 cells x 0.000000009313 GB per cell or 9.3 GB.
How do you reduce model complexity? ›
Reducing Features: By minimizing the number of input features, we could lower the complexity, and thus, prevent overfitting. Use of Ensemble Models: Combining predictions from multiple diverse models can often lead to better performance and reduced risk of overfitting compared to relying on a single model.
Is Anaplan a unicorn? ›
Anaplan announced a $90 million round today at a valuation of S1. 09 billion after funding, putting the company squarely in unicorn territory, those companies with valuations of a billion or more.
Anaplan, whose name combines the words analysis and planning, is known for its in-memory database and calculation engine called Polaris.
Why do companies use Anaplan? ›
Anaplan is a transformational enterprise platform
You can see how changes in other parts of the business, such as sales forecasting updates or a hiring ramp-up, impact the P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow, all in real time.
What is better than Anaplan? ›
Other important factors to consider when researching alternatives to Anaplan include business needs and end users. The best overall Anaplan alternative is Board. Other similar apps like Anaplan are Vena, Pigment, Prophix Software, and Jedox.
Why Anaplan is better than Excel? ›
Anaplan can create, compare, and modify business scenarios in real time, providing dynamic insights. Excel, conversely, requires manual adjustments, making real-time analysis cumbersome.
Is Anaplan an ETL tool? ›
Anaplan offers connectors to both extract, transform, load (ETL) and enterprise service bus (ESB) tools, providing a variety of options for enterprises.
What are the Anaplan way phases? ›
We call these fundamentals the Four Cornerstones of The Anaplan Way which is made up of four parts namely process, data, model and deployment.
How do I create a process in Anaplan? ›
To add a process:
- Select Model Settings > Actions > New Action > Process.
- Enter a name for the process. To add multiple processes, enter each on a new line.
- Select Start or End to add the processes to the start or the end of the process list.
Anaplan Certification Path
Step 1: Level 1 Model Building Step 2: Level 2 Model Building Step 3: The Anaplan Way CERTIFICATION: Anaplan Certified Model Builder Step 4: Level 3 Model Building Prerequisites for Level 3 - Before …
