The Corner Stone | The Future of Business Planning is here: Meet Anaplan Solutions

Taking care of a business can be challenging and may feel overwhelming at times. With the huge extent of elements to consider, from HR to financial planning to marketing, it can often seem increasingly harder to keep up. Additionally, the business environment of today is more competitive than ever.

That’s why a simple, integrated solution is essential. Rather than using isolated software to manage different aspects of a business, Anaplan solutions allows users to merge them all into one, offering an innovative and user-friendly integrated planning system that grants incredible insights into a business.

How Anaplan Solutions Work

This is an open cloud platform which integrates every aspect of a business: sales, finance, HR, marketing, IT and the supply chain. It allows users to plan, budget and forecast, all within the one piece of software.

Anaplan solutions go beyond offering transactional data; the platform allows the modelling of that data to forecast for the future. It is able to process large volumes of data quickly with instant ripple effects.

Unlike many of the clunkier platforms on the market, Anaplan solutions are the perfect combination of user-friendly, scalable, well-designed and flexible. As an open platform, independent business applications can be downloaded and used in conjunction with it. This offers businesses greater freedom and customisation.

The software offers both backward and forward-looking data, large-scale collaboration opportunities, and the world’s best data modelling engine. And as a cloud platform, information is able to be easily accessed and transferred, whilst avoiding data loss.

The results

Having each element of a business working in harmony and updating in real-time offers some major benefits; here are some of them:

Integrated business planning (IBP)

Regular enterprise project management may hinder the growth of a business. Integrated business planning offers a holistic solution that connects strategy with operations. As such, it facilitates a more streamlined, connected workspace, and allows users to view all aspects of a business almost simultaneously.

Improved forecasting

In order to adjust to the changing market, it is essential to be able to (roughly) predict those changes. This allows a business to be realistic in regards to expected sales and help with future planning.

Stronger business growth

With better forecasting, communication, productivity and integration comes growth. Anaplan solutions offer greater insight into possible supply chain and financial concerns as well as opportunities for improvement.

More effective communication and collaboration

The platform enables workers across a business to collaborate on projects with ease. It allows strategic and operations teams to work together and as access data anywhere in the world.

Saving money

Anaplan solutions can help identify potential problem areas as well as opportunities for growth. By improving visibility in every aspect of a business, it helps avoid losing money on unforeseen issues.

Less data loss

As a secure cloud platform, data is stored online, making it more accessible and safer. Storing data on computers runs the risk of data loss due to mechanical failure, which can be avoided (to some extent) by using the internet instead. It is, however, important to be aware and stay prepared for potential data loss using the cloud.

Less stress

Having to liaise between all the different teams in a business can be time-consuming and stressful. Additionally, some software can be challenging and require a lot of training to use. Thankfully, Anaplan solutions are user-friendly, simple and improve communication. This ensures users can stress less and focus on the important stuff.