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Anaplan makes workforce planning strategic at a fast-growing cloud computing company
Use Case
Workforce Planning
Challenge• Over reliant on IT support
for gathering critical data across organization
• Change requests required days of turnaround time
• Managing input from over 30 people across the globe was inefficient
Solution • Cloud-based system provides
a single data source without draining IT support
• Toolboxes enable executives to run real-time analytic scenarios
• Unified platform allows for “collaborative spreadsheeting” across the globe
Results at a Glance
• Quick processing time makes it easy to analyze data and perform on-demand rollups
• Communication and collaboration are possible anywhere, at any time, on any device
• Reduced workload provides time for strategic thinking and real-time analysis
• Makes the task of data compilation - which previously took 120 hours - obsolete
CASE STUDY: CLOUD COMPUTING COMPANY
Introduction A fast-growing cloud computing company approached Anaplan with a problem. They
specialize in delivering the tools that organizations need to collaborate and connect
with their customers and employees. Renowned for CRM solutions, they continue to
expand their product line across various industries, including those for today’s social
enterprise. The company is experiencing a solid upwards rate of international growth
and leadership within its global marketplace. As a result, it is more critical than ever
that executive management focus on workforce planning as a means to prepare for
the future.
The company’s strategic planning team manages efforts to maximize internal human
resources, and ensure that the organization’s corporate and strategic objectives are
met today and into the future. They are tasked with coordinating a massive, data-
It has increased accuracy, and I know that calculations
are refreshing in Anaplan. It’s how you’d actually run a
system or process, but you’re still collaborative. It’s way more
sophisticated and advanced than cloud-based
collaboration tools like Google Docs.” ”centric initiative to understand their existing resource needs, identify resources to meet projected needs, and align their output with
enterprise-wide business goals.
The Director of Strategic Planning manages the group of financial analysts that are responsible for providing executives with the
information they need to make mission-critical workforce planning decisions. The team synthesizes data from various sources
across the organization to deliver both ad-hoc and detailed reports to executives.
The Business Challenge “On a given day, the team might be asked anything from ‘At what grade levels are the employees in Switzerland?’ to ‘Do we have
the right employee pyramid so people can move up in the organization?’” explains the Director. “We’re also working out complex
scenarios related to different business units or regions, assisting decision-makers with any number of strategic planning concerns.
None of these were questions we could answer in a day—they became a weeklong exercise.”
The Excel-based process of meeting executives’ requests was unwieldy and time-consuming. The team of four people was tasked with
consolidating spreadsheets, each with a different level of detail, that they received from up to 30 people. “Managing Excel spreadsheets
offline is the last thing you want to deal with when you’re trying to meet a deadline,” says the Director. “Every financial professional knows
you start with one, two, three spreadsheets and suddenly you have hundreds. It’s impossible to manage reports that way.”
To further complicate matters, whenever a decision-maker changed their request—asked for a different level of detail or reframed
the scope of the question—the team had to go back to square one. “Every time an executive changed their mind, there would be
extra work and longer hours for everyone,” the Director recalls. “The people providing data had to redo the Excel templates they
were submitting and the corporate aggregators on my team would have to wait for the new submissions, summarize them, and
redo the analysis work. By this time,” the Director continues, “the analysts were too tired to think strategically. They weren’t thinking
of the ‘whys’ behind the data, and that’s where we could have added real value.”
Oftentimes, the Director turned to the IT department to help pull data and change the hierarchy or organization of output—a step in
the process that caused additional delays in the process. “I had to rely on them too much and it was really frustrating,” the Director
says. “Executives want to see data in a particular way, and I was held captive by how we looked up data in the various solutions.”
Yet another concern the team faced when working on a workforce plan was that they couldn’t scale in Excel. “Excel would tap out,” the
Director explains. “At 50 MB, calculations would stop running. Executives need to make decisions quickly, but we weren’t able to turn the
data fast enough to meet their needs. As much as we wanted to please them and help them make the right decisions, we couldn’t do it.”
CASE STUDY: CLOUD COMPUTING COMPANY
Enter Anaplan“A Senior Vice President was familiar with Anaplan and suggested that the finance team explore Anaplan as an alternative to Excel and
all of the financial reporting we were doing offline,” recalls the Director. Anaplan was deployed, and made an immediate impact on the
team’s productivity and the quality of their work.
Reduced Workload“Anaplan has reduced the workload for my entire team. My analysts can do things faster—and that makes my job easier,” the
Director says. “They have the answers to my questions before I ask them because they have already taken a dive into the data.
Instead of being data workhorses in Excel, they have the time to think about the information they’re pulling together.”
Workforce Plan
• Improved real estate planning
• Visibility for recruiting
• Right people with right skills in right location at right time
• Multi-dimensional model
Rolling Forecast
Company’s Planning
CycleHeadcountDepartment
Dollar Targets AnnualPlan
OperatingPlan
Long Range Plan
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AAn
EmployeeDataCube
OnPremisesSolution
CASE STUDY: CLOUD COMPUTING COMPANY
Unified PlatformAnaplan’s unified platform allows for what the Director refers to as “collaborative spreadsheeting” among the 30+ users who input
data. “We’re no longer using multiple, static Excel spreadsheets. Everyone who is contributing information to the team is using
Anaplan in real-time,” the Director explains. “It has increased accuracy and I know that calculations are refreshing in Anaplan. It’s how
you’d actually run a system or process, but you’re still collaborative. It’s way more sophisticated and advanced than cloud-based
collaboration tools like Google Docs.”
For the Director, Anaplan has removed most of the administrative burdens of team process management. “Anaplan tells me who has
updated information, so there’s no more need to go to Outlook and search for message attachments—I just look in Anaplan to see if
a person submitted updates,” she said. “I’m doing more value-added work that helps the company. Instead of chasing down the most
current spreadsheets, a template, et cetera, I can get to the heart of the issues.”
Anaplan’s “Zero Touch IT”“I’m in control,” says the Director. “I don’t have to log a ticket and wait days. I don’t have time to wait! With Anaplan, I can control the
read and write access for each individual. Plus, as long as I set up the data models correctly, I can drop and drag and mix and match
data. This makes it easy to answer executives’ questions, without having to ask for assistance from IT.”
The team can run complex scenarios to quickly answer questions that might have taken a few days in the old process. “Now, an
executive can ask, ‘What would it look like if we took out budget dollars from the Marketing department for headcount?’ and I can
answer them instantaneously. We can push the scenario through a model that gives us the result.” The Director adds, “We’ve even built
toolboxes into Anaplan that enable executives to go ahead and run their own scenarios.”
Serving Executives’ NeedsAnaplan has made the team’s previously cumbersome task of taking data from Excel and putting into a 50-page PowerPointTM presentation—
which frequently required up to two 60-hour workweeks—obsolete. “With Anaplan,” says the Director, “I know the data is correct and up to
date, and I don’t have to worry about the process and the mechanics. I can focus on the story that we want to tell the executives.”
Some executives prefer to log in to Anaplan from their iPad and access the data they need to see. “They no longer have to wait for
me to deliver Excel spreadsheets and a bound slide deck,” the Director says. “Now, they can just log into Anaplan from their iPad, go
straight to the dashboard we set up for them, and drill down into the data as low as they want.” The Director adds that iPads are not
Excel-friendly, so executives have been appreciative. “Thanks to Anaplan, they can do strategic planning on the go!”
CASE STUDY: CLOUD COMPUTING COMPANY
Anaplan allows us to shine. It makes us look better
because we are able to turn work around faster for
executives. We use skills and talents outside of compiling
data. There’s time to be thoughtful. ”
The Director says, “Anaplan allows us to shine. It makes us look better because we are able to turn work around faster for executives.
We use skills and talents outside of compiling data. There’s time to be thoughtful. Once we get the data loaded at the lowest level of
detail, I don’t have to worry about an executive throwing us a curveball.”
Recently an executive request came in at the end of the day—minutes before it was time to head home for the night. “Everyone
expected it would take a long time,” recalls the Director. “With Anaplan, it took less than an hour! When we delivered his report, the
Vice President said, ‘I love Anaplan! This is great turnaround!”
About AnaplanAnaplan is disrupting the world of business planning and execution. We built our in-memory platform from the ground up to empower companies to plan, collaborate, and act—in real-time. Stay ahead of critical business events, rapidly model potential impacts and course correct on the fly. With Anaplan’s cloud-based platform and planning applications, you can continuously align your people, plans and spend to your market opportunities. Anaplan is a privately held company, headquartered in San Francisco, CA with global offices on four continents. To learn more, visit anaplan.com. Join us on twitter: @anaplan
CASE STUDY: CLOUD COMPUTING COMPANY
