From my perspective, the need for a breath of fresh air within the planning landscape is evident. With Anaplan, we aim to combine the best of both worlds. As a cloud-based connected planning and modeling platform, it offers significant advantages over traditional advanced planning solutions in supply chain. Instead of a tool that solves one specific problem, Anaplan is an agnostic platform with a significant amount of flexibility and pre-configured building blocks to help accelerate value creation across organizations and their various departments. Its unique differentiators enable financialized decision-making, scenario comparison and creation, as well as the ability to fill gaps that are typically not covered by traditional tools.
So what do these differentiators mean for your supply chain?
Anaplan, as a cross-functional tool, has the ability to effectively financialize decisions within the supply chain. It enables the supply chain to talk not just in volumes, but in value. This differentiator:
- Allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the financial implications of supply chain decisions, compared to the more siloed thinking of older tools.
- Takes into account costs from production to distribution, as well as where there is the potential for the highest revenues and profits.
- Enables planners to make financially sound decisions and optimize their supply chain operations accordingly.
Anaplan has the ability to run different what-if scenarios, providing the kind of end-to-end analysis and visibility that’s critical in today’s globally connected and volatile environment. This differentiator:
- Allows planners to simulate various scenarios to evaluate their impact on the supply chain, including demand changes, production capacity, inventory parameters and external disruptions.
- With the ability to run different scenarios, planners can assess different options and make informed decisions based on predicted outcomes, moving from a reactive supply chain toward a proactive one.
From a cross-functional collaboration perspective, Anaplan is unique in the sense that it can connect the various parts of the organization to let internal and external stakeholders collaborate on the same platform. This differentiator:
- Gives teams the ability to work together to develop plans and simulate changes in real-time and see the effects across the business in seconds, from demand changes to supply decisions and impact on the profit and loss statement.
- Ensures that there is consensus on the data and avoids loss of data between departments or teams.
Anaplan covers different areas within planning that may not be covered in traditional systems. Planners typically use spreadsheets for these “gaps,” which can lead to errors and inconsistencies. Because of the flexibility of Anaplan:
- What were once “gaps” in the system can be covered through modeling specific use cases.
- True end-to-end supply chain visibility can be established by considering all of the parts of the business, regardless of their current data and process maturity.
- There are no longer any missing links in the supply chain planning process.
In traditional technology tool implementations, often your organization must adapt to the new system that’s being introduced. Anaplan, however, allows you to shape your process based on the industry standard and for the tool to facilitate your desired way of working. This enables the better functioning of your organization’s system based on best practices and provides a robust and comprehensive solution for connected supply chain planning.
By implementing Anaplan in your supply chain planning process, you can optimize your outstanding working capital, reduce costs and increase your service level.
Interested in learning more about how you can drive value at your organization with Anaplan? Reach out to one of our experts at Bluecrux!
