The Anaplan Connected Planning platform offers solutions for various business functions, across finance, sales, marketing, workforce (HR), and supply chain. Anaplan commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic ImpactTM (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying Anaplan. The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Anaplan on their organizations. To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed seven customers with years of experience using Anaplan as a connected planning tool.

Prior to using Anaplan, customers used various point solution legacy tools, both homegrown and purchased, to assist with planning, with varying levels of adoption, efficiency, and maintenance costs. Planning was disconnected across the organizations and siloed within each business unit. Planners relied heavily on spreadsheets for tracking and reporting, often circulating sensitive financial data through email, causing version control issues. One customer estimated hundreds of thousands of emails circulating his company with spreadsheet models and financial information.

To consolidate individual business unit information, companies required significant manual efforts to combine them into one high-level business plan. These prior methods for forecasting and planning yielded limited success, leaving customers with disjointed global processes, siloed information, poor collaboration with other business units, and a lack of insights. Management reporting had issues with consistency and timeliness and was too far removed from the details to aid in decision making. Analysts spent more time consolidating spreadsheets than analyzing the data, leaving insufficient time for scenario planning or timely access to data to discover trends and patterns in quickly changing environments.