Implementation services – The Anaplan Way

To complement Anaplan’s best in class software, you need a first-class delivery method. We use The Anaplan Way methodology to ensure excellence in every engagement with our customers.

What is The Anaplan Way project methodology?

In short, it’s the path to success. The Anaplan Way is an Agile methodology, based on scrum but adapted to suit the Anaplan platform. It’s an approach that we have used successfully since 2011, delivering proven results. We work in short, focused sprints, each one building on those before to keep the team on track, ensure ongoing buy-in from end-users and executives, and ensuring that you get a working solution on time and within budget. Being Agile, the Anaplan Way allows the project team to flex and adjust to changes that often occur during a project, whilst always keeping you appraised on the impact of any changes using our ‘no surprises’ policy.

In many cases we deliver the Anaplan Way methodology remotely and we have best-in-class tools available to us to assist with this delivery approach.

Working alongside the methodology, we focus on the Four Cornerstones which form the foundation for a successful project:

  • Process – The wider business process that the Anaplan model supports.

  • Data – All the data components needed for the model: master, meta and transactional data.

  • Model – The design, build and testing of the Anaplan model.

  • Deployment – Ensuring that the Anaplan model and the new business process are adapted in the organisation.

We know that getting the very best technical build is important to you (it’s important to us too!). All of our highly-skilled, certified Model Builders and Solutions Architects are fully versed in the latest Anaplan best practices and always build our models according to the principles of PLANS:

  • Performance – Use the correct structures and formula to optimise the model.

  • Logical – Build the models and formula more logically
  • Auditable – Break up the formula for better understanding, performance, and maintainability

  • Necessary – Store and calculate data and attributes once and reference them many times

  • Sustainable – Build with the future in mind, thinking about process cycles and updates

The Anaplan Way 4 Cornerstones

Phases of The Anaplan Way

There are five key phases to The Anaplan Way, starting before the project and taking you all the way through to deployment.

During the Pre-release phase, you’ll work alongside one of our experienced Customer Success Directors who will help to shape your project. we’ll scope the high-level project deliverables together and we’ll present a project plan to you in the form of a Rough Cut. Once agreed, we will produce the formal Statement of Work [SoW] for sign-off.

Arguably the most important phase of the project is the Foundations phase. During this phase, we’ll be working alongside your Subject Matter Experts to understand the details of the process that you would like to model in Anaplan. We document these as User Stories which becomes our list of items to build during the Implementation phase. The user stories are arranged into sprints during a Sprint Planning exercise to ultimately produce the baseline Project Plan.

The Implementation phase is where we’ll be delivering the plan and building the model. We’ll build the model in short Sprint Cycles, with the core project team meeting daily on a Stand-up call to discuss ‘yesterday, today, what’s in the way’. Progress is tracked daily, and any issues are highlighted early. During regular Sprint Reviews, the project team can showcase the build so far to the wider team and take a moment to pause and identify any replanning that may be required. At the end of this phase, an All Sprint Retrospect allows the project team to make a ‘go/no-go’ decision for moving into testing.

During the Testing phase, the goal of UAT (user acceptance testing) is to make sure that the end-to-end system supports the day-to-day business scenarios. We normally rely closely on the customer to draft UAT scripts depending on the specific requirements and support with tracking of the feedback into a triage. Testing is a real team effort, and after the first full round of UAT, a tweak and re-test gets the model ready for deployment.

The key objective of the Deployment phase is to ensure the model is ready for the end-users and that the end-users are ready for the model. Final data loads are made and end-users are shown how to use the platform. Of course, being one of the Four Cornerstones, we’ve been preparing for deployment from day one. During the early days of end-users being in Anaplan, the project team will be on hand to support and monitor activity.

Bedford Anaplan Project Planning

The Four Cornerstones

Whilst Anaplan is a flexible, scalable and collaborative platform which lends itself to fast build times; it is not the model build that occupies most of our brainpower, but rather the surrounding processes that support the build.

We need to be mindful of not deploying Anaplan in an unstructured manner. It is therefore critical to ensure a project is well-grounded in the fundamentals that lead to a successful implementation.

We call these fundamentals the Four Cornerstones of The Anaplan Way which is made up of four parts namely process, data, model and deployment.

We believe that Anaplan should not drive the process, but rather the process should drive Anaplan. You are bringing in Anaplan to support your specific business processes; it is key that during the foundations phase that we understand as much about the process we’re modelling as possible. We can help with this by sharing our experiences from previous customers and we’ll work closely with your Subject Matter Experts to understand how your business runs.

Experience tells us that data is the biggest risk to your project; which is why it has a cornerstone all to itself. It’s the one area that we cannot control in terms of quality, completeness and availability. Being data ready for your project is important and we can share with you what we expect during the Pre-release phase of your project. We tackle data early and this is generally the topic of sprint 1. Any data issues will be logged in a risks and issues tracker and we’ll continue to take actions on these throughout the project.

If we understand your process (captured in good quality user stories) and we have good data; the physical model build itself consumes a very small part of the conversations we’ll have during the project. We build our models according to the PLANS standards and we’ll transfer our technical knowledge to you throughout. Of course, the end-user experience is key and we’ll work with your Subject Matter Experts to design these in a way that makes the platform easy to use.

We prepare for deployment from day one. Deployment is not simply making the model available and training your end-users (although this is important); it’s about preparing your business for a change early. You cannot over-communicate the change that’s coming with Anaplan and throughout the project is the best time to build excitement. End-users should know a positive change is coming. Invite them to sprint reviews, send them links to the free online Anaplan Foundations training so they can see the tool in action and be prepared to support them in those early days of using Anaplan

The Anaplan Way 4 Cornerstones

PLANS – This is how we model

PLANS is the standard by which we build models. It ensures that your model not only works on day one, but will work month after month, year after year and planning cycle after planning cycle.

At Bedford we ensure our Solution Architects and Model Builders live and breathe the PLANS modelling standard. This provides both a clear route to good model design and a common approach that makes stepping into existing models painless. In considering the standard we are keeping a check on:

Ensuring that we use the latest best practice techniques for structuring the model and writing formula to get the very best performance from your model.

Building the model and the formulae in a logical manner. This encompasses common naming conventions, notes within the model as well as designing a model using the D.I.S.C.O. standard (Data, Inputs, System, Calculations and Outputs).

Keep the modelling as simple as possible. Breaking up complex calculations into several simpler to understand ones makes the model easier for everyone to understand and importantly makes the model simpler to maintain.

Don’t have duplications in the model. Create a piece of logic once and use it many times. This helps to keep the model nice and efficient as well as easier to understand. When adding calculations, ensure that only the dimensions absolutely required for that calculation are used.

Build the model with the future in mind; not just to get you through the next planning cycle. What should happen when you move from forecast 1 to forecast 2? Build that into the model on day one to ensure sustainability.
The Anaplan journey is an exciting one, and in the Anaplan Way we have a measurable and definable approach to optimising customer success and project delivery.

The Bedford difference

We are an Anaplan Solution Advisory and Delivery Partner, with certified expertise across all eight functional and industry specialisations. This status recognises our ability to drive high-value transformation and deliver exceptional customer success. We have been recognised as Partner of the Year every year since its inception in 2015.

Our deep-domain experts have delivered over 1,000 projects and are considered the best in their field.

Bedford Consulting Anaplan Solution Advisory & Delivery Partner Badge