Collaboration is King – Quick Time-Saving Tips
Looking to establish a “best practice” but just don’t have the bandwidth due to working in excel? With Anaplan you can import “other Anplanners” models with a click of a button and use that model as a starting point.
Blog post by Jill King – Anaplan Pre-Sales
As I’ve mentioned in my previous role as a Finance manager, I worked on a Corporate FP&A team that supported Corporate functions such as Finance, Sales, Marketing, etc. There were 4 managers on our team that were all essentially responsible for completing the same process, forecasting workforce and expenses each forecast period.
YOUR FRIENDS ARE SMART
The problem was that each manager had their own financial models, their own process to gather data, consolidate it and report it. We never had the time to sit down and take a look at each process and leverage each other’s strengths to enhance the process for everyone. There was never a “best practice” established but we all could have gained valuable information from collaborating on the process.
Anaplan Solution
Anaplan is such a collaborative tool for so many reasons. For one, you can access it from any browser, iPhone, iPad or Android. Everyone sees the latest information at all times and various people can be working in the model at the same time. And, because the formula language in Anaplan is more like natural language, it’s very easy to look at a model and understand it without someone having to walk you through how it works.
If I have a friend or colleague in another business unit that has built a great process in Anaplan, I can import their model with a click of a button and use it as a starting point to build my model. I don’t have to spend hours sitting down with the process owner to understand it because I can easily follow the flow of the model. It makes it easy to share, collaborate and leverage the knowledge of your colleagues (Or other Anaplaners on Anaplan’s community) the without having to spend hours meeting to walk through the process.
PS: Time Savings – 2 hours to many days
Quick Time-Saving Tips is updated every Monday on the Anaplan Blog. Interested in having Jill @jilleking review a tedious task or want to submit your own Time-Saving Tip? Tweet us at @anaplan and let us know!