Scenario planning in Anaplan is often poorly conceived and badly designed with execution falling well short of expectations.

With limited to no formal best practice in place we find that the reality almost always fails to live up to the promise.

Layering in multiple versions or scenarios across a model will inevitably introduce resource constraints as the model grows ever more larger while also creating unwanted and unnecessary complexity. However, this is the go to response to a request to introduce scenario planning functionality.

Instead we designed and developed a mechanism to archive model inputs and the resulting outcomes which our clients can use as a store from which they can extract information for any given scenario when and where they need it.

Once they are happy with any given scenario they name it before activating a model process. Once the process has completed the scenario information is stored and isolated from the live model. They can then proceed to make changes to key assumptions to create a new set of inputs and outcomes. This too can be named and stored. This process continues until they have completed all required scenarios. Once these are stored, reports can be run to pull data for each scenario, inputs compared and outcomes analysed.

This approach allows the live model to be used only for live data and therefore there is no need to carry multiple complete planning processes. The scenarios can be stored flat with model processes used to encode and map all input and outcome data into a flat list. As the archive data is isolated from the live processes there is zero risk that the data will be changed in error while the flat nature of the storage means that a vast number of scenarios can be stored at any one time.

We have also designed and developed similar functionality when clients want to retain multiple forecast versions or large quantities historical actuals data. While a data set is not subject to the changes of the live planning cycle or planning assumptions an archive can be used to hold that data in storage. Where it is coded it can then be retrieved and utilised in various outcomes and reports.

Elegant and powerful scenario planning in Anaplan is possible. With the right approach and the correct functional design it is more than possible to realise the dream of what-if analysis and true strategic options planning.