What is Anaplan PlanIQ™ and How Does It Work?

One of the biggest challenges any organization faces is anticipating market shifts, and accurately predicting future demand. With a volatile economic market, business leaders are under extreme pressure to make data-driven, strategic decisions that can make or break a business. With unforeseen market shifts being detrimental to your company’s success, technology is a key driver to help eliminate challenges and improve forecasting.

Acceytics is one of the few partners in the Anaplan eco-system successfully running Anaplan PlanIQ™ in multiple organizations. In this article, we will introduce the Anaplan PlanIQ forecasting technology, how it works, and the results we've seen.

‍

Common Forecasting Challenges

What we often see at Accelytics is that organizations are spending an exorbitant amount of time and effort developing statistical forecasts. However, forecasting is typically difficult for companies because they don’t understand what it is, and what to expect out of it. With large amounts of data increasing across an organization as it grows, it is a daunting task to identify the key pieces of data streams essential for forecasting to improve business outcomes. 

Traditional analytics tools used by businesses are vulnerable to unforeseeable market shifts, further creating additional challenges for decision makers. Any shift in the market can result in the need to re-forecast. Furthermore, these tools can be problematic for businesses with planning processes driven off of daily-level forecasting, because traditional analytics tools often forecast based off of a weekly (or monthly) algorithm, which aggregates data to a daily value. The need to constantly tune models and improve accuracy by adding data. It is a time-consuming, unnecessary, and avoidable task for decision makers.

By adopting a technology that can accurately predict future sales and compare scenarios, your organization can leverage a competitive advantage. That’s where Anaplan PlanIQ™ comes into the conversation.

‍

What is Anaplan PlanIQ™?

Anaplan PlanIQ™ is a forecasting system that uses Amazon technology with a prebuilt set of algorithms and statistical forecasting methods that utilize AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) to help business leaders make predictions, better understand future drivers, and visualize “what-if” scenarios. Anaplan PlanIQ™ does all the forecasting for you, removing the laborious task of generating and forecasting data, and instead, allows your team to focus on strategic planning utilizing the data for your business. It can easily be added to your current Anaplan model.

‍

The Benefits of Anaplan PlanIQ™

Through our trials and launches of Anaplan PlanIQ™, the benefits of achieving a more accurate forecast far outweigh the concerns and extra effort to implement a new process. Anaplan PlanIQ™ has been proven to be easier to use than standard Anaplan models, and offers a seamlessly integrated, intelligent forecasting tool to aid businesses in making highly-accurate decisions. 

Any use case where you have a fundamental need to have a good forecast, Anaplan PlanIQ™ is a great solution and a great option for it. - Chris Louttit, Accelytics Director of SupplyChain Practice

Businesses are able to improve forecast accuracy by evaluating multiple “what if” scenarios, make predictions, and drive positive future outcomes by relying on Anaplan PlanIQ™ capabilities via industry-leading Amazon Forecast engine. Anaplan PlanIQ™ has versatility that allows decision makers to choose from a variety of models algorithms (daily, weekly, monthly forecasts) and utilizes top-of-the-line AI and ML technology. ML technology will automatically select the ideal algorithm for a specific forecast and configure the algorithm by learning overtime, while AI technology helps normalize data for statistical forecasts. 

The result? Higher-quality data proven to be equivalent to or greater than the accuracy of Anaplan's current model without the need to tune models and improve accuracy by adding data. Anaplan PlanIQ™ automatically works intelligently with related data streams to find value added effects in the forecast ensuring the best forecast possible, leading to planners improving operational planning (e.g., inventory, purchasing raw materials, etc.)

The real beauty of Anaplan PlanIQ™ is its accessibility and user-friendly reputation. Data science expertise is not required to make the most of Anaplan PlanIQ's™ intelligent capabilities and decision makers can easily forecast, access insights, and convert customer data to be used in forecasting without the need to manually prepare data for entry. The ease at which clients can use Anaplan PlanIQ™ means they can spend less time processing their data, and more time using it to visualize and make informed planning decisions. 

Lastly, the Anaplan PlanIQ™ model is scalable. Continuous-learning AI and ML capabilities evolve and adjust accordingly over time as businesses expand, resulting in the ability to quickly scale across new use cases and data sets without the need for additional data integration. This also means Anaplan PlanIQ™ is learning while you scale!

Proven Results

The efficacy and benefits of efficacy were tested against Anaplan in a POC (proof of concept) trial with a retail client to determine if in fact  :

1. Anaplan PlanIQ™ is easier to use than current Anaplan forecasting
2. Anaplan PlanIQ™ had higher levels of accuracy
3. Anaplan PlanIQ™ possessed more features and useful functionality
4. Anaplan PlanIQ™ to measure those levels of accuracy specifically in terms of calendar planning

This extensive study was tested by inputting data into many types of forecasts, models, and algorithms to compare the final outcome of Anaplan PlanIQ™ against that of the traditional stat forecasting methods found in Anaplan. The Anaplan PlanIQ™ trial used past years data and was compared with actuals from that year.

Our supply chain team determined that, although Anaplan’s traditional statistical forecasting methods demonstrated impressive accuracy, Anaplan PlanIQ™ was easier to use and achieved higher levels of accuracy in terms of daily forecasting. This was especially true in regard to holidays and promotional events. 

Get all the trial details here >

Is it right for your organization?

If your organization relies on accurate forecasts, understanding future drivers, visualizing “what if” scenarios, and growing your business effectively, Anaplan PlanIQ™ is here to help. This could be the competitive advantage you've been looking for!

Accelytics has implemented Anaplan PlanIQ™ at multiple clients with successful results. We are one of the only partners in the eco-system with Anaplan PlanIQ™ experience!

To learn more about Anaplan PlanIQ™, reach out to Dan Beley at dan.beley@accelytics.com.

‍