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The Pain of Planning in Spreadsheets

Picture this: You’re the supply chain lead of a multinational company. It’s the final week of the quarter. Demand for your best-selling product has suddenly surged in Europe, slowed down in North America, and raw material shipments from Asia are delayed by two weeks.

You know the answers are in the data. But the data is scattered — across 27 spreadsheets, each owned by a different manager, each formatted differently, and buried in endless email threads. By the time you consolidate it all, the insights are stale, and your “decision” is little more than a guess.

This is the reality for countless organizations — slow, siloed, error-prone planning that struggles to keep up with today’s pace of change.

The Spreadsheet Ceiling — Why Excel Isn’t Enough Anymore

Spreadsheets are useful, familiar, and everywhere. But when it comes to today’s supply chain, they just can’t keep up:

• They don’t grow with you: as products, suppliers, and regions increase, spreadsheets turn messy and hard to manage.
• They fall behind reality: markets change in hours, but your sheet takes days to update.
• They keep teams apart: finance, sales, and operations each work in their own files with no single version of truth.
• They’re error-prone: one small formula mistake can ruin the whole forecast.

End result? Companies end up reacting to problems instead of planning ahead

Enter Anaplan: A Digital Nervous System for Your Supply Chain

Anaplan isn’t just another piece of software. It acts as a connected, real-time planning platform — the digital twin of your supply chain. With Anaplan, you get:

Instant visibility: demand, inventory, and supplier performance on a single screen.

Scenario Agility: run “what-if” simulations in minutes, not weeks.

Cross-functional Alignment: connect finance, operations, sales, and supply chain seamlessly.

Predictive Power: anticipate disruptions instead of reacting late.

If spreadsheets are like navigating with a paper map, Anaplan is Waze for your supply chain — live traffic, alternate routes, predictive alerts.

Anaplan Apps vs. Platform Builds — Choosing Your Path

Anaplan gives you two ways to start:

1. Anaplan Apps (Pre-Built Models)

Think of these as ready-to-drive vehicles — built with industry best practices, road-tested, and quick to deploy.

• Use cases: Demand Planning, Supply Planning, S&OP, Inventory Optimization.
• Deployed in weeks, not months.
• Best for teams that want quick wins without heavy customization.

2. Platform Builds (Custom Models)

This is the tailor-made supercar option — fully designed around your unique supply chain needs.

• Maximum flexibility to handle complex, multi-market realities.
• More effort to design and implement, but delivers perfect fit for your business.
• Ideal for advanced Anaplan teams or specialized workflows.

Many companies begin with an App for fast results, then expand with custom models — blending speed with precision.

A Day in the Life — After Anaplan