Our Connected Planning partner, Anaplan, is always evolving.
In an industry defined by constant innovation and technological expansion, Anaplan has managed to grow its Annual Recurring Revenue (“ARR”) from approximately $600 million to over $1 billion in the last two and a half years.
How has it been able to achieve this awe-inspiring feat?
It’s simple. Anaplan understands its customers’ needs. The AI-infused Scenario Planning and Analysis platform is constantly heading back to the drawing board to figure out how it can deliver on customer needs through software solutions that fast-track their customers’ decision-making processes.
And this sentiment is echoed in the words of Anaplan Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Freeze, as he says, ‘“When you have to make the right decisions – right now”, isn’t just a tagline - it’s a necessity in today’s fast-moving business landscape. In a world where speed and precision define success, Anaplan delivers real-time, actionable insights that empower customers to optimise their decisions.’
Anaplan is a cloud-based platform which gives businesses access to real-time data insights while enabling collaborative planning across various departments.
The Anaplan platform supports key business processes like Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting to optimise operational performance across all organisational functions including Finance, Supply Chain, HR and Sales.
By leveraging Anaplan, businesses can expect to inject speed and efficiency into their decision-making processes and also eliminate siloed work structures. The latter is achieved via data consolidation efforts and business function integration for a more connected and collaborative workflow.
Some organisations that have invested in the Anaplan software as their Connected Planning solution have reported experiencing hiccups in their post-Anaplan-implementation stage. Some have even expressed feeling disillusioned in the process.
But Anaplan isn’t to be treated as a band-aid that you can just slap on and expect to be a fix-all solution.
With Anaplan’s constant innovations, including its Integrated Financial Planning applications, Anaplan Data Orchestrator, the Polaris platform and Anaplan CoPlanner - to name a few - organisations need to understand the importance of investing in the post-implementation management of their Anaplan environment.
Anaplan Managed Services (AMS), sometimes called application management services, is Metora’s solution for providing organisations with continuous technical and strategic support of their Anaplan models after deployment.
Rather than letting your planning model stagnate after go-live, Metora’s Anaplan AMS keeps your models, data integration and user interfaces proactively maintained, optimised and aligned with your evolving business strategy and planning complexity. In short, your Anaplan model is built to be used, not just deployed.
Our Anaplan AMS framework is designed around real-world post-implementation challenges such as model logic that no longer fits the business, data inconsistencies, logic complexity and user resistance. Through a structured engagement, we help your Anaplan users and management team to:
Our Head of Consulting & Operations, Calvin Yap, shares:
“AMS through Metora proactively refines, scales, and enhances Anaplan models, ensuring better performance, efficiency, and usability.”
Whether you are a CFO, Transformation Director, FP&A leader or an Anaplan user, Metora’s Anaplan AMS gives you stability around your planning backbone, for continuous model improvement and AI-powered agility.
Our AMS is continuous engagement, not ticket support. Across the six benefits below, the scope spans:
We don’t just respond. We monitor, anticipate and prevent issues. From performance slowdowns to Excel Add-In errors, our AMS consultants handle technical support at all L1, L2 and L3 levels. We also engage with Anaplan Support when deeper platform issues arise, reducing the burden on internal teams.
Examples: Troubleshooting import failures, resolving CloudWorks job errors, identifying broken workflows, or addressing formula limitations.
Your business evolves, and so must your Anaplan environment. Through Anaplan AMS, we implement continuous enhancements, version upgrades and custom module expansions while maintaining model integrity. Whether adjusting logic to new policies or deploying newly released features (e.g. CoPlanner), we adapt your system without disruption.
Example: Updating business case workflows or restricting invalid submissions while preserving architectural stability.
Over time, Anaplan models can become bloated or slow. We routinely perform model health checks, reorganise modules and formulas, archive redundant data and clean up UX dashboards to improve usability and load times.
Example: Optimising workspace use by cleaning up bloated, rarely used reports.
In multi-system environments (e.g. Salesforce, SAP, Oracle), seamless data integration is critical. Our managed services manage and validate scheduled imports and exports, keeping data flows stable and accurate even as data volumes scale.
Example: Building master data health-check models that confirm data is clean and complete before it is loaded into the planning models within Anaplan.
AMS is not just about systems. It is also about people. We provide ongoing UX improvements, training and on-demand walkthroughs to boost user comfort and expand platform adoption across departments.
Example: Rebuilding dashboards for clarity, onboarding new users, and enabling self-service use of CoPlanner for finance teams without technical expertise.
Metora’s Anaplan AMS ensures your platform grows with you. From supporting new department builds (Sales, ESG, HR) to rolling out PlanIQ forecasts or Optimiser simulations, we keep your planning environment future-ready and AI-capable.
Example: Designing a new model to support ESG reporting KPIs while integrating into existing supply chain and finance workflows.
After initial implementation, many organisations stall with their Anaplan models, not because Anaplan lacks functionality, but because internal capacity to maintain it fades. This creates the Strategy–Execution Gap, where strategic vision is not reflected in operational planning models.
According to Anaplan’s 2023 FP&A Trends report, the top reasons for this gap include:
Without structured Anaplan AMS, even the most promising implementation can stagnate.
Organisations have three main approaches to managing Anaplan after implementation:
Metora’s approach blends deep Anaplan model expertise, technical troubleshooting and strategic finance alignment, making it ideal for organisations seeking continuity, innovation and future-ready planning models.
Anaplan AMS keeps your cloud-based planning platform aligned with evolving business and strategic needs. With PlanIQ, CoPlanner and Optimiser gaining traction in FP&A, AMS is essential to maintain readiness for AI-powered scenario planning and forecasting.
Metora’s Anaplan AMS combines real-time technical resolution, model refinement, integration governance and AI deployment support, keeping your environment in sync with your transformation journey.
Looking to leverage our Anaplan AMS solution? Get in touch for a complimentary review of your current Anaplan ecosystem and a suggested AMS scope.