Anaplan is an enterprise connected planning platform that enables large organisations to build dynamic, interconnected financial and operational models — connecting sales quota and territory planning, incentive compensation, headcount planning, and financial forecasting in a single platform. It is used by Fortune 500 companies to replace the disconnected spreadsheets and point solutions that create planning misalignment between sales, finance, and operations.
Product Overview
Anaplan's core technology — the Hyperblock engine — allows planners to build multi-dimensional models that update in real time as assumptions change, cascading the impact of a quota revision through territory allocations, headcount plans, comp projections, and financial forecasts simultaneously. This connected planning capability is what differentiates Anaplan from point solutions: a change to the annual revenue target in the finance model automatically flows into quota adjustments in the sales model, which then recalculates comp budget projections, headcount capacity requirements, and go-to-market investment allocation. For RevOps teams, Anaplan is particularly powerful for annual operating plan (AOP) cycles, quota-setting processes, and territory rebalancing — replacing weeks of spreadsheet reconciliation with a live, governed model.
Key Features
- Connected Planning Models: Build interconnected models where changes cascade across quota, comp, headcount, and financial plans simultaneously.
- Sales Planning & Quota: Model quota allocation from top-down targets — distribute by territory, product, and segment with attainment history overlay.
- Incentive Compensation: Automate comp calculations within the same platform as quota planning — connecting plan design to financial impact in real time.
- Scenario Modelling: Create and compare multiple planning scenarios — model the impact of different quota levels, headcount changes, or market assumptions.
- Workflow & Approvals: Structured planning workflows with approvals, comments, and audit trail — replacing email-based plan review processes.
Best For
Large enterprise organisations with complex, multi-dimensional planning needs that span sales, finance, and operations — and need all planning models connected to a single source of truth.
Pricing
Custom enterprise pricing based on users and modules. Typically large enterprise positioning ($150K–$1M+/year). Contact for demo.
Key Integrations
Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Snowflake, Tableau, Power BI, Xactly
Pros
- Connected planning eliminates spreadsheet reconciliation across sales, finance, and ops
- Hyperblock engine handles extreme model complexity at enterprise scale
- Scenario modelling enables data-driven planning rather than political negotiation
- Single platform for quota, comp, headcount, and financial planning
Cons
- Implementation is lengthy, expensive, and requires specialist Anaplan builders
- Overkill for companies that only need sales comp without full connected planning
- Significant ongoing admin investment to maintain and evolve complex models
