Before we get into the specifics of Anaplan, let’s understand competitor analysis. Competitor analysis is a strategic research method companies use to identify, evaluate, and understand their current and potential competitors within the market. It’s an essential business strategy component and instrumental in understanding the industry landscape.
The process usually involves the following steps:
- Identifying Key Competitors: The first step is to identify your competitors. These may be direct competitors (those who offer the same or similar products or services as you) or indirect competitors (those who provide different products or services but compete for the same consumer dollar).
- Analyzing Competitors’ Strategies and Objectives: Once competitors are identified, the next step is to understand their business strategies and objectives. This may involve analyzing their marketing materials, financial performance, customer reviews, or any public information available about the company.
- Assessing Competitors’ Strengths and Weaknesses: This step involves evaluating the identified competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Strengths include unique products or services, strong brand recognition, and superior customer service. Weaknesses include poor product quality, weak customer service, or high prices.
- Understanding Competitors’ Products/Services: Understanding what your competitors offer and how your products or services compare is essential. This could involve examining features, quality, pricing, customer service, and marketing strategies.
- Observing Competitors’ Reaction Patterns: Some companies react more aggressively than others when faced with competition. Understanding these patterns lets you predict how these companies might respond to your business strategies.
- Drawing Conclusions and Formulating Strategy: The final step is to take all the information gathered from the analysis, draw meaningful conclusions, and use those to formulate or adjust your business strategies.
The main goal of a competitor analysis is to understand the competitive landscape, spot opportunities and threats, and position your company most advantageously. It helps to inform strategic decisions, from product development to marketing and sales efforts.
Anaplan business overview
Anaplan is a cloud-based planning and performance management platform designed to connect data, people, and plans across business functions. Founded in 2006, Anaplan aims to empower organizations to make dynamic and collaborative planning decisions quickly and to adapt to changing business conditions with agility. Here’s an overview of Anaplan’s business:
Core Offerings:
- Connected Planning: Anaplan’s platform enables integrated business planning across various departments, including finance, sales, supply chain, HR, and operations, facilitating real-time collaboration and decision-making.
- Scenario Modeling: The platform allows businesses to create and compare multiple what-if scenarios, helping leaders make informed decisions amidst uncertainty.
- Data Integration: Anaplan ensures seamless data integration from various sources, enabling a unified view of business information for comprehensive planning and analysis.
Key Features:
- Flexible Modeling: Anaplan’s hyperblock technology allows users to build complex models with multidimensional planning and forecasting capabilities without traditional programming.
- User-Friendly Interface: The platform is designed to be accessible to business users without extensive technical expertise, promoting broader adoption within organizations.
- Real-Time Updates: Changes made in one part of the plan are instantly reflected across all connected plans, ensuring consistency and accuracy in data and forecasts.
Target Market:
- Enterprise and Midsize Businesses: Anaplan targets various industries, including finance, retail, manufacturing, technology, and more, appealing to large and midsize businesses seeking sophisticated planning solutions.
- Cross-Functional Teams: The platform is designed for various functional teams, such as finance, sales, HR, and supply chain management, facilitating cross-functional collaboration and planning.
Competitive Advantage:
- Anaplan’s primary competitive advantage lies in its connected planning approach, which breaks down siloes within organizations, allowing for more integrated and collaborative planning processes. Its cloud-based nature ensures scalability, flexibility, and accessibility, which are critical for dynamic business environments.
Growth and Expansion:
- Anaplan has grown significantly since its inception, expanding its global footprint and continuously enhancing its platform with new features and capabilities to meet evolving business needs. The company’s commitment to innovation and customer success has helped it build a strong reputation in the enterprise planning space.
Overall, Anaplan’s platform is designed to provide businesses the agility to plan, execute, and analyze in a fast-paced and complex business environment. This makes it a valuable tool for organizations looking to enhance their strategic planning and performance management capabilities.
Now, let’s do a competitor analysis of Anaplan.
Here is the competitor analysis of Anaplan
Anaplan is a cloud-based planning and performance management platform specializing in various business functions, including finance, sales, supply chain, and HR. It faces competition from several companies offering similar or overlapping capabilities. Key competitors include:
Oracle
Oracle competes with Anaplan in the enterprise planning and performance management space by leveraging its extensive suite of applications, deep integration capabilities, and strong foothold in the enterprise software market. Here’s how Oracle positions itself against Anaplan:
Comprehensive Suite of Solutions:
- Broad Product Portfolio: Oracle offers a wide range of enterprise software solutions, including Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Cloud, Oracle ERP Cloud, and Oracle Analytics, providing an integrated ecosystem of applications. This broad suite allows for deep integration across business processes, which can be a significant advantage for organizations looking for a comprehensive solution from a single vendor.
Deep Enterprise Integration:
- Integration with Oracle Systems: For organizations already using Oracle applications such as Oracle ERP, Oracle SCM, or Oracle HCM, Oracle’s EPM solutions offer seamless integration, ensuring consistency and efficiency across all systems. This deep integration can be a key differentiator for businesses heavily invested in the Oracle ecosystem.
Advanced Analytics and Reporting:
- Robust Analytics and Reporting: Oracle’s solutions are known for their powerful analytics, reporting, and business intelligence capabilities integrated across the Oracle Cloud platform. This can provide organizations with advanced insights and decision-making tools, enhancing the strategic value of their planning processes.
Global Scale and Reliability:
- Enterprise Scale and Support: Oracle has a long-standing reputation for supporting large-scale enterprise operations, offering robust security, reliability, and global support. This makes Oracle a trusted partner for large organizations with complex planning and performance management needs.
Industry-Specific Solutions:
- Vertical Market Solutions: Oracle offers solutions tailored to specific industries, leveraging its extensive experience across sectors to provide more relevant and effective planning tools. This industry specialization can be particularly appealing to organizations with unique sector-specific requirements.
Technology and Infrastructure:
- Strong Cloud Infrastructure: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) leverages its own cloud Infrastructure to offer high performance, security, and reliability for its cloud applications, including EPM solutions. This infrastructure can be a significant advantage for organizations looking for enterprise-grade cloud services.
Investment in Innovation:
- Continuous Innovation: Oracle invests heavily in research and development, continuously adding new features, capabilities, and technologies (like AI and machine learning) to its platforms. This commitment to innovation can assure customers of a forward-looking approach to their planning and performance management needs.
By focusing on these areas, Oracle positions itself as a competitive option against Anaplan, particularly for large enterprises or organizations deeply embedded in the Oracle ecosystem looking for a comprehensive suite of integrated applications. Oracle’s emphasis on deep enterprise integration, advanced analytics, and industry-specific solutions make it a compelling choice for many businesses.
SAP
SAP competes with Anaplan in the enterprise planning and performance management space by leveraging its extensive experience in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and its comprehensive suite of business applications. Here’s how SAP positions itself against Anaplan:
Extensive Enterprise Resource Planning Experience:
- Integrated ERP Solutions: SAP’s strong foundation in ERP solutions provides a holistic approach to business planning and execution, allowing for seamless integration of planning processes with core business operations. This deep integration is beneficial for organizations looking for comprehensive solutions that cover not just planning but also execution.
Comprehensive Suite of Applications:
- SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud: SAP offers many applications, including SAP S/4HANA for ERP and SAP Analytics Cloud for planning, analytics, and business intelligence. These solutions work together to provide a unified business planning and analysis platform, offering capabilities that compete directly with Anaplan’s planning and performance management features.
Advanced Analytics and Business Intelligence:
- Business Intelligence and Analytics: SAP’s strong emphasis on analytics and business intelligence, particularly through SAP Analytics Cloud, provides organizations with advanced tools for data analysis, predictive analytics, and decision-making support, enhancing the strategic planning process.
Industry-Specific Solutions:
- Vertical Expertise: SAP has a long history of developing industry-specific solutions tailored to the unique needs of various sectors. This expertise allows SAP to offer planning and performance management solutions that are closely aligned with different industries’ specific challenges and requirements.
Global Presence and Scalability:
- Scalability and Global Support: With a significant global presence and a large customer base, SAP offers scalable solutions that can support the needs of large multinational corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises. SAP’s extensive partner network and global support infrastructure provide additional implementation and ongoing support resources.
Integration Capabilities:
- Seamless Data Integration: SAP’s solutions are designed for deep integration with SAP and non-SAP systems, facilitating smooth data flow across different business functions and applications. This integration capability is crucial for organizations that rely on diverse IT landscapes.
Commitment to Innovation:
- Investment in New Technologies: SAP continuously invests in new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT), to enhance its planning and performance management solutions. This focus on innovation ensures that SAP’s offerings remain competitive and aligned with emerging business trends.
By leveraging these strengths, SAP provides a competitive alternative to Anaplan, particularly for organizations that value integrated ERP solutions, advanced analytics capabilities, and industry-specific expertise. SAP’s comprehensive application suite and commitment to innovation make it a strong contender in the enterprise planning and performance management space.
IBM
IBM competes with Anaplan in enterprise performance management (EPM) and planning by leveraging its extensive technology portfolio, deep data analytics and artificial intelligence expertise, and long-standing reputation in the enterprise software market. Here’s how IBM positions itself against Anaplan:
Advanced Analytics and AI Integration:
- Cognitive Capabilities: IBM infuses its planning solutions, particularly IBM Planning Analytics, with advanced analytics and AI capabilities, leveraging its Watson technology. This integration enables sophisticated data analysis, predictive insights, and decision support, offering a level of intelligence that can enhance the planning process.
- Data-Driven Insights: IBM’s strong emphasis on data analytics allows businesses to leverage vast amounts of data for more informed planning and decision-making. This particularly appeals to organizations looking to integrate their planning processes with deep analytical insights.
Comprehensive Planning Solutions:
- IBM Planning Analytics: This solution offers robust planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis capabilities across various business functions, including finance, sales, operations, and HR. Its flexibility and scalability make it suitable for both large enterprises and mid-sized businesses.
- Versatile Modeling: IBM Planning Analytics, powered by TM1, is known for its multidimensional modeling capabilities, allowing enterprises to build complex models that can reflect the nuances of their operations and financial structures. This versatility can be particularly valuable for organizations with intricate planning needs.
Integration with IBM Ecosystem:
- Ecosystem Synergy: Businesses already invested in IBM’s ecosystem, including its cloud services, data management, and security solutions, may find added value in choosing IBM Planning Analytics due to potential synergies and easier integration with existing IBM technologies.
Global Presence and Industry Expertise:
- Industry-Specific Solutions: IBM has a long history of providing industry-specific solutions, leveraging its global presence and expertise across sectors. This experience allows IBM to offer tailored planning solutions that meet different industries’ unique challenges and requirements.
- Strong Support and Consulting Services: IBM’s global reach provides comprehensive support and consulting services, ensuring customers can access expert advice and assistance in implementing and optimizing their planning solutions.
Commitment to Innovation:
- Continuous Innovation: IBM is committed to constant innovation, regularly updating its offerings with the latest technologies and capabilities. This ensures that its planning solutions remain competitive and aligned with current and future business needs.
By focusing on these areas, IBM provides a compelling alternative to Anaplan for organizations that value deep analytics and AI capabilities, comprehensive and versatile planning solutions, and the backing of a global technology leader with extensive industry expertise. In particular, IBM’s Planning Analytics platform stands out for its powerful modeling, analytics, and AI integration, making it suitable for complex and data-driven planning processes.
Workday
Workday competes with Anaplan in the enterprise planning and performance management space by leveraging its unified finance and HR cloud platform, advanced analytics, and machine learning capabilities. Here’s how Workday positions itself against Anaplan:
Unified Cloud Platform:
- Integrated Finance and HR Systems: Workday offers a comprehensive suite of applications that include financial management, human capital management (HCM), and planning, all on a single cloud platform. This unified approach allows for seamless data flow and collaboration between finance, HR, and planning functions, benefiting organizations looking to integrate these areas closely.
User-Friendly and Collaborative Planning:
- Workday Adaptive Planning: This solution provides cloud-based business planning and modeling tools that enable organizations to plan, forecast, budget, and report on their financial and workforce performance. Its intuitive interface and collaborative features make it accessible to many users, not just financial analysts or IT professionals.
Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning:
- Data Analysis and Insights: Workday incorporates advanced analytics and machine learning into its platform, offering predictive insights and scenario planning capabilities. These features help organizations to make more informed decisions by analyzing historical data and forecasting future outcomes.
Seamless Integration:
- Integration with Workday Applications: For customers already using Workday’s finance or HCM solutions, integrating with Workday Adaptive Planning can provide added efficiencies and a more cohesive user experience. Workday also offers integration capabilities with external systems to ensure data consistency across the organization.
Focus on Medium to Large Enterprises:
- Target Market: Workday primarily targets medium to large enterprises, including many Fortune 500 companies. Its solutions are designed to scale with the needs of large organizations, providing the robustness and security required by these businesses.
Industry-Specific Solutions:
- Vertical Market Expertise: Workday offers solutions tailored to specific industries, providing best practices and functionalities that address the unique challenges of sectors such as healthcare, education, financial services, and more.
Continuous Innovation and Customer Service:
- Innovation and Customer Support: Workday is known for its commitment to innovation and customer service. The company regularly updates its platform with new features and capabilities and provides vital customer support to ensure the success of its clients.
By leveraging these strengths, Workday provides a competitive alternative to Anaplan, particularly for organizations looking for a comprehensive and unified platform that integrates planning with core financial and HR processes. Workday’s focus on usability, collaboration, and integrated analytics makes it a strong contender in the enterprise planning and performance management market.
Microsoft
Microsoft competes with Anaplan in the enterprise planning and performance management space primarily through its Power Platform, which includes Power BI for analytics, the integration capabilities of Microsoft Azure, and the extensive use of Microsoft Excel as a planning tool. Here’s how Microsoft positions itself against Anaplan:
Comprehensive Data Analytics and Business Intelligence:
- Power BI: Microsoft Power BI is a powerful analytics and business intelligence platform that enables organizations to visualize data, share insights, and make informed decisions. Its deep integration with other Microsoft products enhances its planning and performance management utility.
- Advanced Analytics: With Azure Machine Learning and AI capabilities, Microsoft offers advanced analytics that can complement planning processes, providing predictive insights and data-driven decision support.
Seamless Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem:
- Office 365 and Dynamics 365 Integration: Microsoft’s solutions are tightly integrated with its Office 365 suite, including Excel, which is widely used for financial modeling and planning. Dynamics 365 also offers ERP and CRM solutions integrating with Power BI for comprehensive planning and performance management.
- Azure Integration Services: Microsoft Azure provides a set of cloud services for application integration, data integration, and workflow automation, facilitating the creation of integrated planning solutions that can scale across the enterprise.
Familiarity and Accessibility:
- Excel: Excel’s widespread use and familiarity among finance professionals make it a go-to tool for planning and analysis. Microsoft has enhanced Excel with new features like Power Query and Power Pivot, extending its capabilities for more sophisticated planning and analysis.
- Accessibility and User Adoption: The ubiquity of Microsoft products in enterprises and the familiarity of the Microsoft interface can lead to higher user adoption rates and reduced training requirements.
Scalability and Security:
- Azure’s Global Infrastructure: Leveraging Azure, Microsoft offers scalable and secure cloud services that support deploying enterprise planning solutions, ensuring data security and compliance with global standards.
- Enterprise Focus: Microsoft’s solutions are designed to meet the needs of large enterprises, offering the reliability, security, and support required by these organizations.
Flexibility and Customization:
- Custom Solutions with Power Platform: The Power Platform, including Power Apps and Power Automate, enables businesses to build custom applications and workflows tailored to their specific planning and performance management needs, offering flexibility that packaged solutions may not provide.
By leveraging these areas, Microsoft provides a competitive set of tools and platforms that can be used for enterprise planning and performance management, particularly appealing to organizations already deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem or those looking for a solution that integrates closely with familiar tools like Excel and Power BI.
