Anaplan

Anaplan, Inc.
Private
Industry Business Intelligence, Enterprise Performance Management, Software Company
Founded 2006
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Key people
 Fred Laluyaux, CEO
Michael Gould, CTO
Doug Smith, EVP
Amelia Generalis, Head of Talent
Simon Tucker, Chief Product Officer
Michel Morel, Head of Application
Anthony Reynolds, Chief Customer Officer
Bill Maimone, Head of Engineering
Grant Halloran, CMO
Laurent Lefouet, Managing Director of EMEA
Dennis Dresser, Managing Director of Americas
Samir Neji, Managing Director of Asia PAC
Products Anaplan Platform
Website https://www.anaplan.com

Anaplan is a cloud-based business modeling and planning platform for sales, operations and finance. The company is a recent entrant to the business planning market, which for decades has been dominated by the “big four” legacy vendors: IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft.[1] Anaplan CTO Michael Gould developed Anaplan as a response to these legacy systems. At the core of his technology is a single hub where the business user, and not IT, can build, deploy, maintain, and share models.

Anaplan is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in England, France,[2] Sweden,[3] Benelux,[4] Australia, [5] Russia, [6] Malaysia, [7] and Singapore.[8]

History

Anaplan was founded in 2006 by Guy Haddleton and Michael Gould. Gould noted, “Outdated technologies and disconnected legacy applications have made dynamic interaction across teams nearly impossible, forcing users into static models that can’t keep pace with daily change” – and set about to change that.[9] He spent two years developing a platform that could utilize new computing abilities, such as in-memory computing, 64-bit multi core processing, database innovation, and SaaS delivery. After four years of platform development, Anaplan was officially launched to the public in October 2010.[10]

By year’s end, Anaplan had gained so much market traction that it was being hailed as a creator of the “new market” in performance management.[11] Anaplan brought on Frederic Laluyaux as CEO in 2012.[12] Under his leadership, the company has attracted new funding, doubled its headcount, opened new offices worldwide, and added some notable household names as customers.[13]

In 2012 alone, Anaplan grew its customer base by 500% and revenues by 800%.[14] Customers include HP,[15] McAfee, Pandora, Diageo,[16] Kimberly-Clark EE,[17] and Aviva.[18]

Anaplan closed its C-Round funding in March 2013 with a $33M investment from Meritech, Shasta Ventures, Granite Ventures, Salesforce.com, and additional private investors.[19]

Anaplan announced May 13, 2014 at its Hub 2014 conference in San Francisco that it has completed a Series D round of $100 million in financing, bringing total investment in the company to $150 million.[20]

A further round of funding was announced in January 2016, amounting to $90 million, along with confirmation of Anaplan's status as a tech 'unicorn', with a valuation of over $1 billion.[21][22][23]

Technology

Using cloud computing, multi-tenant data architecture and an in-memory calculation engine (Hyperblock), Anaplan has created a powerful and flexible platform delivered to end-users as a SaaS product.

Anaplan's HyperBlock architecture unites a hybrid of relational, vertical, and OLAP databases with memory data store and calculation.[24] In spreadsheet planning, every cell has a unique formula that is interdependent on other cells. Instead, the HyperBlock automatically records updates at a granular level by amending only the affected cells. As volumes scale, users can instantaneously update or change models of any size.[25]

The “Living Blueprint” is the brain behind Anaplan’s in-memory platform. This master repository of business rules is where all the intelligence behind a model is generated and maintained. This allows adjustments to the model to be made in seconds, thus allowing the model to grow and adapt with a constantly changing business.[26] Anaplan is a Software-as-a-Service (“Saas”) and is completely cloud-based. This eliminates the need for dedicated hardware or maintenance teams to make the platform work. It also enables “Zero Deployment” – users can log onto the platform on almost any device, from anywhere.[27]

In November 2014 Anaplan announced the launch of the Anaplan App Hub, a community for Anaplan users to build, share, and deploy planning apps.[28] The App Hub launched with dozens of planning apps across 10 industries including Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting, Sales Forecasting, Trade and Promotion Planning, Territory and Quota Planning, Financial Consolidation, Incentive Compensation Planning, Strategic Financial Planning, Insurance Premium Planning, and Human Asset and Labor Optimization (HALO), amongst others.

In 2015 Gartner labeled Anaplan a “Visionary” in their Magic Quadrant reports for both corporate performance management (CPM)[29] and sales performance management (SPM).[30]

User Conference

Anaplan has a biannual customer-facing event: Anaplan Hub. It is a place for customers to speak and share stories, as well as a platform for the executives to announce product releases, updates, and new strategies.

In May 2013, the inaugural Hub took place in San Francisco.[31] Customer speakers included Diageo, Pandora, McAfee, HealthTrust, Serena Software, Wind River, 2degrees, and AirAsia Expedia. In October 2013, it hosted Hub Europe in London.[32] Customer speakers included Aviva, Hewlett-Packard, and Kimberly-Clark Eastern Europe.

In 2014 Anaplan expanded the Hub conference beyond its flagship event in San Francisco to include a world tour.[33] The tour included conferences in Eindhoven, Stockholm, Paris and London. Anaplan continues to expand the conference series to include new locations and the first Hub conference of 2015 was held in Singapore.[34] The annual San Francisco flagship user conference is held in May.

Awards & Honors

  • 15 Companies to Watch – FSN, 2011[35]
  • Gartner Cool Vendor in Finance and Procurement – Gartner, 2012[36]
  • Operational Innovation Award for Sales Excellence – Ventana Research, 2012[37]
  • OnDemand Top 100 in Business Management Application Software – AlwaysOn, 2013[38]
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant Visionary for Sales Performance Management – Gartner, 2015[39]
  • Gartner Magic Quadrant Visionary for Corporate Performance Management – Gartner, 2015[40]
  • Internet Trends Report – Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, 2015[41]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/how-to-choose-among-the-four-bright-ligh/207101021
  2. ↑ http://www.zdnet.com/anaplan-acquires-reseller-vue-analytics-taps-sap-europe-vet-7000011501/
  3. ↑ http://swedishstartupspace.com/2013/07/19/recent-stockholm-fundings/
  4. ↑ http://www.pehub.com/2013/08/21/vc-backed-anaplan-opens-new-european-office-announces-two-new-hires-lead/
  5. ↑ http://www.zdnet.com/article/100m-funding-round-sees-anaplan-launch-in-australia/
  6. ↑ http://www.pr.com/press-release/554463
  7. ↑ https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/enterprise/anaplan-set-to-shake-up-malaysian-erp-market
  8. ↑ http://www.mis-asia.com/tech/cloud-computing/anaplan-chooses-singapore-to-launch-its-business-in-asia/
  9. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/20/idUS106618+20-Oct-2010+PRN20101020
  10. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/20/idUS106618+20-Oct-2010+PRN20101020
  11. ↑ http://www.fsn.co.uk/channel_financial_reporting/review_of_2011_a_year_of_surprising_innovation#.UldHBmTzbhA
  12. ↑ http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2012/09/12/the-daily-start-up-aerohive-buzzes-with-22-5m-led-by-ivp-amid-sweet-mobile-connectivity-demand/#
  13. ↑ http://www.fsn.co.uk/channel_bi_bpm_cpm/fsn_interviews_frederic_laluyaux_ceo_anaplan#.UmrbI5TzZra
  14. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/05/business-data-modeling-and-planning-software-company-anaplan-raises-33m-from-meritech-shasta-and-others/
  15. ↑ http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10758196.htm
  16. ↑ http://blog.ventanaresearch.com/2013/05/29/anaplan-innovates-business-modeling-and-planning/
  17. ↑ http://www.pehub.com/2013/08/vc-backed-anaplan-opens-new-european-office-announces-two-new-hires-lead/
  18. ↑ http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10753263.htm
  19. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/05/business-data-modeling-and-planning-software-company-anaplan-raises-33m-from-meritech-shasta-and-others/
  20. ↑ http://www.eweek.com/innovation/tech-deals-and-startups/anaplan-raises-100-million-in-series-d-financing.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
  21. ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78d14b66-ba0d-11e5-bf7e-8a339b6f2164.html
  22. ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-14/anaplan-valued-at-1-1-billion-after-90-million-pre-ipo-round
  23. ↑ http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2016/01/14/anaplan-achieves-1-09-billion-valuation-with-new-round/
  24. ↑ http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240203001/Taylor-Wimpey-builds-cloud-forecasting-process-with-Anaplan
  25. ↑ http://www.bedfordconsulting.co.uk/#/anaplan-technology/4561018751
  26. ↑ http://www.bedfordconsulting.co.uk/#/anaplan-technology/4561018751
  27. ↑ http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2013/05/cloud-startup-in-focus-anaplan/
  28. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/12/anaplan-app-hub-wants-to-bring-open-source-sharing-ethos-to-financial-planners/
  29. ↑ (1) http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gartner-positions-anaplan-as-a-cpm-visionary-with-its-second-magic-quadrant-placement-this-year-300061116.html
  30. ↑ (2) http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2015/02/25/SF40283
  31. ↑ http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10735000.htm
  32. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/01/anaplan-idUSnBw016841a+100+BSW20131001
  33. ↑ (4) http://static.crunchbase.com/newsletter/content_20140917_anaplan_hub_2014_world_tour.html
  34. ↑ (5) http://www.cio-asia.com/resource/applications/anaplan-wows-its-customers-and-partners-at-its-annual-conference-in-singapore/
  35. ↑ http://www.fsn.co.uk/channel_enterprise_financials/fsn_market_roundup_2010
  36. ↑ http://www.gartner.com/id=2003122
  37. ↑ http://www.ventanaresearch.com/resources/resources.aspx?id=3519
  38. ↑ http://aonetwork.com/announcing-the-2013-ondemand-100-top-private-companies/
  39. ↑ https://www.gartner.com/doc/2955918/magic-quadrant-sales-performance-management
  40. ↑ (2) https://www.gartner.com/doc/2793918/critical-capabilities-corporate-performance-management
  41. ↑ http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

External links

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