Here are seven reasons to upgrade from spreadsheets for your planning, budgeting, and forecasting. Learn more by visiting www.anaplan.com Like Anaplan on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anaplan Follow Anaplan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anaplan Follow Anaplan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/anaplan Like Anaplan on Google+: https://plus.google.com/+AnaplanInc/posts Follow Anaplan on our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/AnaplanInc

1. 7 reasons to upgrade your
spreadsheets to a true
planning platform
Total Company
Contract Revenue
Top Line Revenue Summary
Jan
15
Feb
15
Mar
15
Apr
15
May
15
Jun
15
Jul
15
Aug
15
Sep
15
Oct
15
Nov
15
Dec
15
10M
15M
20M
0M
5M
25M
Q1 Forecast
Professional Services Monitoring Service Revenue Whole Sale
41,603,432
(30,508,255)
11,095,177
26.67%
(4,569,926)
6,525,250
15.68%
25,432,046
Q2 FY15Q1 FY15
(19,212,883)
6,219,162
24.45%
(4,423,624)
1,795,538
7.06%
TOTAL REVENUE
TOTAL COST OF SALES
Gross Margin %
OPERATING EXPENSES
Operating Margin %
64,222,830
24,482,280
52,234,900
76,717,180
76,717,180
76,717,180
76,967180
64,222,830
Q4 FY15Q3 FY15
19,910,220
40,816,660
60,726,880
60,726,880
60,949,280
80,000,000
64,222,830
24,482,280
52,234,900
76,717,180
76,717,180
76,717,180
76,967180
FY15
GROSS PROFIT
OPERATING INCOME
Total CompanyP&L Summary
Total Company
Contract Revenue
Top Line Revenue Summary
Jan
15
Feb
15
Mar
15
Apr
15
May
15
Jun
15
10M
15M
20M
0M
5M
25M
Professional Services
Monitoring Service Revenue Whole Sale
41,603,432
(30,508,255)
11,095,177
26.67%
(4,569,926)
6,525,250
15.68%
25,432,046
Q2 FY15Q1 FY15
(19,212,883)
6,219,162
24.45%
(4,423,624)
1,795,538
7.06%
TOTAL REVENUE
TOTAL COST OF SALES
Gross Margin %
OPERATING EXPENSES
Operating Margin %
GROSS PROFIT
OPERATING INCOME
Total CompanyP&L Summary

2. 9 out of 10 businesses still use
spreadsheets to plan, budget,
analyze, and report.1

3. Spreadsheets ARE an important part
of the business, but often are
pushed beyond their means.

4. “We had an ancient Excel®
financial
model—sort of like Dr. Frankenstein’s
monster. There were a couple hundred
different versions. We knew we had to
eliminate the usage of that massive Excel file
from our day-to-day business operations.”
- Andrew Chapello, Product Manager of Business Applications, Box

5. Here are the seven reasons to
upgrade from spreadsheets for your
planning, budgeting, and reporting.

6. REASON #1
Data

7. Your spreadsheet is not a database.
It’s easy to get an answer from
spreadsheets, but it’s not necessarily
the right answer…it’s static data.
=XLS
×

8. “We had outgrown the use of Excel as our
sole planning solution. Analysis was not real
time. There was a major lack in collaboration,
and data was not transparent across the
organization.”
- Jared Waterman, Vice President of FP&A, Pandora

9. REASON #2
Accuracy

10. More than 90% of spreadsheets contain
serious errors, while more than 90% of
spreadsheet users are convinced that
their models are error-free.2
90%

11. When working from version 43 of a
spreadsheet, imagine how many errors
could be misguiding your analysis…and
ultimately, your business.

12. REASON #3
Scalability

13. “We didn’t know what kind of business we
would have in three years’ time. We didn’t
know what adding a hundred stores to the
business would do to us. So we wanted a
planning solution that could evolve, both in
terms of the scale, but also in terms of the
direction that we wanted to take.”
- Strahan Wilson, CFO, EAT

14. With no plan to
migrate off spreadsheets,
you are harming the
company’s potential
opportunity for growth
and expansion.

15. REASON #4
Risk

16. Recall Fannie Mae’s
“honest” mistake?

17. To jog your memory…in 2013
Fannie Mae had a $1.3 billion error
in total shareholder equity tied to
mistakes in spreadsheets.3
$
$
$
$
$
$
$

18. Is the risk of a mistake like this worth
using spreadsheets for “free”?
?

19. REASON #5
Time

20. During a recent co-hosted CFO.com and Anaplan webinar…
42% of respondents said they spend more than
20 hours per week using spreadsheets for their
planning, budgeting, and/or reporting.
42%

21. When migrating off of spreadsheets and
onto a true planning solution, you will see a
massive increase in ROTI—return on time
investment. Your team will thank you.

22. “I like to joke that we wanted to put the A
back in FP&A. We needed a system to do the
basic blocking and tackling so that we had
the time to help the business understand the
‘so what’ behind the data and advise the
business on how best to take action.”
- Mike Lemberg, VP of Finance, ServiceSource

23. REASON #6
Flexibility

24. We’re not talking about physical flexibility
but rather intuitive flexibility.

25. To properly plan and forecast your business’
future, you need access to both past data
and future possibilities by running
scenario-based strategic planning.

26. REASON #7
Agility

27. Agility is different than flexibility. Agility is the
ability to see an issue or opportunity and take
action or course correct to find a solution.

28. “Now with Anaplan, each restaurant manager
can pull up their financial data anytime from a
tablet or smartphone. They can course correct
their operating plan and budget on-the-fly
based on the real-time insight into a restaurant’s
P&L. This visibility and agility did not exist
previously, and now it’s automated!”
- Jaime Benson, Finance Manager, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Brews

29. Are these 7 reasons not quite enough to
convince you to upgrade from spreadsheets?
Read our white paper: 7 reasons to replace
your planning spreadsheets.

30. SOURCES
1. Ventana Research, “Make automating the office of finance and accounting a priority,” published January 27, 2015. Accessed November 3,
2015. http://ventanaresearch.com/blog/commentblog.aspx?id=4668.
2. Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), “Talking Technology – Spreadsheet Solutions” ACCA, published August 11, 2015.
Accessed November 3, 2015. http://www.accaglobal.com/an/en/student/sa/features/talking-technology---spreadsheet-solutions.html.
3. Wailgum, Thomas. “Eight of the worst spreadsheet blunders,” CIO.com, published August 17, 2007. Accessed November 3, 2015.
http://www.cio.com/article/2438188/enterprise-software/eight-of-the-worst-spreadsheet-blunders.html.