The CFO's Lifeline to Accurate, Agile, Data-driven Finance: Introducing Anaplan’s AI and ML Solutions, powered by Metora

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are here to stay for the foreseeable future and, while they’re here, they’re revolutionising the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 

CFOs and Finance teams need to understand how to leverage these technologies to tap into unimaginable strategic value for the good of the entire organizational structure. 

Read on to learn all about our Anaplan AI and ML solutions suite, designed to level up every CFO’s leadership and decision making accuracy, with ease. 

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What is the Role of the CFO?

The CFO oversees a company's financial health, managing everything from capital allocation and risk to financial reporting and strategic investments. 

They ensure fiscal stability and compliance while partnering with leadership to drive long-term growth and profitability. 

Ultimately, the CFO translates financial data into actionable insights to guide the organization's strategic direction.

CFOs are often left to grapple with the complexities of today's volatile business landscape. Decision-making processes are frequently hampered by slow, outdated, fragmented systems and data silos. This coupled with the fact that many finance teams dedicate excessive time to manual, error-prone tasks and lack access to real-time data and insights, significantly curtails effective cross-functional collaboration.

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CFO Support: How AI and ML Drive Efficiency and Strategic Decision-Making

AI and ML are unburdening CFOs from having to weed through copious amounts of historical data to arrive at a precise, data-led financial strategy. 

What once felt like a deluge of data, is now made more manageable and actionable with the power of AI and ML. CFOs no longer feel like they’re drowning in data. AI and ML based solutions are here to throw them a life raft and save them from the misery and misfortune that would otherwise ensue in their absence.

At Metora, we offer our clients Anaplan’s AI and ML suite of solutions that are designed to deliver exceptional decision support to any and all CFOs. Anaplan’s AI and ML solutions suite includes: Anaplan Optimizer, PlanIQ and CoPlanner. 

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Anaplan Optimizer: Gain Instant, Actionable Insights

Anaplan Optimizer, powered by advanced algorithms, works its magic in mere moments. Using advanced linear programming capabilities, it tests millions of planning combinations in seconds and makes profit-maximisation and cost-saving recommendations. Users can easily compare the outcomes of various optimization runs and "what-if" scenarios side-by-side which facilitates a deeper understanding of trade-offs and helps CFOs select the most robust and beneficial strategy.

This tool allows users to define specific objectives, such as revenue maximisation or cost reduction, while simultaneously considering numerous variables and constraints, ultimately leading to more informed and confident decision-making across various functions like Finance, Supply Chain and Sales.

Here’s a list of Anaplan Optimizer’s key features that support CFOs in arriving at the right decision with speed and precision:

• Rapid Scenario Evaluation: Anaplan Optimizer can quickly evaluate millions of potential scenarios in seconds. This allows CFOs and their teams to explore a vast range of "what-if" possibilities and understand the financial implications of different strategic choices much faster than traditional methods.

• Linear Programming Optimization: At its core, Optimizer uses advanced linear programming. This means it can efficiently solve complex problems by finding the best possible outcome (e.g., maximising profit or minimising cost) within defined financial and operational constraints.

• Objective-Driven Planning: CFOs can define specific business objectives directly within the Optimizer, such as maximising revenue, minimising operating expenses, or optimizing resource allocation. The tool then works to achieve these goals while respecting all set boundaries.

• Multi-Dimensional Constraint Handling: The Optimizer can handle a seemingly unlimited number of variables and constraints, reflecting the true complexity of enterprise-level planning. This ensures that recommended solutions are realistic and account for all relevant limitations, from budget caps to resource availability.

• No-Code, UI-Driven Interface: Finance professionals can define and run optimization problems directly through Anaplan's intuitive user interface without needing coding skills or IT involvement. This empowers CFOs and their teams to manage the entire optimization process independently, accelerating decision cycles.

• Seamless Data Integration: Optimizer leverages data already within the Anaplan platform, ensuring consistency and accuracy. This eliminates the need for data exports and imports, streamlining the process and reducing potential errors.

• Prescriptive Recommendations: Unlike tools that just provide data, Optimizer provides actionable, prescriptive recommendations for the best course of action. This means CFOs get clear guidance on how to achieve their objectives, rather than just raw numbers to interpret.

• Enhanced Transparency: While sophisticated, Anaplan Optimizer offers transparency into its workings. This allows users to understand the logic behind the recommended solutions, fostering trust and making it easier to explain and justify decisions to stakeholders.

• Support for Diverse Use Cases: The Optimizer is versatile and can be applied to a wide range of critical business functions beyond finance, including supply chain optimization, sales territory planning, inventory management, and workforce allocation. This provides a holistic optimization capability across the enterprise.

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PlanIQ: Unlock Unprecedented Forecasting Accuracy

Anaplan PlanIQ is a powerful, integrated forecasting solution designed to enhance the accuracy and accessibility of predictions across an organization. Embedded directly within the Anaplan platform, it leverages advanced ML and AI capabilities, including Amazon's intelligent forecast engine and Anaplan's proprietary algorithms, to help businesses generate highly accurate future forecasts. 

PlanIQ empowers Finance, Supply Chain, Sales and HR teams in making data-driven decisions by transforming historical data and various drivers into actionable insights, without requiring extensive data science expertise.

Here’s a list of Anaplan PlanIQ’s key features that empower CFOs to lead the charge with little to no data science expertise: 

• Easily select Anaplan data for model training: Users can easily pull in relevant historical information directly from their existing Anaplan models, eliminating the need for complex exports or manual data manipulation.

• Train forecast models automatically or manually: The automatic feature intelligently selects optimal forecasting algorithms and parameters for users who prefer a hands-off approach or have less data science expertise. The manual option provides granular control, enabling users to fine-tune model parameters and choose specific algorithms for highly customised scenarios.

• Attain highly-accurate metrics in an accessible format: Leveraging advanced ML, PlanIQ generates precise forecasts and presents them in an intuitive, easy-to-understand manner within the Anaplan environment, empowering CFOs to readily grasp forecast outputs without requiring specialised data science knowledge.

• Gain transparency into automated configurations: This transparency fosters trust in the automated forecasts and allows users to comprehend the underlying logic, crucial for justifying decisions and securing stakeholder buy-in.

• Understand what drives forecast result: Beyond just providing a numerical forecast, the solution explains the key factors influencing the prediction.

• Validate model training data automatically: This ensures models are trained on high-quality information, reducing the risk of inaccurate forecasts and freeing users from tedious manual data cleansing.

• Schedule operations to match your forecasting cycle: Allows for scheduling of forecasting runs and model updates to align seamlessly with a business's specific planning rhythm, whether it's weekly, monthly, or quarterly. 

• Support ad-hoc predictions: Users can quickly generate on-demand forecasts for "what-if" scenarios or unexpected events. This agility is invaluable for rapidly responding to market changes and supporting dynamic decision-making without disrupting ongoing planning processes.

• Compare forecasts with actuals automatically: This comparison highlights forecast accuracy over time, pinpoints areas where models might need refinement, and provides crucial feedback for continuous improvement in future forecasting efforts.

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CoPlanner: Automate Decision-Making & Drive Efficiency

Anaplan is transforming Financial Planning and Strategy Ideation with their Integrated Financial Planning application which is embedded with an advanced AI assistant, CoPlanner. CoPlanner taps into live planning models and data to instantly respond to complex queries (e.g. “What’s driving Q2 margin decline?”), surface key drivers, generate charts, and suggest actions - all in a secure, enterprise-grade interface.

Here’s a list of Anaplan CoPlanner’s key features that enable CFOs to arrive at decisions with ease and agility: 

• Seamless Integration with Financial Data Sources: Integrates Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and General Ledger (GL) data with a pre-built data hub, streamlining Financial Planning.

• Accelerated FP&A Process Adoption: Enables implementation of best practice-based Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) processes including models, calculations, dashboards and reports, reducing implementation risk and fostering faster user adoption. 

• Tailored Planning Model Customization: Supports custom planning model builds tailored to the CFO’s specific requirements. 

• Driving Faster, More Informed Decisions: Enables faster, more informed decisions using built-in driver-based planning, scenario modeling, and what-if analysis. 

• Real-Time Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Insights: Detailed balance sheet and cash flow plan for real-time monitoring and decision-making. 

• Generative AI for Deeper Financial Insights: Generative AI1 trained on the most frequently asked financial questions, allowing conversational queries for real-time, deep insights and in-depth analysis of an organization’s financial data.

• Enterprise-Wide Connectedness and Consistency: Interoperability enabling enterprise connectedness through rule consistency and standardisation across Anaplan applications.

• Enhanced Excel Reporting with Anaplan XL Reporting: CoPlanner includes the Anaplan XL Reporting solution, a powerful Excel plug-in for enhanced reporting, ad-hoc analysis, and fast user adoption. 

• Future-Proof with Continuous Upgrades: All future versions of IFP application as it gets upgraded for new functionality, enhanced capabilities and latest innovation.

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Key Takeaways

Metora introduces a suite of Anaplan’s AI and ML solutions to revolutionize the CFO's role, transforming them from financial overseers to strategic leaders. In today's volatile landscape, CFOs often struggle with fragmented systems, data silos, and time-consuming manual tasks, hindering real-time insights and effective collaboration. Anaplan’s AI and ML solutions offered by Metora, including Anaplan Optimizer, PlanIQ, and CoPlanner, are designed to alleviate these burdens, providing CFOs with the tools to navigate complex financial data and make precise, data-led decisions with ease.

Anaplan Optimizer helps CFOs gain instant, actionable insights by leveraging advanced linear programming. This powerful tool evaluates billions of planning combinations in seconds, providing profit-maximization and cost-saving recommendations. It allows users to define specific objectives and constraints, ensuring realistic and optimal outcomes across Finance, Supply Chain and Sales. With its no-code interface and seamless data integration within Anaplan, Optimizer empowers CFOs to conduct rapid scenario evaluations, understand trade-offs and receive prescriptive recommendations for strategic growth without needing deep technical expertise.

For accurate forecasting and automated decision-making, Metora offers Anaplan PlanIQ and CoPlanner. PlanIQ unlocks unprecedented forecasting accuracy by using advanced ML and AI to generate highly reliable predictions from historical data, making complex insights accessible to all finance professionals. It allows for flexible model training, transparent configurations and automatic validation and comparison of forecasts against actuals. 

CoPlanner, an AI-powered assistant embedded within Anaplan's Integrated Financial Planning application, automates decision-making by responding to complex financial queries, surfacing key drivers and suggesting actions in real-time. It integrates seamlessly with ERP/GL data, supports tailored planning and ensures enterprise-wide consistency, providing a future-proof solution for continuous financial innovation and efficiency.

Looking to invest in AI and ML solutions for unparalleled decision support as a CFO leading the financial charge? Get in touch.