capacity planning for ag2r la mondiale

We had the pleasure to participate in the Hackaton organised by Anaplan on 12 June 2018. On the eve of Hub Paris 2018, Anaplan’s annual event in France, 12 partners took up the challenge of building a Capacity Planning application on a real case of AG2R La Mondiale.

The objective of this business case was to optimise the production schedule of results accounts by client for AG2R La Mondiale. This was quite a challenge, given that we had 6 hours to present a functional prototype in front of a jury composed of AG2R La Mondiale and Anaplan employees.

6 hours top time

• Start at 9.30 am. 
• Build ends at 15:30.
• Presentation in front of a jury: from 15:30 to 16:30 (8 minutes presentation per partner)

After breakfast offered by Anaplan at 9 am, our BAW consultants (Niels Bacos & Hendrick Marty) are in good shape to take up the challenge. The atmosphere is positive and there is a competitive spirit. We’re going to have fun 🙂

The challenge of a Hackaton is to manage one’s time and priorities well. It is an exercise that is very similar to pre-sales situations, in which we build POCs with a strong time constraint.

After taking up this challenge (and having a lot of fun building and presenting our application), we give you our cold feedback :

1. Be solid on basic development, to be efficient and fast on the build while respecting Anaplan’s modeling best practices (e.g. DISCO methodology). Data integration should not be time consuming, complex calculations should not be time consuming, and you should only focus on what brings perceivable value (technical prowess in your calculation modules is usually not visible, unless you plan to give visibility to how you build the information in Anaplan ;)).
2. Do not fall into traps of trying to do everything. It is impossible and too risky (even if you want to do well). Complex problems require time for reflection, and the 6-hour time limit imposed in the Hackaton does not allow for this.
3. Make orientation choices as soon as possible: focus on ergonomics (good dataviz practices), user experience (some wow-factors) and on respecting the business process.
4. Identify the key work points in the process and focus on the areas of greatest value (i.e., where Anaplan truly addresses business issues). You will demonstrate where Anaplan clearly differentiates itself from competing solutions, and show by example how it is possible to modernise a business process in a planning platform like Anaplan.
5. Manage your time, and focus on process and user experience 

In short, reconciling the time constraint with the desire to build the best possible application to stand out is not an easy thing. In particular, you have to find the right balance between :

• Respect for customer needs and expectations
• A user experience that highlights Anaplan’s added value (what-if / breakdown / breakback / audit trail…)
• Attractive ergonomics
• Quality delivery (but not too much)

It was a real pleasure to be able to participate in this event, to share a moment with other consultants who are all convinced of the value we bring to our daily work through the connected planning processes on Anaplan.