If Your Team Isn’t Adopting Anaplan… It’s Probably the UX

If Excel is still the glue in your Anaplan workflow, you're missing the point—and the ROI.

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At Rivex Plan, we’ve led and rescued Anaplan implementations across industries—from financial planning and sales forecasting to supply chain optimization. One consistent pattern we've seen? Projects run into trouble not because the model logic is wrong, but because the user experience (UX) was an afterthought.

Most teams pour their energy into designing the “perfect model”: dynamic calculations, optimized formulas, and clever hierarchies. But when it comes time to roll out dashboards and workflows to users, the experience feels confusing, clunky, or incomplete. And that’s when adoption stalls.

In this article, we share what we’ve learned about why UX can make or break Anaplan initiatives—and how to fix it before it’s too late.

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The Real Cost of Poor UX in Anaplan Projects

1. Users don’t adopt what they don’t understand

We've seen planning teams launch highly advanced Anaplan models that, on paper, solved everything. But once end users got their hands on it, the questions came fast:

“Where do I enter my forecast?”

“Why does this number look wrong?”

“How do I navigate back to last month's data?”

When that confusion sets in, users lose trust in the platform—and re-open their old Excel files. At that point, it doesn’t matter how technically sound the model is. If people can’t use it confidently, they won’t use it at all.

2. Anaplan gets blamed for design gaps

Without a clear, intuitive interface, users often misjudge Anaplan’s capabilities. We've heard clients say:

“Anaplan isn’t flexible enough.”

“It's too hard to use for non-technical people.”

“It’s slower than Excel.”

But these complaints usually come down to poor UX decisions: too many nested dashboards, no guidance on where to start, or slow-loading pages due to performance-heavy grids. It’s not a problem with Anaplan—it’s a problem with how it was presented.

3. Support costs spike post-launch

A confusing UX leads to dozens of support tickets and hours lost in follow-up training:

“I don’t see any data.”

“Why isn’t the dropdown working?”

“I don’t know what to click next.”

One of our clients saw a 3x increase in internal support requests in the first two weeks after go-live—simply because no one had walked through the dashboards from a user’s point of view. After we revamped their UX with clear workflows and contextual help, support tickets dropped by 70% in less than a month.

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Why UX Deserves a Front-Seat in Your Anaplan Architecture

Treating UX as a final polish step is one of the most expensive mistakes in Anaplan projects. At Rivex Plan, we approach UX the same way we approach formulas and list hierarchies: as an architectural component, not decoration.

Here’s why that matters:

User experience defines the success of your rollout

A good model that users can’t navigate is no better than a bad model. We build user journeys from day one—mapping who needs to do what, when, and how. Every input page, dashboard, and navigation flow is designed to reduce friction and surface the right information at the right time.

Performance and UX go hand-in-hand

When users complain about speed, it’s often not because Anaplan is “slow”—it’s because the model wasn’t designed with UX in mind:

• Too many cards on one page.

• Massive grids with full lists and time.

• Hidden logic making numbers hard to trace.

We apply performance best practices as we design the user flow: optimized views, conditional formatting that adds clarity (not confusion), and simple interfaces with guided steps.

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Change management starts with intuitive design

Good UX is your first line of change management. If users can open a dashboard and immediately understand what to do—without needing a 50-page manual—they’ll feel empowered, not overwhelmed. We’ve learned that intuitive design cuts training time in half and builds trust faster than any email campaign.

Our UX Design Approach at Rivex Plan

Our UX-first mindset is baked into our delivery methodology. Here’s how we embed it throughout an Anaplan project:

1. Start with real user personas

We meet with the actual users—not just sponsors or PMOs—and understand their daily tasks. Are they entering data quickly between meetings? Analyzing trends in real time? Approving forecasts from their phones?

This helps us design dashboards that fit into real workflows, not just technical specs.

2. Prototype early—even with dummy data

We build UX mockups in week one. This isn't just pretty pictures—these are functional demos users can click through. Early feedback shapes both the model structure and the data flow. It also avoids surprises at UAT.

3. Design with simplicity in mind

We follow clear UX rules:

• One purpose per page.

• Smart use of filters and page selectors.

• Clear input zones with color-coded formatting.

• Guidance text and help overlays.

This minimizes user errors and improves clarity without extra training.

4. Test performance in real use cases

We simulate load, navigation paths, and response time using actual data volumes—not just developer estimates. This way, we avoid the trap of releasing a dashboard that works in the build environment but lags in production.

5. Support post-launch adoption with champions

We identify business champions early and involve them in UX design. They give feedback, help test, and later coach others. It’s a change management shortcut that pays dividends.

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A Real-World Turnaround: From Excel Chaos to UX Clarity

One of our clients—a multinational manufacturer—was struggling with fragmented Excel-based demand planning. We deployed Anaplan with strong data modeling and logic, but user feedback during UAT was lukewarm. “This feels harder than Excel,” they said.

We paused, reworked the dashboards using our UX framework:

• Created a personalized planner landing page.

• Separated data entry and reporting views.

• Added tooltips, quick links, and alerts.

After rollout:

• Forecast accuracy improved by 15%.

• Dashboard usage jumped by 80% in month one.

• Support queries dropped significantly.

The model didn’t change. The experience did—and that changed everything.

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Final Thoughts: The ROI of UX-Focused Planning

Your Anaplan model can be a technical masterpiece—but if users can’t understand or navigate it, it won’t deliver value. At Rivex Plan, we’ve seen firsthand that UX isn’t just about looks—it’s about adoption, efficiency, and credibility.

Investing in user-centric design from the start means:

• Faster time to value.

• Higher adoption rates.

• Lower support costs.

• Better business outcomes.

And ultimately, that’s what turns an Anaplan project into a strategic success—not just a system replacement.

Ready to Make Your Anaplan Project a Success?

At Rivex Plan, we combine deep technical expertise with user-centric design to deliver Anaplan solutions that people ac

tually use—and love.

Whether you're starting fresh or looking to optimize an existing model, we can help you architect a scalable, high-performing platform with exceptional user experience at its core.

Let’s talk about how to get your teams fully engaged and delivering faster insights with Anaplan.