Ability to manage metadata (add/delete/re-parent list items) via the Excel Add-in

[kjacokes]

Summarized Feature Request

End users need the ability to manage list items, i.e. metadata, via the Excel add-in.

By far the highest-priority and highest-value need is to add new list items.

Situation

Users switching from Oracle Hyperion / Essbase love the Essbase SmartView Add-in for office. One of the reasons they love it, is they can enter data at the intersection of dimensions in a very sparse cube (module, in Anaplan). Effectively they are able to quickly use Excel to load data into any intersection of dimensions in very sparse cubes/modules, and not have to worry about creating items, metadata.

In Anaplan, we use composite hierarchies to manage sparsity, performance, and ensure calculations happen in real-time. This enables us to have models that are lightning-fast and calculate in real-time, BUT, if users want to create data at the intersection of multiple sparse dimensions (e.g. at the intersection of Company, Cost Center, Product, GL Account) then we've probably used a composite hierarchy to capture this data, and to capture it, we need to enable a user to add an item to that composite hierarchy.

Challenge / Pain Point

The pain here is two-fold:

1. Anaplan users have to think about both metadata and data whenever they want to store data in a composite hierarchy, performing 2 steps;first, create the composite hierarchy item, a step that is inherently data-driven;second, store the data at that intersection

2. Anaplan users cannot manage metadata via the Excel add-in, making it virtually impossible to rely on the Excel Add-in for production data entry in a Corporate Finance setting where new composite hierarchy items are being added all the time

在Web界面中，可以使用各种类型的操作以及通过编辑>插入功能将新项目添加到列表中，但是Excel加载项中不存在此类功能。

First...a couple of acknowledgements

作为Anaplan的传教士，让我首先承认：

1. Users should not be using Excel to submit data; just use the web interface!!!

2.其他技术使用户能够在稀疏尺寸之间创建交叉口可能会导致一些大问题，并且可以使用户无意中地散发出该立方体的大小，从而导致性能拖累

Now...the question...

我们如何为想要将数据提交到代表计划维度的净新相交（例如，实体，成本中心，产品，GL帐户）的用户的用户简化用户体验？

This, bringing us to feature parity with the Essbase Add-in for Smart View.

And what is the business value?

• 销售量：将Anaplan的价值主张提高到具有稀疏帐户图表的大型组织的企业融资，从而使Anaplan Excel加载项的定位是与Essbase Excel Addin具有功能均衡的定位
• Customer Satisfaction and Market Development:Help CS and Partners convert an entire generation of Essbase users to Anaplan, who will love that Anaplan gives them what Essbase did, but does so much more.
  • 为从Essbase（和Essbase Excel加载项）到Anaplan（具有更多基于浏览器的用户体验）的人们提供更平滑的过渡
  • Having worked with many of these customers, the change management necessary to get them to go cold turkey on Excel for working with sparse data sets is tremendous, and the lack of this feature makes it extremely painful for organizations switching from Essbase to Anaplan
• Customer Success and Retention:Improve adoption and reduce implementation risk for large implementations; users can always fall back on submitting data via Excel Add-in, since data entry and composite hierarchy management are the most fundamental of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) requirements
• Productivity and ease of use:Enable users to use the Anaplan Excel Add-in to add data (and supporting metadata) via Excel, and in a single step:

Requested Enhancement

Our clients are requesting the ability to (1) add composite hierarchy items to Anaplan lists via the Excel Add-in, and (2) add those items at the same time as they add data.

Acceptance criteria:

Per #1 above...

- 能够将Anaplan Excel加载项指向Anaplan列表

- Ability to *retrieve and read* all items from that list, including its parents and ancestors, into an "active grid" that is in sync with metadata in Anaplan

- Ability to add a row to that "active grid", enter in values, and *submit* those values; if the values are unique and in all other ways valid, an item will be added to the list in Anaplan

——输入的能力nd *submit* property data to a list for one or more items (nice-to-have)

Per #2 above...

- Ability to submit data (existing functionality, today), and in doing so, create a composite hierarchy item for that data to be stored at, if the composite hierarchy item does not already exist

[jrichards]

This would make the Excel Add in a more realistic tool for end user use for my client too!