We start by checking whether Anaplan already does it. Forecasting, consolidation, promotion planning, workforce - the standard capability is proven and stays current with the roadmap, so rebuilding it buys you nothing. We build from first principles where your process genuinely doesn't fit a standard shape, and we'll tell you which side of that line you're on during scoping.

Most things with drivers, constraints, and a number at the end. Beyond finance and supply chain, we've built for capacity, capital allocation, project margin, production scheduling, and network design. If you can describe how the process works today - even if that description is a spreadsheet - it can usually be modelled.

Typically 12–20 weeks from kickoff to first live cycle, depending on process complexity and data readiness. Discovery and design take a meaningful share of that, deliberately: the structural decisions are cheap to make early and expensive to revisit.

Only the sequence. We'll work through licensing and workspace sizing with you or your Anaplan account team before design starts, so the model is built for the capacity you'll actually have.

Worth deciding before anything is built rather than migrating later. Sparsity - a large dimensional structure that's mostly empty - is where Classic gets expensive, and bespoke models tend to be sparser than standard ones. We assess likely cell counts during design and recommend accordingly.

With enough design work up front to price it honestly. We run discovery before quoting a fixed price, so scope is agreed rather than discovered. Change requests exist for genuine changes, not for things we should have asked about in week one.

It's normal. Most planning processes live in people's heads and in files, not in documentation. Getting them articulated is part of the work - and it's usually the point at which teams realise which steps exist for good reasons and which are workarounds.

You maintain it. We build with your team in the model as it takes shape, and hand over structures they can change themselves. Independent research puts the reduction in IT effort to maintain planning models at around 95% versus spreadsheet-based processes - that's the standard we build to.

Ours. Every consultant is an Elite EPM employee, and the partner who scopes the work stays involved through go-live. Nothing is subcontracted.

We stay through the first live planning cycles, because that's when the real questions surface. After that, most clients move to a support arrangement or run it themselves.