Polaris Migration
Move to Polaris deliberately, not by lift-and-shift.
Sparsity and scale behave differently on the new engine. A model ported across unchanged arrives with its old constraints intact.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Designed for leaders responsible for operational and financial performance.
Models at their size ceiling
Optimisation has been exhausted, and the workspace still can't take what the business is asking for.
Requirements you keep declining
More entities, finer granularity, another scenario dimension. The answer has been no for reasons that are technical rather than commercial.
Teams weighing the move
Polaris is the direction of travel, and you'd rather migrate on your own timetable than under pressure.
THE CURRENT CHALLENGE
Hyperblock creates space for every possible intersection in a model, even when there’s nothing there. In sparse models, such as customer by SKU by week or entity by account by scenario, this can leave a lot of unused space. Optimisation can help manage the impact, but it doesn’t change the underlying calculation.
HOW WE DO IT
Assess first. Redesign, not port.
ASSESS BEFORE COMMITTING
Not every model should migrate.
Polaris suits sparse, large-scale structures. A dense model that's simply been built inefficiently is a tuning problem, and migrating it wastes a programme. We assess cell counts, sparsity, and calculation patterns first, and tell you which one you have.
REDESIGN, THEN REBUILD
The structures should change.
Dimensionality, granularity, and how sparse combinations are handled all behave differently on Polaris. We design to that behaviour rather than porting Hyperblock patterns across, then rebuild and reconcile against the model you're leaving.
PROVEN RESULTS
A model approaching 300GB, rebuilt at 15GB.
Global digital engineering firm, corporate FP&A
EliteEPM engagement, global digital engineering firm, corporate FP&A.
FAQ'S
Everything you need to know before getting started
Can't find what you're looking for? Talk to us.
Not always. Polaris is most useful for large, sparse models where many dimensional intersections are empty. If a model is dense or simply hasn’t been built efficiently, tuning it may be the better option. Moving to Polaris in that case could mean spending more to solve a problem that can be fixed more simply. That’s why we assess the model first before recommending a move.
You can, and the migration will complete. What you won't get is much benefit. The structures in a Hyperblock model were shaped by Hyperblock's constraints, and carrying them onto a different engine carries the constraints too. The gains come from the redesign, not the move.
Depends on model size and complexity. The engagement behind the numbers above ran ten weeks with a team of three, for a corporate FP&A model approaching 300GB. Smaller models take less; heavily integrated ones take more. Scope is fixed after assessment, not before.
They have to, and it's a defined part of the work rather than an afterthought. We run parallel and reconcile against the existing model before anyone switches over. A migration that can't demonstrate matching outputs hasn't finished.
We review integrations as part of the design, because changes to the model structure can affect how and where data flows. At the same time, we work to keep existing processes and the user experience familiar. The aim is for the change behind the model to have as little impact as possible on the people using it every day.
No, and anyone saying otherwise is selling. It's built for scale and sparsity. Smaller models with dense calculations often run perfectly well on Classic, and there's no advantage in moving them.
The engines differ in how some calculations behave, and part of the design work is identifying where. We map those differences at assessment rather than discovering them mid-build, and tell you upfront if something in your model needs a different approach.
Our team handles the work directly. Cross-engine migration requires specialist expertise, and the engagement in the case study above was delivered by one solution architect and two model builders, all from EliteEPM. We don’t subcontract delivery.
WHY ELITE EPM
We don’t do bait-and-switch consulting
Continuity is the difference between a model that survives its first planning cycle and one that doesn't. We stay focused on Anaplan, build our own specialist team, and keep senior people close to the model from the first workshop through hypercare.
All in on one platform
Anaplan is our entire business, so the platform's roadmap is our roadmap. Our team is fully certified and building on Polaris today - and they understand how businesses plan, not just how to build in the tool
Seniority where it counts
Our partners stay hands-on after the contract is signed. They shape the design, challenge decisions that won't hold up, work the difficult problems, and carry accountability through go-live.
Built for direct collaboration
You get the experience needed for complex, multi-entity work without layers of account management or subcontracted delivery teams.
Let's start the conversation
Whether you're evaluating Polaris for a new Anaplan implementation or looking to modernise an existing environment, EliteEPM can help you assess the right architecture for your planning needs.
