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A career as a model builder in Anaplan has two avenues: industry and consulting. In over three years of model building, I worked in two distinct industry jobs. In September 2019, I moved into the consulting avenue when I joined Spaulding Ridge, Anaplan’s 2020 Partner of the Year. In this blog, I will address the different career options available in these two avenues.

Why a career in Anaplan?

A career in Anaplan will excel your business acumen, data foundation, and communication skills.  From the start, brilliant people who make and execute decisions to fix or improve business processes will surround and guide you. You will see a 10,000-foot view of a business process from the executive level and get to zoom into the weeds like a business analyst. Additionally, you get to estimate task or project time, effort, and risks and are responsible for making deadlines. On the data side, you can’t build in Anaplan without understanding and using data. To quote Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens, “Data is the 21st century’s oil.” This base knowledge is crucial in today’s business landscape. Lastly, on the communication side, you will write and speak to people at all levels of the organization.  By talking with users, writing business requirements and test scripts, and taking notes, you will develop invaluable communication skills crucial for this job. Mastering these skills is critical for your team’s success.

Industry model builder summary

As an industry Anaplanner, it’s possible to become the Anaplan subject matter expert (SME) in your company. As a new and young employee, this exposure is excellent. Anaplan teams are generally small, so the company will lean on you for Anaplan knowledge, including upcoming enhancements and best practices. Acquiring this knowledge will take time. You may find yourself screaming bloody murder on building what appears to be obscure requirements, but do not worry! As you gain skills through trial and error, you will know the model like the back of your hand. Before leaving my industry jobs, I knew the purpose of each module, dashboard, and how the data flowed through the entire ecosystem of models. I knew the company’s specific business process inside of Anaplan tremendously well. You will see your work improve your company’s process, which can be a great feeling.

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Kevin Beltz
Kevin Beltz
Manager, Anaplan, Spaulding Ridge
About the Author

As a Manager in Spaulding Ridge’s Anaplan practice, Kevin brings experience as a solution’s architect and model builder in the Anaplan space both as in industry and as a consultant.