As part of our User Experience, Anaplan collaboration capabilities allow users to easily communicate with colleagues, enabling faster planning and decision-making across any device.

We’re enhancing our collaboration capabilities to more directly share information about planned events, such as scheduled maintenance windows or releases. We’re excited to announce that in-product notifications for all Anaplan planned downtime releases is targeted to launch in April 2022.

Details about in-product notification for planned downtime releases

Today, we use a variety of tools to communicate planned events, such as emails, Status Page notifications, Release calendars, and Community blogs, which are publicly accessible. With in-product notifications, we’ll be able to more proactively and directly alert our users about planned events with a single source of truth. This gives our users a simple way to gain greater visibility into upcoming planned downtimes, so they can plan accordingly and maximize the value of their time spent working in Anaplan.

What does this mean?

Anyone logging into the Anaplan platform will now see a small notification icon in the bell on the top right of their screen. All users will receive this notification seven days in advance of any planned downtime maintenance window.

What will this look like?

When users click on the bell notification, they’ll see some details about the upcoming planned downtime maintenance window, such as the date and time. Simply clicking on the notification details will direct them to the Status Page. The Status Page has more information about the release, including what features may be in scope (if applicable) and further information around its date, time, and duration.

Users who have the Anaplan Slack app installed will also receive a Slack notification. Plus, those who have the Anaplan Mobile app installed on their device, will also receive a Mobile push notification.

The timestamp for in-product, Slack, and mobile notifications will display as the user’s preferred timezone. Note that the Status Page will always display maintenance windows in PST/PDT.

How can users manage in-product notifications? 

Initially, these notifications will go to all users who log into the Anaplan platform. In-product notifications are the source of truth for any planned downtime maintenance windows.

Individual users can view their notification preferences in the My Account page.

What are all the methods of communicating planned downtimes?

In addition to in-product notifications, users will continue to receive notifications for upcoming downtime windows in the following formats:

  • MailChimp email to all Workspace Admins and email opt-in users seven days before the release and reminder email one day prior.
  • Status Page email to subscribers seven days before release and email notification at release start time and end.
  • Community blog posted seven days before release and publicly available.

Please note that this is our initial notification plan, which will evolve over time. We will communicate any updates or changes to what is detailed above before they are launched.

Please see this short video demonstrating the look and feel of In-Product notifications for scheduled maintenances.