You've outgrown Excel for consolidation. But what comes next?

Anaplan starts at $200K+ - and still assumes your data is already clean. Your data team wants to build something custom - but "three months" always becomes twelve. And every vendor says they're the answer.

This guide compares every realistic consolidation path side by side. Real costs, real timelines, real trade-offs. Including when staying with Excel is still the right call.

What's Inside

📊 When Excel still works - The honest assessment most vendors skip. Plus 7 signals you've genuinely outgrown it.

💰 The real cost of Anaplan & enterprise EPM tools - Why a $200K platform doesn't eliminate your consolidation problem.

🔧 The "We'll build it" reality check - What happens when your data team says "give us Snowflake and 3 months."

⚖️ Side-by-side evaluation framework - 6 dimensions: cost, time-to-value, maintenance, scalability, audit readiness, team dependency.

📋 Consolidation readiness scorecard - A self-assessment to match the right path to your organization.

This Is For You If:

✅ You manage 5+ entities and Excel consolidation is hitting its limits
✅ You're evaluating Anaplan or another EPM tool and want an unbiased comparison
✅ Your data team is proposing a custom build on Snowflake, Databricks, or Fabric
✅ You've been burned by vendor promises before and want straight answers
✅ You need a structured framework to present consolidation options to your board
✅ You want to know when staying with Excel is actually the right call

The Bottom Line

The wrong consolidation decision costs you twice - once when you invest, and again when you migrate off it 18 months later.

Anaplan at $200K+. A custom build at $300K+ and 12 months. Or staying in Excel and watching your team spend half the month reconciling.

This guide won't tell you which path to choose. It will give you the framework to make that decision with real numbers, not vendor slides.

20 pages. 6 alternatives compared. Zero sales pitch.

Instant access. No sales call required.

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