December 08, 2019

In August, 2019, Oracle released their newest update to the EBS line in EBS 12.2.9. This is a continuation of their promised “continuous release schedule” that has version 12.2 extending at least through 2030. This means avoiding major version upgrades in favor of more incremental enhancements, allowing for a more continuous workflow and usage of the software. This also means that some clients are not taking advantage of each of these updates and are opting instead to maintain their system as-is. If this sounds like you, we wanted to take a look at some of the feature enhancements, regulatory upgrades, and stability and security features that are offered in their newest release.

Enhancements on Demand

One of the great things about this new release schedule is that it enables Oracle to really focus on what matters to the clients. To understand and deliver this, they are dedicated to bringing forth feature enhancements based on user recommendations. If you are consistently working around a feature or have an idea for a future enhancement, they want to hear from you.

Enhancements Summary

In the August update Oracle included many enhancements designed to streamline processes with more automation, increased customization options, and more. Let’s take a look at some of these enhancements by module:

  • Applications Technology – The Oracle Application Framework (OAF) received some enhancements to improve view options, search functions, simplify the UI, and generally improve the user experience.
  • Asset Lifestyle Management – Here we see enhancements to work orders and work requests that improve the user experience by allowing more flexibility in the entry fields and improving visibility.
  • Financials – This section features some new enhancements designed to improve flexibility with retrospective bookings and terminations, more options for amendment entry and classification, and easier contract changes. There are also some more features available for mobile and web services, like mobile approvals.
  • Human Capital Management – The modules dealing with HR and Human Capital received enhancements to increase productivity among users, including cases of automated email confirmations to update about changes made. There are also major time saving features in Oracle Time and Labor featuring the availability of mass time-card uploads and an improved time-card dashboard.
  • Logistics – Here we see more automation and streamlining to improve order accuracy and workforce efficiency. Enhancements introduce multi-field barcodes, more count options for improved inventory management, backorder management, and more.
  • Manufacturing – In this section enhancements improve visibility and production controls to help users navigate their workload. Some key features include more flexibility in configuration options as well as support for serialization to enable supply chain tracking.
  • Order Management – This section brings automation capabilities to ordering with the inclusion of automatic invoices for recurring customers based on usage. This can help support clients with subscriptions and rental contracts. This section has also focused on making the user experience more efficient by including more options for order pricing and return units.
  • Procurement – In this area EBS has added more attributes for inclusion in Purchase Orders, as well as increased workflow integrations to improve teamwork and reduce errors.
  • Projects – For projects, Oracle has implemented better control in project accounting and budgeting and enhanced the project billing with revenue accrual and consolidated invoicing.
  • Service – For clients utilizing service departments, EBS enhancements can help service delivery management with more options for scheduling, coding, and notifications. Additionally, a new feature assists in service diagnostics with “prescriptive recommendations” based on past service orders.

Overall, the enhancements in this update include quite a few improvements to efficiency, productivity, visibility, and control. While not critical for utilization, these updates can help to streamline your workflow and improve the user experience throughout. The upgrade path will depend on which version you are currently using. Versions 12.2 and above have direct upgrade paths to this newest release. Continuous management of your EBS suite can help you make sure you are making the most of your investment and maximizing its available features. If you haven’t yet updated to EBS 12.2.9, it’s definitely worth a look. For help planning and implementing an upgrade or for ongoing maintenance support, consider utilizing a support and maintenance partner, such as Spinnaker Support.

To read more about the features and enhancements in Oracle EBS 12.2.9, visit Oracle’s announcement.