Authored by: Jim Truax – Director, Technical Support Services
Great to be back: After a two-year hiatus from attending major conferences, the 2023 Oracle Application and Technology User Group (OATUG or Ascend) Conference reinvigorated my passion for industry collaboration. I was amazed at the sheer amount of industry information that’s freely shared among the attendees. As we settle back into our regular work lives, I thought it would be valuable to share my top takeaways, to educate others in the Oracle community.
1. Oracle EBS continues to be a strategic investment for many companies.
Oracle eBusiness Suite customers are taking three main approaches to their roadmap:
- Maintenance: Keeping their EBS and EBS-related boundary applications on premises.
- Hybrid: Operating in an environment wherein some parts of the EBS ecosystem run in the cloud and some remain on-premises. In most cases, the hybrid comprises a combination of SAAS, IAAS, and on-premises models.
- Cloud: Operating fully in the cloud.
It was interesting to hear about the many approaches to Cloud enablement, and how most companies now have a well-thought-out Cloud roadmap. The primary business drivers behind this trend seem to be cost reduction and enhanced security.
2. Oracle has committed to 10+ years of support for EBS 12.2.
Oracle stated that EBS 12.2 is the “Forever Release.” This means there will be no more major releases of EBS in the future. It appears Oracle has prioritized enhancing mobile apps, completing the development of Enterprise Command Center (ECC) and addressing long-standing enhancement requests in their recent releases of EBS 12.2.
Oracle’s current Error Correction Baseline is EBS 12.2.3 — and they’re planning on changing the patch Baseline to version 12.2.7, starting in July 2024. As a result, users who want to receive premier Oracle support will be required to complete their upgrade to EBS 12.2.7+ before July 2024.
Oracle is currently taking steps to isolate tech-stack updates from their application updates. This seems a bit risky to me, but let’s wait and see how it all plays out.
3. Oracle EBS 12.1 customers are now paying extra to receive limited support.
EBS 12.1 customers are now paying an extra fee to receive limited Oracle Market-Driven support through 2024. Oracle states that any support for Oracle EBS 12.1 after 2024 “may” be available “at a very high cost.” They’ve also said that if you want Oracle support, you should upgrade to Oracle EBS 12.2
4. Oracle has made EBS 12.2 UX enhancements.
- Licensed EBS users no longer pay additional license costs to use ECC, and the framework is extensible.
- Enterprise Command Center was first available in EBS 12.2.4. Each subsequent EBS release has included additional dashboards and command centers. Licensed EBS users who use base products must no longer pay additional licensing costs to use ECC, and the ECC framework is also extensible. Oracle’s goal is to offer to replace the standard landing page with something that has a more modern look and feel, while also providing relevant role-based business intelligence data. In 12.2.12, there are 35 command centers and more than 140 prebuilt dashboards. I really like the new dashboards Oracle created, but I still have some reservations about the underlying technology.
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Additional core UIs are now available in HTML, as an alternative to Forms UIs.
Oracle has been providing HTML forms as an alternative to many of the classic Oracle Forms. Oracle states that Oracle Forms will never be completely removed from their tech stack. The move to HTML will provide the user with a more modern, consistent look and feel, as well as remove the client’s dependency on Java Runtime Engine.
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Oracle rewrote WebADI to leverage Office Open XML.
In this rewrite, it appears Oracle added some much-needed diagnostics and addressed several security concerns that organizations have struggled with. I think this change is long overdue. It should improve performance, provide support for company branding, allow users to switch between different responsibilities, and support flexfields.
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Mobile technology is becoming a development priority.
Oracle is rewriting all their existing mobile apps to use Oracle JET, as MAF will no longer be supported after June 2024. Certain lines of business apps, like Mobile SCM and Mobile Field Service, will be available on The App Store; Horizontal apps, like Mobile Approvals and Mobile Self-Service, will be available on MOS.
The Ascend 2023 conference was a great opportunity to engage with companies from across the globe, firm up my understanding of what’s driving technology-business decisions in different sectors and learn the many creative ways companies have been driving operational efficiencies. I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference!
To learn more about gaining control of your Oracle roadmap while improving the quality of support and reducing overall IT costs, go to www.spinnakersupport.com/oracle.
