Oracle releases the application updates documentation on new features and fixed issues from the Applications Release Readiness site. From there, you will be able to check the update for Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, Enterprise Performance Management.

 

For PBCS, Enterprise Planning Cloud (EPBCS) and FCCS, usually, the latest update will be installed on the first Friday of each month to test environment, and third Friday of each month to production environment. The update will be applied during the normal daily maintenance window.

 

For the November update, it will apply the latest updates to test environment on Friday, November 3rd, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, November 17th, 2017.

In this patch, these are the major updates:

 

1.Groovy Rules Support Data Maps and Smart Push

For applications of type Enterprise, meaning it is either Enterprise PBCS or PBCS Plus One licenses, we can now write a groovy rule that moves the input and calculated data from source cube to target cube by either executing a Data Map (for administrators) or Smart Push (for users who have launch access to the rule).  For more EPM Groovy scripting information, we can check this API specification of the EPM Groovy Scripting Platform document.

 

2.Registering Duplicate Target App Names in Data Management

Data Management supports registering target applications with the same name. This may be the case where we have multiple service environments and the application name is the same in each environment, or the application names are identical in development and production environments. This feature enables us to add a prefix to the application name when registering the application so that it can be registered successfully in Data Management and be identified correctly in the list of target applications.

 

3.Currency Conversion for Weekly Plans

If we are planning at the weekly level in the Financials business process, when we enter monthly level exchange rates in the Global Assumptions configuration task and save the form, the monthly exchange rates are copied to the weekly level. The copy is based on how we mapped weeks to months (4-4-5, 4-5-4, or 5-4-4). This functionality applies to the Financials cube (OEP_FS) only.

 

4.FCCS Supports Custom Calculations

Finally, we can add our own custom calculations to the seeded default calculations for applications. The system provides insertion points within the default consolidation process where we can include our own calculation rules created in Calculation Manager.

 

5.Close Manager Integrations Between EPM Cloud Services and On-Premise E-Business Suite

Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud and Tax Reporting Cloud users that have subscriptions to multiple EPM Cloud services can create connections between services and enable integrations between these EPM Cloud services using Close Manager functionality.

 

The pre-built and end user integrations enable users to perform tasks within FCCS and TRCS that access other EPM Cloud functionality. For example, we can create end user integrations in FCCS to an Account Reconciliation Cloud (ARCS) environment, so that users can easily monitor reconciliation status from FCCS tasks.

 

Also, on the other side, we can now create a seamless integration between on-premises Oracle E-Business Suite and FCCS or TRCS so that tasks in the EPM Cloud service monitor events happening in the on-premises product required for the close process. For example, we can have an FCCS task set up to wait for the Journal Period Close event to happen in the on-premises Oracle E-Business General Ledger.

 

6.Generating Custom Reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data Manager

We can now create reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data. Building custom reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data Manager involves four steps and can only be performed by a Service Administrator:

• Create a Close Manager Query or Supplemental Data Query from the Actions button of the Queries tab
• Create a template
• Set up a report group
• Set up the report

After a custom report has been built, the Service Administrator or other users with access can generate the report.

 

7.Journals Display Currency Name

Journals now display the default currency at the end of the Entity name or alias.

 

8.Limits on Dimension Members

For optimal performance, Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud now provides limits on the maximum number of dimension members allowed in each dimension. Starting with this update, Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud will stop us from saving non-compliant metadata with error messages explaining that we have exceeded the acceptable number of dimension members.

 

The November update is not a major update for PBCS/EPBCS, but it is an important update for FCCS. After a year waiting, finally, FCCS supports custom calculations. Also, we can create custom reports for Close Manager and Supplemental Data.

I will keep my eyes on the monthly updates, and will share more ideas going forward. See you next time.