What's New

April 2024 Update

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Overview

HAVE AN IDEA?

We’re here and we’re listening. If you have a suggestion on how to make our cloud services even better then go ahead and tell us. There are several ways to submit your ideas, for example, through the Ideas Lab on Oracle Customer Connect. Wherever you see this icon after the feature name it means we delivered one of your ideas.

GIVE US FEEDBACK

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.

Feature Summary

Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic Workforce Planning

Monthly Update Schedule

Test Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, April 5, 2024.

Production Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, April 19, 2024.

NOTE: The monthly update will not be applied to any environment for which this monthly update is requested to be skipped using the EPM Automate skipUpdate command or service request to Oracle. The monthly update will also not be applied to any environment on a one-off patch where the fix for the underlying issue is not in this monthly update.

NOTE: Backing up the daily maintenance snapshot and restoring the environment as needed are self-service operations. Oracle strongly recommends that you download the maintenance snapshot every day to a local server.

The Oracle Help Center provides access to updated documentation. The updates will be available in the Help Center on Friday, April 5, 2024.

NOTE: Some of the links to new feature documentation included in this readiness document will not work until after the Oracle Help Center update is complete.

Helpful Information

Documentation Updates Available One Week After Readiness Documents

Updated documentation is published on the Oracle Help Center on the first Friday of each month, coinciding with the monthly updates to Test environments. Because there is a one week lag between the publishing of the readiness documents (What's New and New Feature Summary) and Oracle Help Center updates, some links included in the readiness documents will not work until the Oracle Help Center update is complete.

https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/epm-cloud/index.html

Fixed Issues and Considerations

Software issues addressed each month and considerations are posted to a knowledge article on My Oracle Support. Click here to review. You must have a My Oracle Support login to access the article.

NOTE: Fixed issues for EPM Cloud Platform components (Smart View for Office, EPM Automate, REST API, Migration, Access Control, Data Management/Data Integration, Reports, Financial Reporting, and Calculation Manager) are available in a separate document on the My Oracle Support “Release Highlights” page.

This provides visibility into EPM Cloud release contents.

Give Us Documentation Feedback

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content of the What's New document and the product documentation.

Please send us your feedback at EPMdoc_ww@oracle.com. In the body or title of the email, state that you are inquiring or providing feedback, and indicate for which EPM Cloud service and the monthly update cycle.

Create and Run an EPM Center of Excellence

A best practice for EPM is to create a Center of Excellence (CoE). An EPM CoE is a unified effort to ensure adoption and best practices.

Business Benefit: A CoE drives transformation in business processes related to performance management and the use of technology-enabled solutions.

Learn more:

• Visit the EPM Center of Excellence web page to learn about the benefits.

• Watch the webinars on Cloud Customer Connect: Creating and Running a Center of Excellence (CoE) for EPM Cloud and Planning Your Success with EPM Center of Excellence.

• Watch the videos: Overview: EPM Center of Excellence, Creating a Center of Excellence.

• Get best practices, guidance, and strategies for your own EPM CoE: Creating and Running an EPM Center of Excellence

Join Oracle Cloud Customer Connect

Please take a moment to join Cloud Customer Connect and its EPM Cloud forums. Customer Connect is a community gathering place for members to interact and collaborate on common goals and objectives. It's where you will find the latest release information, discussion forums, upcoming events, and answers to use-case questions. Joining takes just a few minutes. Join now!

To join, go to https://community.oracle.com/customerconnect/ and select Register in the upper right.

After you have joined and logged in, to access the forums (Categories), from the Cloud Customer Connect home page, select Categories, then Enterprise Resource Planning, and then make your selection under Enterprise Performance Management.

To ensure that you are always in the know, confirm that you have your notification preferences set for EPM Announcements as well as each Category you're following.

• To set notification preferences for EPM Announcements, go to Categories, then Announcements, and then Enterprise Performance Management. Next, select the Notification preferences drop down.

• To set notification preferences for each Category, navigate to the Category page and select the Notification preferences drop down. You must go to each category page separately and select the Notification preferences drop down.

NOTE: The Settings and Actions menu contains a link to Cloud Customer Connect. To access this link, from the Home page, click the down arrow next to the user name (in the upper right-hand corner of the screen), and select Cloud Customer Connect.

TIP: Bookmark the Enterprise Performance Management Resource Center to quickly find useful information on all things EPM. As a community member, you have access to important product announcements, best practices, known issues, training highlights, and more.

Follow Us on Social Media

Follow EPM Cloud on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

These are great resources for the latest updates and information about EPM Cloud.

Business Benefit: These resources can help you optimize your EPM implementation and user experience by providing valuable information and user assistance.

Oracle Cloud Readiness App

Use the Readiness App available on the Oracle Cloud Application Update Readiness site to review information about features released for Oracle Cloud. The app provides an .xlsx file listing all features released for one or more Cloud product(s), module(s) and update(s) that you designate. The EPM Cloud Features tool will not be updated beginning in this update.

From the Readiness site, click the red Try Our Readiness App! button in the upper right, or use this URL to access the app:

https://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/tutorial/readiness/app/index.html

NOTE: To ensure a complete feature listing, select EPM Common in addition to the business process(es) you wish to view. To determine whether an EPM Common feature applies to your business process, review the Applies To information in the Short Description column of the .xlsx file.

NOTE: The Readiness App includes features from Oct 2021 and later. The EPM Cloud Features tool includes EPM features from March 2018 through June 2, 2023 only.

Business Benefit: The Readiness App is an interactive tool that allows you to view a comprehensive listing of all features that have been released for one or more product(s), module(s) and update(s) that you designate.

Features

Monthly Status History on EPM Cloud Environments Now Available on My Services in OCI

You can now view the monthly status history of Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud Environments in My Services application on OCI. The Status History page lets you monitor the historical availability of each service, by displaying the percentage of time a service is up and running. Monthly Metrics is published for the previous month. It will be available to Oracle's customers from April 2024 onwards only.

Business Benefit: You can view the monthly status history in My Services to help you determine the uptime percentage of your environment.

Key Resources

• Monitoring Environments Using Oracle Cloud Applications in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators

Randomization of Daily Maintenance Start Time

Starting with this update, the Daily Maintenance Start Time of Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud environments are updated by assigning a random minute at which the maintenance process starts. Before this update, the daily maintenance started at the top of the hour, for example at 2:00 p.m. UTC (14.00 on a 24 hour clock). This change modifies the start time by adding a value for minute (for example, 2:24 p.m. UTC (14.24 on a 24 hour clock). A Service Administrator can change the daily maintenance start time to a more desirable minute, if needed.

Business Benefit: This change ensures that the daily maintenance load on EPM Cloud infrastructure is distributed throughout the hour.

Key Resources

• Setting the Maintenance Start Time of the Environment in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators

Ability to Disable the Submit Application Snapshot Feature in Provide Feedback Utility

If your organization enforces a policy that restricts data access, which prevents Service Administrators from submitting application snapshot to Oracle, the Submit application snapshot check box in the Provide Feedback utility will be greyed out. A Service Administrator uses these REST APIs or EPM Automate commands to manage data access settings for the environment:

• Get Restricted Data Access and Set Restricted Data Access in REST API for Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• getRestrictedDataAccess and setRestrictedDataAccess in Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Business Benefit: This change in behavior enforces your organization's data sharing policy related to submitting snapshots while submitting feedback to Oracle.

Key Resources

• Submitting Feedback Using the Provide Feedback Utility in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators

REST APIs to Get and Set Restricted Data Access

Two new REST APIs allow you to get and set restricted data access.

• Get Restricted Data Access: Returns true if the environment is configured so that “Submit Application Snapshot” cannot be selected by a Service Administrator while submitting Provide Feedback; otherwise, returns false.

• Set Restricted Data Access: Enables/disables the selection of “Submit Application Snapshot” by the Service Administrator while submitting Provide Feedback.

Business Benefit: If you have sensitive data that you do not want Oracle to have access to, you can restrict data access so that Service Administrators cannot select "Submit Application Snapshot" during Provide Feedback.

Tips And Considerations

Benefit from the Implementation Best Practices for EPM Cloud REST APIs in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

Key Resources

• "Security REST APIs" in REST API for Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
  • Get Restricted Data Access
  • Set Restricted Data Access

Access Requirements

• Service Administrators

New setRestrictedDataAccess and getRestrictedDataAccess EPM Automate Commands

The setRestrictedDataAccess and getRestrictedDataAccess commands are available with this update. The setRestrictedDataAccess command configures EPM Cloud environments to prevent Service Administrators from consenting to submit an application snapshot to Oracle while using the Provide Feedback utility. The getRestrictedDataAccess command displays whether a Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud environment is configured to prevent Service Administrators from consenting to submit an application snapshot to Oracle.

Business Benefit: The setRestrictedDataAccess command helps you enforce your organization's data sharing policy while submitting feedback to Oracle. The getRestrictedDataAccessSetting command helps you check whether your EPM Cloud environments are configured to abide by your organization's data sharing policies related to the submission of snapshots to Oracle.

Key Resources

• Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
  • Installing EPM Automate
  • setRestrictedDataAccess
  • getRestrictedDataAccess

Reliability and Performance Improvement of EPM Automate Using Basic Authentication

Oracle has implemented significant optimizations in basic Authentication for EPM Automate to improve its reliability and performance.

Business Benefit: This update improves the reliability and performance for customers who use basic authentication to establish EPM Automate sessions.

Key Resources

• Installing EPM Automate in Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

New "Security REST APIs" Chapter in the REST API Guide

A new "Security REST APIs" chapter describes the REST APIs to manage security features in Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud. In addition to the REST APIs related to security that were originally in the Migration REST APIs chapter, this chapter also includes the two new REST APIs related to restricted data access added in this update.

Business Benefit: Having all the security REST APIs in one chapter separate from the migration REST APIs makes it easier to quickly identify all the REST APIs related to security.

Key Resources

• Security REST APIs in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Defined Landmark Regions in Page Areas

Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud now supports defined landmark regions that aid in jump-to navigation for assistive technology users and reduces the dependency on hidden anchors and keyboard shortcuts. This includes:

• EPM Global Header banner
  • Global Menu navigation
  • Settings and Actions complementary information

• Content Main
  • Announcements region
  • Clusters and Cards navigation

• Cards navigation

• Sub-tab navigation

Business Benefit: This feature aids in jump-to navigation within the business process for assistive technology users and reduces dependency on hidden anchors and keyboard shortcuts for moving about to these distinct page areas.

Key Resources

• Accessibility Features in Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Accessibility Guide

Improved Redwood Experience in Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud

All newly created or re-created Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud services, business processes, and applications now use Redwood Experience as the default theme.

The Redwood Experience offers a default Oracle theme and these two additional appearance options: Custom Light and Custom Dark. The appearance of all EPM Cloud environments that currently use the Redwood Experience will automatically be shifted to either the default Oracle theme or the Custom Dark theme based on currently deployed background appearance of these environments. 

Redwood Experience not only provides an attractive look and feel, but it also includes the following new features:

• Adhoc on Web
• Calc on the Fly
• Dashboard 2.0
• Dynamic tabs
• Forms 2.0
• Horizontal tabs at the bottom of the page
• IPM Insights

Oracle recommends that you switch to the Redwood Experience at the earliest.

In a later update planned for the second quarter of 2024, Oracle will automatically convert non-Redwood theme environments to the Redwood Experience.

Customers are encouraged to watch the Cloud Customer Connect session in April 2024: EPM – Redwood Experience Update. This session covers why users should be adopting the Redwood theme, customization available within the theme (such as company logo), and the future plans around non-Redwood themes for Cloud EPM.

Business Benefit: The Redwood Experience applies the Redwood theme to the current environment providing simplified and compact navigation across Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud. When you switch to Redwood Experience, you get the advantage of additional Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud capabilities that are enabled with it.

Key Resources

• Configuring EPM Cloud Appearance in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators

Updated EPM Books Extension for Smart View

An updated EPM Books extension for Oracle Smart View for Office is now available to download and install. This update includes general improvements and defect fixes.

Business Benefit: Downloading and installing the latest EPM Books extension for Smart View gives you access to the latest features, improvements, and defect fixes.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Working with Oracle Smart View for Office
  • Installing the EPM Books Extension
  • Books

Reliability and Performance Improvement of EPM Integration Agent Using Basic Authentication

Oracle has implemented significant optimizations in basic authentication for the EPM Integration Agent to improve its reliability and performance.

Business Benefit: This update improves the reliability and performance for customers who use the basic authentication method to establish a proxy authentication for EPM Integration Agent sessions.

Key Resources

• Configuring the EPM Integration Agent Startup Parameters in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

New Ignore Option for Auto-Commit in the EPM Integration Agent

When using a JDBC driver that does not support auto-commit behavior in the EPM Integration Agent, you can now set the ENABLE_AUTO_COMMIT flag to "I" to ignore the auto-commit setting in the agentparams.ini file.

Business Benefit: This new ignore option for the auto-commit setting addresses an error that may have occurred during agent processing in some versions of the JDBC Driver (for example, Databricks), which does not support auto-commit.

Key Resources

• Configuring the EPM Integration Agent Startup Parameters in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Allowing Non-Administrators to Execute Jobs in the Pipeline

Non-administrators can now execute an individual Pipeline job type using proxy administrator user credentials. Optionally, non-administrator users can also view Pipelines in read-only mode (cannot edit or create a pipeline) depending on the user group access granted to them in Location Security.

To create a proxy server user credential, an administrator with a service administrator role (can grant user roles), specifies a proxy admin username on the Create Pipeline page.  If the proxy user name is different than the service administrator's username, then the system prompts the user to enter a password.

If the user executing a job is a non-administrator and no proxy admin user credentials are specified, the system executes all jobs as non-administrator users. In this case, the Pipeline can only include jobs that do not require a service administrator to execute them, for example an integration job. If jobs require an service administrative to execute them and a non-administrator without a proxy administrator user credentials attempts to execute them, then the Pipeline process fails.

The new proxy administrator user credential options are shown below:

Image Shows The Create Pipeline Page.

Location Security is an additional framework in which service administrators can secure access to the Pipeline. When Location Security is enabled, Data Integration evaluates the user groups by location to which a user has been assigned and determines the following view access:

• When location security is enabled, non-administrators can view Pipeline jobs in ready-only mode and run individual jobs in the Pipeline based only on the users groups by location to which they have been assigned in Location Security. (The service administrator can create, edit, and run any job type in the Pipeline.)

• When location security is not enabled, non-administrators can view all Pipeline jobs in read-only mode and run any individual job in the Pipeline. (The service administrator can create, edit, and run any job type in the Pipeline.)

Business Benefit: You can now enable non-administrator to execute and monitor the Pipeline for which they have process ownership. The access to Pipeline can be restricted using Location Security consistent with better control access to appropriate non-administrative users.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Pipeline Process Description in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Allowing Non-Administrators to Execute Jobs in the Pipeline in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• System Settings in Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Defining Location Security in Administering Data Management for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
• Overview of Access Control in Administering Access Control for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

New essbaseBlockAnalysisReport EPM Automate Command

The new essbaseBlockAnalysisReport command creates the Essbase Block Analysis report that helps you analyze the Essbase data to support the tuning of Block Storage Option (BSO) cubes (generally, used for calculations) in your application. The report provides information on these three areas:

1. Percentage of blocks with only Zero:  Shows the blocks that contain only zeros as a percentage of all the blocks contained in the export file.

2. Top 10 Repeated Numerical Cell Values By Percentage of Numerical Cells:  Shows the top 10 repeated values as a percentage of all the values in the export file.

3. Top 100 Dense Member Combinations with Repeated Values:  Shows the top 100 dense combinations with repeated values in the cube. The Cell Value column shows a value for each member, in the order it appears in the hierarchy, as a different column. For example, if Period is across the column, there will be a different column for January, February, and so on. Other dense dimension(s) appear in the rows. This should help you identify the locations of the repeated values.

Business Benefit: The Essbase Block Analysis report is helpful to resolve performance issues resulting from patterns of data, for example, repeated numbers in Essbase BSO cubes.

Key Resources

• Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud:
  • Installing EPM Automate
  • essbaseBlockAnalysisReport

REST API to Generate an Essbase Block Analysis Report

You can now use a REST API to generate an Essbase Block Analysis report that helps you analyze Oracle Essbase data to support the tuning of Block Storage Option (BSO) cubes (generally, used for calculations) in your application. The report provides information in these areas:

• Percentage of blocks with only Zero: Shows the blocks that contain only zeros as a percentage of all the blocks contained in the export file.

• Top 10 Repeated Numerical Cell Values By Percentage of Numerical Cells: Shows the top 10 repeated values as a percentage of all the values in the export file.

• Top 100 Dense Member Combinations with Repeated Values: Shows the top 100 dense combinations with repeated values in the cube. The "Cell Value" column shows a value for each member, in the order it appears in the hierarchy, as a different column. For example, if Period is across the column, there will be a different column for January, February, and so on. Other dense dimension(s) appear in the rows. This should help you identify the locations of the repeated values.

Business Benefit: The Essbase Block Analysis report is helpful to resolve performance issues resulting from patterns of data; for example, repeated numbers in Essbase BSO cubes.

Tips And Considerations

Benefit from the Implementation Best Practices for EPM Cloud REST APIs in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

Key Resources

• Essbase Block Analysis Report in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Access Requirements

Service Administrators

Ability to Export Data to Microsoft Excel in Forms 2.0

You can now export data to Microsoft Excel in Forms 2.0. Previously you could only do this from Forms 1.0.

Business Benefit: This feature gives you more flexibility when you are working in Forms 2.0 and want to work with data in Excel.

Key Resources

• Working with Data in Forms in Working with Planning

Edit Forms from Dashboards Opens the Layout Tab of the Form

Previously when you edited a form from dashboards, it opened to the Properties tab by default. If you wanted to work on the form’s layout, you had to then click the Layout tab. Now when you edit a form, the form opens to the Layout tab so you can quickly update the form’s layout.

Business Benefit: This feature improves usability and ease of use when editing forms.

Key Resources

• Editing Forms in Administering Planning

Ability to Save a Dashboard as a New Dashboard While Editing It

When you are editing a dashboard in the dashboard designer, you can now save the dashboard as a new dashboard, including any unsaved changes. While editing, click Actions, then Save As, and then save the dashboard with the new name.

Business Benefit: This feature saves you time when creating new dashboards.

Key Resources

• Creating Dashboard 2.0 Dashboards in Administering Planning

The Jobs Page and the Jobs Filter Now Display Only One Day of Data

The Jobs page and the Jobs filter now default to display only the last day's data.

The Jobs page used to default to display three days of data under Recent Activity. Now the Jobs page defaults to display only the last day's data. Similarly, the filter’s Start Time and End Time dates default to yesterday and today to have only a one day difference.

To view the Jobs page:

1. Click Application, and then click Jobs.
2. View the jobs list under Recent Activity to see the last day's activity.
3. To change the default display, click the Filter icon.

Business Benefit: This feature enables a faster load time for the Jobs page, allowing you to more quickly view the status of your recent activity.

Key Resources

• Viewing the Status of Jobs in Administering Planning

Retain Comments, Attachments, and Job Status after a User is Removed

Previously, when a user was removed, the user’s comments, attachments, and job status records were also deleted. This meant that the user’s activity was lost. Now, the user activity records are retained for comments, attachments, and job status records, even after the user is removed. For example, these records continue to be displayed in:

• Comments and attachments on cells in forms
• Comments and attachments that are part of a maintenance snapshot
• The job status on the Jobs page
• Job status records that are imported and exported using EPM Automate or EPM REST APIs

Business benefit: User activity records are retained even after a user is removed for audit purposes and to keep history of the user actions.

Key Resources

• Viewing the Status of Jobs in Administering Planning

New Optimization Routines for Task Manager, Supplemental Data, and Enterprise Journal Jobs

Task Manager, Supplemental Data Manager, and Enterprise Journals jobs now include additional execution sequencing routines to prevent conflicting batch jobs from running at the same time, ensuring application integrity. While the run time of individual job are not affected, their start times may be delayed due to the optimization sequencing.

Task Manager, Supplemental Data Manager, and Enterprise Journal jobs have been further enhanced:

• View job details such as parameters, properties, and results on the Job Details dialog box.
• View job summary statistics on the side panel.
• Change in the job status from Delayed to Pending. Also, the status of all new jobs will be Pending.

Business Benefit: This feature helps prevent resource conflicts, ensuring predictable system performance for batch jobs. The additional enhancements for the non-consolidation jobs provides improved user experience.

Key Resources

• Managing Jobs in Administering Planning

The User Variables Dimension Column Honors the Alias Setting in User Preferences

The Dimension column on the User Variables page within User Preferences now honors the Alias Setting in User Preferences. So if an alias name is defined for a dimension, the Dimension column on the User Variables page shows that dimension’s alias based on the alias table selected in User Preferences. If no alias is defined for the dimension, the dimension name will be displayed.

Business Benefit: You can now see the more user-friendly dimension's alias if it is defined on the alias table selected in User Preferences.

Key Resources

• Setting the Display of Member Names or Aliases in Working with Planning
• Specifying a Default Alias Table and Setting Member and Alias Display Options in Administering Planning

Enhanced Simplified Dimension Editor

The Simplified dimension editor is enhanced with usability improvements in the Dimensions listing, the grid, and in the column selector.

The Simplified dimension editor enhancements include:

• Redesigned grid user interface uses Oracle JET technology

• New column selector user interface

• Properties are grouped within the column selector interface instead of displayed as a flat list

• Column selections that are added to the grid are saved for the next session

• Force fit columns option moved to the column selector

• Undo command removed (the Refresh command performs the same function)

• Drag-and-drop column reordering within the grid

• Filtered search within the grid

• Right-click context menus within the grid to perform Move, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Keep Selected, Remove Selected, and Delete actions (as applicable, depending on the dimension)

• Expansion states of the member hierarchy are saved for the next session

• Attribute dimensions are moved to the bottom of the Dimensions drop-down

• Position of new members (child or sibling) are added next to the selected member instead of adding them to the end

• Cube drop-down on the Dimensions page defaults to All

Business Benefit: This enhancement provides usability improvements when working with application dimensions and members in the simplified grid interface.

Key Resources

• Editing Dimensions in the Simplified Dimension Editor in Administering Planning

New Version of Oracle Smart View for Office

Oracle Smart View for Office version 24.100 is now available from My Oracle Support and Oracle Technical Resources (formerly Oracle Technology Network).

The following new features are included:

• Open Flex Forms as Flex Forms from Search Results
• Access Various Actions Faster with the New Quick Action Menu
• Support for Localized Artifact Labels in Smart View
• View Prompt Labels while Selecting Prompts in Reports
• Improved Behavior of User Preferences Dialog
• Support for Indentation of Column Headers with Totals
• View Distinct Page Member Names in Pages for Forms
• Verify Registration Status of DLLs in Health Check
• Microsoft Edge WebView2 Now Enabled by Default
• Retain Smart List on Clearing Cell Value Using the Delete Key
• Specify the Maximum Number of Cells Displayed in Data Validation Panel

Business Benefit: This Smart View release includes the latest features, improvements, and defect fixes.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Oracle Smart View for Office Readme
• Working with Oracle Smart View for Office

IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

One-Week Lag Between Readiness Documents Live and Help Center Live

Because Oracle readiness documents (What's New and New Feature Summary) are live one week before the monthly update is applied to Test environments, some links to documentation included in the readiness documents will not work until after the Oracle Help Center update is complete when the monthly update is applied to Test environments.

Fixed Issues in Forms 2.0 and Dashboard 2.0

Many of the gaps and issues that customers have raised for Forms 2.0 and Dashboard 2.0 through Cloud Customer Connect forums have been addressed in 24.04. We encourage you to use Forms 2.0 and Dashboard 2.0 to ensure that your use cases are being met.

The issues that were addressed are posted to a knowledge article on My Oracle Support. Click here to review. You must have a My Oracle Support login to access the article.

Allow access to static.oracle.com

Customers are reminded to allow access to static.oracle.com. For the Oracle Redwood Experience to work, Customers must allow access to static.oracle.com, which provides image files, JavaScript, and other static content.

See About Redwood Experience in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators.

Plan to Upgrade All Environments from Non-Hybrid Essbase Version to Hybrid Essbase Version

Within the next 2 months, Oracle is planning to upgrade all environments on a non-hybrid Essbase version to a hybrid Essbase version. This change affects the Essbase version used in Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud; it does not affect the cube configuration in your application. For example, if the application is configured to use non-hybrid cubes, this update will not change it to use hybrid cubes. For detailed information on the use of Essbase in Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud, see About Essbase in EPM Cloud in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators.

To ensure that your application is compatible with hybrid Essbase version, we've implemented a new utility which verifies your member formulas and provides a report so you can fix any issues. The Essbase Outline Validation menu option is in the Application Overview Actions menu. Select the Pre validate Outline option to perform a validation of your application, and then select Outline Pre-validation Report to view a list of member formulas that need to be fixed to be compatible with hybrid Essbase version. After you have fixed the member formulas, you can use the Pre validate Outline option again to make sure that all issues are resolved.

To verify member formulas:

1. From the Home page, click Application, and then click Overview.
2. Click Actions, select Essbase Outline Validation, then select Pre validate Outline.
3. To view the validation report, select Outline Pre-validation Report.

If your environment is on a non-hybrid Essbase version, make sure to use the Essbase Outline Validation option to resolve all issues within next 2 months to avoid any issues after your environment is upgraded to hybrid Essbase version. If your environment is already on hybrid Essbase version, you don’t need to take any action.

To check whether your environment is on a hybrid or non-hybrid Essbase version, look at the value of Essbase Version supports Hybrid Block Storage Option in the Activity Report. If the value is Yes, it means that your environment is on hybrid Essbase version. If the value is No, it means that your environment is on a non-hybrid Essbase version.

For more information about this option:

• In Administering Planning, see Validating the Essbase Outline.
• In Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrator, see About Essbase in EPM Cloud

Plan to Remove Users Administration and Groups Administration from Audit Reports

Currently, you can get information on Users Administration and Groups Administration from the Audits Reports available in the Identity Console. You can also get this information using EPM Automate and EPM Cloud REST APIs. In an upcoming monthly release, information on Users Administration and Groups Administration will no longer be included in audit reports.

In the Enable Audit dialog box, the Users Administration and Groups Administration options will remain available for some time to allow customers who already have these records to view any existing user and group provisioning records. However, after this change, no new records will be displayed in the Audits Report.

• Working with EPM Automate for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud:
  • roleAssignmentAuditReport
  • groupAssignmentAuditReport

• REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud:
  • Role Assignment Report
  • Role Assignment Audit Report for OCI Gen 2
  • Group Assignment Audit Report

Additional Execution Sequencing Routines for Task Manager Jobs

In a future update, Task Manager Jobs will include additional execution sequencing routines to insure application and data integrity. When potential conflicting jobs are executed simultaneously, the service will sequence the jobs to ensure application integrity. While the individual job’s execution times will not be impacted, the job’s start time may be delayed due to the optimization sequencing.

Change in the Default Format When Exporting to Microsoft Excel

In a future update, the default format for exporting table data to Microsoft Excel from Task Manager, Supplemental Data Manager, and Enterprise Journals will be changed to .XLSX instead of .XLS.

Plan to Discontinue Support for Infolets

Oracle plans to stop supporting the creation of infolets later this year. Applications using the Redwood Experience will no longer see the option to create infolets on the listing pages. In applications using non-Redwood themes, the Create button on the Infolets page will be disabled. There will be no future enhancements or support for infolets.

Future Deprecation of Native Mode Option for Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior Application Setting

Native Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior mode is currently still available for EPM Cloud.

Standard is the ad hoc mode upon which all enhancements in the EPM Cloud are being delivered.

Oracle plans to stop supporting Native mode by the end of year 2024. Customers on Native mode are advised to convert the Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior application setting for their environments to Standard mode and test their use cases. Any gaps found should to be logged as an enhancement to Standard mode. Enhancements should be logged on the Customer Connect EPM Platform Idea Lab by end of April 2024 for Oracle to review.

Perform the following steps to begin working with Standard mode in your test environment:

1. In Application Settings, change Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior to Standard.
2. Open worksheets from Smart View and reconnect.
3. Refresh the sheets.

NOTES:

• The expectation for existing Native-mode worksheets is that they will work “as is” when the setting is changed to Standard. New ad hoc sheets will only be created in Standard mode using Standard features.

• Smart Forms are not supported in Standard mode and there is no plan to support them in Standard mode.

Transition from Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) to Identity and Access Management (IAM)

EPM Cloud environments on OCI (Gen 2) are transitioning from Identity Cloud Service (IDCS) to Identity and Access Management (IAM) domains. For information on IAM, see Overview of Identity and Access Management.

After this transition, existing IDCS administration and My Profile functionalities remain the same, but are hosted on Oracle Cloud Console. The Oracle Cloud sign-in page has an updated design to match the latest Oracle Cloud design guidelines. To learn more on what to expect with this transition, see Introducing OCI IAM Identity Domains: What customers need to know.

Removal of Enhanced Integration API and Drill Type UI Options in Data Management System Settings

As of the June (23.06) update, the Enhanced Integration API and Drill Type UI options have been removed from the list of options in the System Settings option of Data Management.

Formerly, the Enhanced Integration API setting was added temporarily to address backward compatibility considerations.

The Drill Type UI setting formerly enabled users to select either the Classic or Simplified user interface when drilling down in Oracle Enterprise Performance Management. The default drill type user interface is now the Simplified User Interface and the Classic option for the user interface of Drill Landing Page is no longer available.

Announcement: Data Management Feature Migration to Data Integration

The user interface pages listed in the table below are no longer available in Data Management, but are available in Data Integration. Data Integration is available from the Data Exchange card from the home screen, and users can access these features in the current Cloud update. Data Management is not going away – we are only moving a few features now that have 100% parity with Data Integration. REST APIs are not impacted by this change.

Data Integration is the next generation of the Data Management user interface, enabling users to easily build and manage integrations. As feature parity between Data Integration and Data Management becomes complete, Data Management features will be turned off, and users will use the new Data Integration user interface instead.

This transition is gradual; future What's New documents will include information about the first set of planned changes as well as updates about additional changes planned for the future.

All Data Integration features discussed in this document are currently generally available.

Integration definitions built with Data Management are also visible in Data Integration, which enables an easy transition. (Data Integration is a new user interface on the Data Management data model and does not require migration of content from Data Management to Data Integration).

Please note that additional new integration features will only be included in Data Integration, and will not be back-ported to Data Management. Critical bug fixes and security fixes will still be made to Data Management until all features are fully migrated. In addition, all features from Data Management will be migrated to Data Integration with the exception of the following:

• The batch feature will be replaced by the new Pipeline feature. The Pipeline feature was available in the June (23.06) update.

• The Report Definition feature will not be migrated, only the Report Execution feature.

• The ability to create new Custom Applications in Data Management will no be longer available, and customers should use the “Data Export to File” application type instead. (Existing integrations using a custom application will not be impacted.) See Custom Application in Data Management under EPM Cloud Platform in the Important Actions and Considerations section of this document.

For reference, please see the Data Integration guide available from the documentation library. Select the desired business process, then Books, and then scroll down to the Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud documentation link.

See Administering Data Integration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for more information.

Removal of Support for Custom Application in Data Management

Since the September (23.09) update, custom target applications can no longer be added in Data Management. (Existing integrations that use a custom target application will not be impacted, and will still run without any changes.) This type of application was used to extract data from EPM Cloud, and then the data was pushed into a flat file instead of being loaded to an EPM Cloud application. The custom application was superseded by the Data Export to File feature in an earlier update. The Data Export to File feature has enhanced functions and capabilities.

If you still have a custom target application, it is recommended that you use the Upgrade Custom Applications option to migrate your existing custom target application to a Data Export to File application. For more information, see Upgrade Custom Applications at: https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/enterprise-performance-management-common/erpia/upgrade_custom_applications_100x438d5119.html.

The migration converts existing file formats from the custom target application to the file formats used in the Data Export to File option and retains all the existing setup. When the custom target application has been converted, you can run the same integration as before. Data Export to File applications are available both in Data Management and Data Integration.

Calculation Manager Errors and Considerations Enforcement

In a future update, Calculation Manager will enforce the execution of the Errors & Considerations diagnostic tool for any rule being launched, validated, or deployed. This enhancement is scheduled to coincide with the enhancement to the Rules listing page. Administrators will see the Rule Status indicating if there are Errors and/or Considerations in the listing page in addition to the Errors & Considerations tab in Calculation Manager.

Rules will continue to deploy and execute even with Errors or Considerations. In all cases, existing rules that are already deployed will continue to run as-is without any change in behavior. However, Oracle Support will require all Errors to be cleared before reviewing any issues submitted for such rules. Any remaining Considerations will require justification for why they are not cleared before Oracle Support will review any such rules.

Change in Behavior for Grids Created from Groovy and REST APIs for ASO Cubes

In a future update, the suppression behavior for grids created via Groovy DataGridDefinitionBuilder and the exportdataslice REST API for ASO cubes will be made consistent with that of the run time data grids created using the Form Designer. Previously, if a grid was built for an ASO cube in Groovy or REST API, then the system used the NON EMPTY MDX clause to suppress missing rows when the suppressMissingBlocks flag was true. Now, when a grid is built for an ASO cube, it will use the NON EMPTY MDX clause when suppressMissingRows is true, and suppressMissingBlocks will be ignored. This means that ASO grids with suppressMissingRows true and suppressMissingBlocks false will now start using MDX. Likewise, ASO grids with suppressMissingRows false and suppressMissingBlocks true will no longer use MDX. Grids where the suppressMissingRows and suppressMissingBlocks flags had the same value will not be impacted. These changes may result in a change in behavior or performance for some ASO grids. If this happens and is undesirable, consider toggling the value of suppressMissingRows from the builder or the JSON payload in case of the REST API.

Report Import/Export to Excel: Font Installation Requirements for Text Boxes in Excel

Due to performance and rendering quality enhancements to Report text boxes when exported to Excel, Report text boxes may appear distorted or with overlapping text while importing or exporting to Excel when the fonts used within the text boxes are not installed on the client machine. To fix this, install the missing fonts used within the text boxes on the client machine.

Oracle Financial Reporting Statement of Direction

Please refer to the Statement of Direction for Oracle Financial Reporting:

Oracle Support Document 2910806.1 (EPM Cloud Financial Reporting Statement of Direction)

Please note that the Oracle Financial Reporting tentative deprecation dates have been moved to mid-to-late CY24.

For more information:

• See Appendix B in the Designing with Reports Guide: Migrating Reports from Financial Reporting.

• On June 8, the most recent Oracle Cloud Customer Connect event, Migrating Your Financial Reporting to Reports, was presented. There is a presentation, an event recording, and an FAQ sheet accessible. In order to view the event recording and documentation, you must log in to Cloud Customer Connect.

An Updated User Interface is Coming Soon for Editing Text Boxes and Notes in Reports

Starting in the May (24.05) update, the editor user interfaces for Text Boxes and Notes will be updated. While the functionality remains the same, the Toolbar buttons, color picker, and shortcut key information have a new look and feel.

New Text Box Editor

New Note Text Box Editor