July 2021 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:

Date	Product	Feature	Notes
25 JUN 2021			Created initial document.

Overview

This document outlines the upcoming Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud update.

Feature Summary

Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud

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, July 2, 2021.

Production Environments: Oracle will apply this monthly update during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, July 16, 2021.

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, July 2, 2021.

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.

Fixed Issues and Considerations

Software issues addressed each month and considerations will be posted to My Oracle Support.

This provides visibility into EPM Cloud release contents.

Please Join Oracle Cloud Customer Connect

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

https://cloud.oracle.com/community

NOTE: The Settings and Actions menu now 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.

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.

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

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

Features

New Topics in EPM Cloud Operations Guide

The EPM Cloud Operations Guide has been enhanced with additional troubleshooting sections for Financial Reporting Reports.

Newly added sections include:

• Diagnosing Errors In Financial Reporting Reports
• Diagnosing Performance Issues After Deploying Configurable Calculation (Insertion Point) Rules
• Maintaining an Optimized Calculation System

Business Benefit: These new topics help customers to fix issues and optimize performance.

Documentation of Differences Between Classic and OCI (Gen 2) EPM Cloud

The Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators Guide has been enhanced with a section that lists the major differences between Classic and OCI (Gen 2) EPM Cloud infrastructures.

Business Benefit: This topic helps customers understand the differences in the operation of Classic and OCI (Gen 2) EPM Cloud environments.

Key Resources

• Differences Between Classic and OCI EPM Cloud Environments in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators

Documentation of Mapping of Application Roles to Predefined Roles

The Administering Access Control for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud guide has been enhanced with a section that maps the application roles of Planning to predefined roles.

Business Benefit: This topic helps customers understand the application roles that are assigned through predefined roles.

Key Resources

• Predefined Role Mapping for Planning, Planning Modules, Financial Consolidation and Close, And Tax Reporting in Administering Access Control for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Updates to the Clone Environment Feature

This update removes the constraint that the cloning source and target environments must be on the same Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud monthly update.

Business Benefit: This change makes the Clone Environment feature abide by the migration guidelines established for snapshot migration in Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud.

Key Resources

• Cloning EPM Cloud Environments in Administering Migration for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

EPM Automate Updates

A new version of EPM Automate is now available. The exportAppAudit command has been modified.

exportAppAudit command

Starting with this update, the exportAppAudit command for Strategic Workforce Planning has been modified to export audit data for the last 365 days when you use the nDays=all parameter value.

Business Benefit: The new commands facilitate the remote administration of Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud environments.

Key Resources

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

New Version of Oracle Smart View for Office

Oracle Smart View for Office version 21.100 is now available.

The following new features are included:

• Flex Form Enhancements
  • Member Selection Support on Flex Forms
  • Preserve POV or User Variable Changes on Refresh

• New VBA Functions: HypSetUserVariable, HypListUserVariables, HypOpenFlexForm

• New Smart View Function, HsGetSharedConnectionURL

• URL Connection Support in Smart View Functions

• New Options for Filtering Business Rules

• Improved Duplicate Alias Handling in Row Drop-down Member Selector

• New Default Behavior for Opening Saved Ad Hoc Grids

• Microsoft Office WebView2 Support

Business Benefit: This version includes new features and fixed defects.

Steps to Enable

Download and install Smart View. See Downloading and Installing Clients in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud.

Enhanced Ad Hoc Operations Available in Standard Mode Applications

When connected to Standard mode applications, several ad hoc operations are now available in Oracle Smart View for Office.

In a Standard mode application, the Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior option is set to Standard. Service Administrators set this option in the Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud application.

NOTE: This feature works only with Oracle Smart View for Office Release 21.100.

Once connected to a Standard mode application, Smart View users can access these ad hoc features:

• Additional Zoom In Options 
• Multiple-cell Select for Ad Hoc Operations 

Additional Zoom In Options

These additional commands are available from the drop-down menu on the Zoom In button in the provider ad hoc ribbon:

• Sibling Level—Select to retrieve data for the siblings of the selected member or members. For example, in the Vision sample database, a zoom in operation on Jan retrieves Jan, Feb, and Mar.

• Same Level—Select to retrieve data for all members at the same level as the selected member or members. For example, in the Vision sample database, a zoom in on Q1 retrieves Q2, Q3, and Q4.

• Same Generation—Select to retrieve data for all members of the same generation as the selected member or members. For example, in the Vision sample database, a zoom in on Q1 retrieves Q2, Q3, and Q4.

Zoom In on Formula is not yet supported.

Multiple-cell Select for Ad Hoc Operations

You can now select multiple row or column member cells and then perform any of the following actions:

• Zoom In, including any of the zoom options, such as Bottom Level or Same Generation.

• Zoom Out. Zooming out collapses the view according to the Zoom In Level option specified in in the Member Options tab of the Options dialog. See Setting the Default Zoom Level.

• Keep Only and Remove Only. Note that the integrity and validity of the grid must be maintained. If your selections cause an issue with the grid, Smart View display a warning message informing you of the issue, and no change is made to the grid.

Business Benefit: The enhanced ad hoc options in Smart View give users greater flexibility when interacting with their source data in an Excel worksheet.

Key Resources

• In the “Ad Hoc Analysis” chapter in Working with Oracle Smart View for Office:
  • Zooming In and Out
  • Removing Selected Members From the Grid

• What Application and System Settings Can I Specify? in Administering Planning.

Member Selection Support on Flex Forms in Smart View

You can now select row members to add to a flex form using the Member Selection dialog box, available from the provider ribbon; for example, from the Strategic Workforce Planning ribbon.

NOTE: This feature works only with Oracle Smart View for Office Release 21.100.

The new Member Selection option is available only on flex forms, not on simple forms. In flex forms, you can use the Member Selection dialog to add row members to form, similar to adding members to an ad hoc grid members to an ad hoc grid.

The members you can add depend on the underlying form definition for the row dimensions:

• If the Dimension Properties setting, Allow flexible dimension, is selected, users may select members outside those specified in the form definition. For example, suppose a form includes only the Computer Accessories members from the Product dimension. If Allow flexible dimension is selected for the Product dimension, then users may add other members from Product, such as Notebooks or Tablets, to the flex form. These members will be retained upon refresh.

• If specific members are excluded from a dimension in a flex form, then, even though you may be able to select and add them in the Member Selection dialog, they will be removed upon refresh.

Member Selection uses the default alias table for the cube; members are inserted as members. The new Member Selection option is available in the Analysis group on the provider ribbon.

Note that:

• You cannot add column members. You can only add row members.
• You can still add row members by entering member names directly on a flex form.

Business Benefit: Users no longer have to hand-type member names on a flex form, but instead can easily select members using the Member Selection dialog.

Key Resources

• Selecting Members from the Member Selector in Working with Oracle Smart View for Office
• Designing Flex Forms in Administering Planning

Preserve POV or User Variable Changes on Refresh in Smart View Flex Forms

A new member option in Oracle Smart View for Office allows you to retain modified members on a flex form after changing the POV or any user variables and then refreshing. In previous releases, a change to the POV or any user variable removed any modified members on the flex form upon refresh.

After selecting the Flex Forms: Preserve Grid on POV and User Variable Changes option, add or delete members to the flex form grid, and click Refresh. Then, change a POV member and click Refresh; or change a user variable and the flex form refreshes automatically. Your modified members are retained. You can now enter and submit data against the modified POV and user variables in any of the members in the flex form, including any newly-added members. Optionally, change the POV or any user variable again and refresh, and then continue entering data against the updated POV and user variables.

NOTE: This feature works only with Oracle Smart View for Office Release 21.100.

Business Benefit: The new member option in Smart View, Flex Forms: Preserve Grid on POV and User Variable Changes, allows you to retain modified members on a flex form after changing the POV or any user variables and then refreshing.

Steps to Enable

To retain modified members on a flex form after a POV or user variable change, you must enable the new Flex Forms: Preserve Grid on POV and User Variable Changes option.

1. In the Smart View ribbon, click Options.
2. On the Member Options tab, select the new option Flex Forms: Preserve Grid on POV and User Variable Changes.

If this option is not selected, any added rows in the flex form will be removed upon a POV or user variable change.

Key Resources

• Working with Oracle Smart View for Office:
  • Flex Forms
  • Member Options

• Designing Flex Forms in Administering Planning

REST API to Generate a Role Assignment Audit Report for OCI (Gen 2) Environments

Users with a Service Administrator role can now use a REST API to generate a Role Assignment Audit Report of users with their pre-defined roles on OCI (Gen 2) Environments. This report shows all the changes made to the predefined role assignments within the provided time frame. This report can be generated for the previous 90 days from the current date. You can download the report using the Download REST API.

Business Benefit: This feature allows you to automate reporting on users role assignments.

Key Resources

• Managing Users in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Role Information

• Service Administrators

REST API to Generate an Invalid Login Report for OCI (Gen 2) Environments

Users who have both a Service Administrator role and an Identity Domain Administrator role can now use a REST API to generate an Invalid Login Report on OCI (Gen 2) environments. This report shows unsuccessful login attempts for users within the provided time frame. This report can be generated for the previous 90 days from the current date. You can download the report using the Download REST API.

Business Benefit: This feature allows you to automate reporting on unsuccessful login attempts.

Key Resources

• Managing Users in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud

Role Information

• Service Administrators

IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

Restrictions to Copy Version Functionality

Based on feedback from several customers due to its inherent data corruption risks, we plan to restrict the ‘Copy Version’ functionality in Strategic Workforce Planning to be exposed only to administrators. Starting in September 2021, ‘Copy Version’ functionality will not be available to Power Users and Users.

Redwood Experience as Default Theme

Within the next few months, the Redwood experience will be the default theme upon creation or recreation of a Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud service, or upon creation or recreation of a business process/application for all instances (existing as well as new). Existing active services/business processes/applications will not be impacted. All migrations (i.e., LCM import/reimports of existing cloud applications) will honor the theme from the source/import file. You will be able to switch to an alternate non-Redwood experience theme from the Appearance page in the Tools cluster.

Support for Composite Forms in Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud

As of the May update (21.05), Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud no longer officially supports composite forms. As has been announced for several months, customers are required to use Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud dashboards instead. Customers can continue to use their composite forms without support.

Loaner Program for Cloud Infrastructure Generation 2 Testing

Oracle Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud is now live on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Gen 2 environments. If you are interested in testing your application performance on an OCI Gen 2 environment, open a service request following the process at https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/enterprise-performance-management-common/tsepm/op_procs_loaner_envs.html and request for a loaner environment in an OCI Gen 2 data center for a duration of 30 days with the business justification as “Want to test application performance in an OCI Gen 2 data center”.

After you have performed the testing, submit Provide Feedback from the loaner environment. Create a service request using the normal support process, if you have any issues or feedback for the OCI Gen 2 environment.

For more information, see What is a Gen 2 Cloud?

Upcoming Change to Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior Setting

Starting with the August update (21.08), all new applications and all recreated applications will use Standard as the Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior option.

For existing applications and migrated applications, Native will remain as the default Smart View Ad Hoc Behavior option, with Standard being an option. Existing and migrated applications will not experience any change in behavior. Currently selected ad hoc behavior will be persisted.

Please note that Native mode in Smart View ad hoc behavior will eventually be phased out (timeline is yet to be determined). We recommend that all customers plan on switching their applications to Standard mode ad hoc behavior soon.

Skills Assessment FTE Data Load Change in Behavior

In an upcoming release, Oracle will be enhancing the Skills Assessment functionality, which currently requires the FTE data to be manually loaded to the Workforce Reporting (OEP_REP) cube. As part of this proposed change, customers will no longer need to load FTE data separately into the Workforce Reporting cube. The Headcount Data for Reporting data map will be renamed and enhanced to include moving the FTE base data already required to be loaded into the application. After this change is implemented and the update is applied, existing customers should execute the renamed Headcount and FTE Data for Reporting data map to ensure the FTE data required for Skills Assessment calculations is in the correct intersection in the Workforce Reporting cube.  Customers who have modified the existing Headcount Data for Reporting data map should consider including FTE in the their modified version to ensure the FTE data is mapped to the new, expected intersection as part of this proposed enhancement.