This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:
| Date | Feature | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 27 FEB 2020 | Created initial document. |
This document outlines the upcoming Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud update.
Column Definitions:
Features Delivered Enabled
Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.
UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.
UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.
Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.
| Ready for Use by End Users Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features. |
Action is Needed BEFORE Use by End Users Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing. |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature |
Report |
UI or |
UI or |
|
||
Enhanced Data Validation During Data Load in Data Management |
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Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud
Oracle will apply the latest monthly updates to your Test environments during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 23:00 UTC (15:00 PST) on Friday, March 6, 2020. Oracle will apply the latest monthly updates to your Production environments during the first daily maintenance that occurs at or after 22:00 UTC (15:00 PDT) on Friday, March 20, 2020.
The Oracle Help Center provides access to updated documentation. The updates will be available in the Help Center on Friday, March 6, 2020. 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.
NOTE: Backing up the daily maintenance snapshot and restoring the environment as needed are self-service operations. Oracle recommends that you download the maintenance snapshot every day to a local server.
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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Defects Fixed and Considerations
Software issues addressed each month and considerations will be posted to My Oracle Support.
Enhanced Data Validation During Data Load in Data Management
If data cells are rejected when you load data using Data Management, the reasons for rejection are presented in a data validation report. The Validation Error report is available for download from the Process Details page by clicking the Output link. In addition, a copy of the error file is stored in the Outbox.
Key Resources
- Defining Application Options for Planning in Administering Data Management for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
New Calculation Manager Planning Expressions
In Calculation Manager, two new functions, getSubVarValue (plan type name, substitution variable name) and getSubVarValue (substitution variable name), allow you to use substitution variables in Planning Formula Expressions.
- getSubVarValue(plan type name, substitution variable name) returns the substitution variable value for a given substitution variable at the plan type defined by the plan type name
- getSubVarValue(substitution variable name) returns the substitution variable value for a given substitution variable at the application level for all plan types
Key Resources
- Scenarios in Designing with Calculation Manager for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
Restart REST API Enhancements for Auto Tune
The Restart Service REST API has been enhanced to accept an optional AutoTune parameter. This benefits you by auto-tuning the environment before restarting it to ensure that Essbase caches are optimized for your application.
Key Resources
- Restart the Service Instance in REST API for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
Role Information
- Service Administrators
Validate Data When Loading Data as Service Administrator
In this update, you have the option to enable data validation when Service Administrators load data. All data validations enforced in data entry form will be enforced while loading data. Due to the enhanced validations the performance of data load will be slower. In prior releases data validations were enforced only for users who were not Service Administrators.
Key Resources
- Defining Application Options for Planning in Administering Data Management for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
Role Information
- Service Administrators
NEW STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING CLOUD INTERFACE
In the April 2020 update, there will be an enhanced interface with improved navigation and new themes including the default Sky Blue.
The enhanced interface retains existing functionality and enhances your experience with a more modern look and feel and responsive design. The Welcome Panel and the Global Header readjust after resizing, which means less scrolling. An updated Welcome Panel features Announcements and Notifications. Arrows are available on the Home Page to help you navigate easily between the Springboard and infolet dashboard pages. A bigger Navigator Menu has improved usability, more themes for customization are included, and a bigger work area has more space to maneuver and provide better visibility. The interface is also more consistent with other Oracle products, such as Fusion Applications.
After the interface is released, all new customers will use the new lighter-colored Sky Blue theme, and existing customers will keep their current theme. You can switch themes using Tools, and then Appearance.
Watch this Cloud Customer Connect Webcast replay session to hear more highlights of important upcoming enhancements to Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud, including an updated user experience and other platform updates that are coming soon.
NOTE: If you are using third-party automation software to run regression tests on EPM Cloud, you may need to reassess, reconfigure, and retest your software’s test flows when this new interface is introduced.
REMOVAL OF INSTANCE NAME FROM PREDEFINED ROLE NAMES
Currently, the predefined role names displayed in the Access Control screens of Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud environments prefix the instance name to the role name in INSTANCE_NAME ROLE_NAME format. They are also stored in this format in the snapshots, making it difficult to migrate snapshots from one instance to another.
To facilitate the migration of security across Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud environments, Oracle plans to rename predefined role names displayed within Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud applications by removing the instance name prefix. For example, if the instance name is Planning1, predefined role names are Planning1 Service Administrator, Planning1 Power User, Planning1 User, and Planning1 Viewer, the new role names will be Service Administrator, Power User, User, and Viewer.
NOTE: This change does not affect how the role names are displayed in the MyServices customer portal.
This change won't impact customers who currently use predefined roles for managing application-level provisioning and access to artifacts. Oracle will ensure that all application role assignments and artifact security assignments are automatically updated after the roles are renamed. This change makes it easy to migrate Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud artifacts across environments.
This change is being implemented to address customer feedback. If you have any concerns about this change, please contact Oracle Support.
PLANNER ROLE TO BE RENAMED AS USER
In an upcoming update, Oracle will rename the Planner Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud predefined role as User. This change will have no functional effect.
Subscriptions that were provisioned prior to the May 2016 update used the Planner role, which has been maintained in subsequent updates to provide continuity. In subscriptions that were activated after May 2016, the Planner role was already replaced by the User role.
PREDEFINED ROLE NAMES AS STRATEGIC WORKFORCE PLANNING CLOUD KEY WORDS
Starting with an update in the near future, Oracle plans to treat the following predefined role names as Strategic Workforce Planning Cloud key words, which should not be used in the name of any custom artifacts that you create; for example, as a group name in Access Control.
- Service Administrator
- Power User
- User
- Viewer
- Planner
- System Administrator
- Application Administrator
- Library Administrator
- Reports Administrator
If you have any groups or artifacts named using these keywords, Oracle requests that you rename or delete them; else Oracle will rename them to ensure that there is no impact because of this change. For example, a group named Power User will be renamed as Power User1 without affecting the current role assignments. If you do not want Oracle to automatically rename such groups, you must rename them.
This change is being implemented to address customer feedback. If you have any concerns about this change, please contact Oracle Support.
Key Resources
- Modifying Groups in Administering Access Control for Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud
UPDATE TO THE EXCEPTION RESPONSE IN REST APIS
Oracle will remove the internal package and class names from the following fields in the exception response in REST APIs in an upcoming update in early 2020:
- message
- localizedMessage
EPM MOBILE APP STATEMENT OF DIRECTION
EPM Mobile App is a downloadable application for the phone that is purpose built to perform approval actions for iOS and Android based phone devices. It was purpose built to help users perform Approval and Workflow activities. It is currently only supported for Oracle EPM Cloud for the Planning business process.
The terminal release of EPM Mobile App is September 2020. EPM Mobile App will not be available for download in the Apple and iOS App Stores effective October 2020. Oracle’s strategic direction is to have customers use the Approval and workflow capabilities using the mobile browser interface on mobile devices.
Oracle will continue to support Oracle EPM Mobile App in its current supported versions until September 2020. Oracle recommends that users using Oracle EPM Mobile App prepare to instead use the approval functionality using supported mobile browser in tablet devices.
CHANGE IN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR OUTGOING EMAILS
Starting with a future update, emails originating from EPM Cloud applications will use no.reply@oraclecloud.com instead of oraclecloudadmin_ww@oracle.com as the from address.
Emails from other Oracle Cloud sources, for example, New Account email sent from the Identity Domain, will continue to use the current From email addressses, for example, oraclecloudadmin_ww@oracle.com.