At long last, E-Business Suite 12.2.11 has been released, along with a new update for Enterprise Command Center functionality. For this article, we’ve taken a look at the Release Notes and will summarize the key enhancements and new features that have been announced. We encourage all customers to pay attention to Oracle’s Error Correction Policy for EBS, which can be found here, to understand where you need to be with your patching. While most of the updates in 12.2.11 are fairly straightforward, you’ll have the read to the end to see the biggest change of all and how it will impact your roadmap.
Key Functional Enhancements
Order Management
Usage-based billing and milestone billing are two key enhancements that allow customers to improve both project-based and subscription billing. This extends to Lease and Finance Management, in which you can now use multi-factor metrics for billing.
Inventory & Warehouse Management
The Warehouse Management Rules Engine now gives you the ability to guide put away and pick operations by using a classification code. This is a significant feature that will allow customers to be more efficient in their processes.
Process Manufacturing
Specific to manufacturers using recipes such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, etc., a new Distributed Sampling feature allows you to define subsets of quality specifications and distribute samples across sites, while retaining the ability to aggregate them to determine quality specifications.
Enterprise Asset Management
Extended functionality released in 12.2.10, managers can now match unassigned work orders to qualified technicians.
OTL/Discrete Manufacturing
OTL now supports time entry against work order operations, which is helpful in organizations in which resources perform both manufacturing and maintenance tasks.
UX
Oracle has released a new theme that matches with Oracle Cloud Applications. This will provide a level of consistency for those customers who are deployed in a co-existence model with both EBS and Cloud Apps.
APIs and Integrations
Oracle has expanded API support for a number of functions, including Inventory, Product Hub, Discrete and Process Manufacturing, and Warehouse Management.
Most important, EBS now supports outbound REST integrations, allowing customers to invoke REST calls with Business Events.
Enterprise Command Centers
The November 2021 ECC release includes new Command Centers for Payroll and Project Manufacturing as well as a slew of new dashboards for existing ECCs in Discrete Manufacturing, Quality, Project Billing, Service Charges, and Assets. Moreover, Oracle made several enhancements to the ECC Framework, including export to PDF, new chart types, in-Dashboard pop ups, and APEX integration. These enhancements make existing dashboards more usable and reduce the number of clicks required to accomplish common tasks.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
While Syntax has our own automation tools and processes for migrating customers to, and managing customers on, OCI, we wanted to point out several new features for EBS Cloud Manager, including:
- Support for Flex shapes
- Support for WebLogic subscription licensing models
For those of you who weren’t aware of the WebLogic subscription licensing model, it’s a great way (and the only way) to attain true scalability in the cloud. There are some caveats in terms of how you can deploy this model, so reach out to us if you have questions.
Technology Changes and Enhancements
We’ve saved the best for last. We all know that Oracle’s intention is to get customers to eventually migrate to Oracle Autonomous Database. E-Business Suite is not compatible with Autonomous, and EBS Development has been hard at work to make architectural changes that will allow that to happen.
12.2.11, and AD-TXK Delta 13 specifically, introduces a new EBS_SYSTEM schema that essentially replaces the current practice of deploying objects in the SYS and SYSTEM database schemas and effectively decouples EBS from the core database. Customers will be required to migrate any objects that currently reside in those schemas to the EBS_SYSTEM schema, the APPS schema, or the APPS_NE schema, depending on the object type.
What are the ramifications of doing this? EBS administration actions (such as running adop, adadmin and other utilities) will ask for the EBS_SYSTEM password instead of the SYSTEM password. Anything previously run by the SYS or SYSTEM accounts will now be run by EBS_SYSTEM.
After migrating, access to the Oracle database SYS and SYSTEM accounts and Oracle database server operating system is no longer required for Oracle E-Business Suite administrative functions. What does this mean? Well, it could mean that Amazon RDS could become a viable option for EBS.
Finally, updating grants becomes a two-step process. An Oracle DBA executes the first step, which is connecting as SYS to grant privileges to the EBS_SYSTEM account by running adgrants.sql. An Oracle Apps DBA executes the second step using the EBS_SYSTEM account and runs apps_adgrants.sh to grant required privileges to the APPS account. MOS Document 2758993.1, Managing Database Privileges in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.2 (Running adgrants.sql), provides further information.
Why does this matter? The big issue with E-Business Suite technology is that database certifications take a long time. Moving to this new model will cut that time down significantly, allowing customers to adopt new features faster.
Summary
The big news of this release is that Oracle Autonomous support is coming! With 12.1.3 at the end of its support lifecycle, it’s time to start planning for 12.2. If you are already on 12.2, be sure you are diligent in applying the annual Continuous Innovation Release and regular Critical Patch updates.
For more information on Release 12.2.11:
- Review Oracle’s official release announcement
- Watch Cliff Godwin’s video on 12.2.11
- Review the detailed Release content documents
Syntax can help you develop a comprehensive roadmap to upgrade and support your E-Business Suite for the long term and get the most out of your ERP investment dollars. Reach out today to get started!