In November 2021, we reviewed the major changes coming with Oracle e-Business Suite Release 12.2.11. This post is the start of a new series that will explore those changes in more depth. As we noted in November, the new release updates are straightforward. Yet becoming familiar with all the new changes ensures your team takes full advantage of added functionality and offers clues about where future releases may be headed.
At the release of 12.2.11, Oracle noted three main categories of updates: modern user experience (UX), functional innovation, and operational efficiency. We’ll start with the changes to the UX. These may seem the least consequential of the changes, but it’s the part that every user will encounter and can make a difference in their productivity and efficiency.
Updates to ECCs
Oracle introduced EBS Enterprise Command Centers (ECCs) in 2018. They provided an important functional addition to EBS and are where many of the latest UX updates come into play. The full ECC offering includes the 32 ECCs below, as well as 110 supporting dashboards:
- Financials: Receivables, iReceivables, Payables, Assets, Lease Contracts (Financials), Lease and Finance Management
- Procurement and Projects: iProcurement: Consumer-like Shopping, Procurement, Projects, Project Procurement, Contract Lifecycle Management for Public Sector
- Order Management and Logistics: Order Management, Inventory Management, Advanced Pricing, iStore: Modern Shopping Experience, Landed Cost Management, Channel Revenue Management, Incentive Compensation
- Manufacturing: Discrete Manufacturing, Process Manufacturing, Outsourced Manufacturing, Project Manufacturing, Cost Management, Quality
- Asset Lifecycle and Service: Enterprise Asset Management, Asset Tracking, Service Contracts, Service (TeleService), Field Service, Depot Repair
- Human Capital Management: Human Resources, Payroll
The Payroll Command Center, under Human Capital Management, is new with the 12.2.11 Release. This new center helps manage the payroll cycle and reduces reliance on operational reports. Before a payroll run, users can now find and fix data exceptions that might cause processing errors. After a run, users can reconcile results. That includes finding discrepancies across payrolls and periods, with the ability to drill down to element and assignment details. It also simplifies tax statutory reporting by analyzing and reporting tax balances at federal, state, and local levels, but note, the current scope focuses on U.S. legislation.
Enhanced ECC Framework
The ECC Framework allows users to create and modify command centers. Capabilities added in March and November 2021 release updates include network diagrams, dashboard pop-ups, APEX integration with ECC, look-ahead visualizations in chart cascading, waterfall charts, color pinning in charts, relative date range filters, PDF exports, and default saved searches.
The dashboard pop-up capability is notable. Through these pop-ups, users can quickly complete simple tasks without the need to navigate to different transaction pages. This ability improves user productivity by reducing unnecessary tasks. Users can also build custom pop-ups. For example, in the Procurement Command Center, a pop-up allows users to reassign requisitions, in the Service Command Center users can perform task uptake, and in the Receivables Command Center, a pop-up enables cancelling disputes.
A More Useable Home Page and Theme Updates
The home page has been changed from a transactional experience to a Business Intelligence (BI) experience. Rather than only a transaction list, the homepage now includes dashboards, key indicators, charts, graphs, transactions, and task lists. This update is meant to provide a more consumer-like feel, with better search and filter options to help users more easily find and act on what matters most to their roles and responsibilities. This update replaces custom operational reporting, relieving some burden off IT teams tasked with creating and maintaining custom reports. The dashboard works directly with EBS data and offers an alternate UI for any EBS, applied on top of any 12.2.4 release or after.
With Release 12.2.7, Oracle added the ability to select from various themes as a way to provide flexibility in the UI look and feel. With Release 12.2.11, the company added the Redwood Theme, which helps create consistency with Oracle’s other SaaS applications across your corporate environment.
Continue this series review of Oracle EBS Release 12.2.11 with “The New Features of Oracle EBS Release 12.2.11: Functional Innovation”.