In this month's Oracle Cloud EPM Patch (23.07), several enhancements have been introduced to the Oracle EPM platform and Oracle Cloud Enterprise PCM. Although these enhancements are not critical, keeping up to date on the latest functionality will ensure you are always aware of any possible updates you and your company could leverage.
This blog post aims to highlight the most important features included in the patch while also directing readers to the comprehensive 23.07 Patch Release Notes by Oracle for further details. So, without further ado, let's explore the key highlights of this update.
The Most Important Features of the 23.07 (July 2023) Patch:
EPM Common
Enhancements to the Pipeline Feature:
- Although the Pipeline functionality was only recently released, Oracle has been working hard to add features such as Pipeline REST APIs, new Job Types, Remote Connections for Open Batch Job Types, and Auto Copy Files to Remote Servers for File-Based Integrations.
- Although we expect very few of our clients to be leveraging the Pipeline functionality right now, it’s worth keeping track of the enhancements in this area.
Enterprise PCM Updates
New Documentation For Managing Your EPCM Implementation (EPCM Only):
- Oracle has released new documentation summarizing the normal implementation process for new EPCM applications.
- Although not relevant to all clients, this documentation can be useful to new EPCM clients who want to familiarize themselves with the EPCM implementation process and ensure their partners follow leading practices.
Rule Validation Tab Now Distinguishes Between Errors and Warnings (EPCM Only):
- When users are attempting to validate Allocation and Custom Calculation Rules, they can now distinguish between errors and warnings through the Message Type.
- This ensures that users can distinguish between errors, which would stop the calculations from executing, from warnings, which would not cause calculation failures but lead to sub-optimal performance.
Ability to Enable NET and Logical Clear Without Entering a Service Request to Request a UUID:
- This is a big one, especially for developers! We can now update the NonEmptyTuple (NET) or Logical Clear governors without logging an SR.
- In EPCM, Logical Clear is the default, which most clients will keep unchanged. However, some clients may want to switch to Physical clears if they are not balancing correctly, as Logical Clears can impact a very small number of cases.
- The NET Governor is extremely useful in very large and sparse dimensional models and can significantly impact performance. While not all clients will utilize the NET governor, quite a few will benefit from enabling it. Unfortunately, this always had to be done through an SR, which is now no longer the case.
PCM Updates
There are no updates specific to PCM in the 23.07 patch.
Regression Testing Requirement
Per our standing recommendation, clients are advised to perform regression testing on the release of the month patches in their test instances regardless of the updates provided in this blog. However, as the new functionality released in this month’s patch is not significant for most EPCM applications, the standard level of regression testing can be done.
Enterprise PCM Regression Testing Requirement:
For the 23.07 Patch, we suggest clients do the normal level of regression testing as there are no major functionality or bug fixes in this patch that may affect any existing functionality.
PCM Regression Testing Requirement:
For the 23.07 Patch, we suggest the normal level of regression testing as there were no indicated features or bug fixes to PCM applications.
The 23.07 Patch is scheduled to be pushed to the Production environments at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, July 21, 2023, so be sure to complete any Regression testing soon!
TL;DR
The 23.07 Oracle Cloud EPM Patch introduces several enhancements to the Oracle EPM platform and Oracle Cloud Enterprise PCM. The key highlights include enhancements to the Pipeline feature, new documentation for managing EPCM implementation, improved rule validation in EPCM, and the ability to enable NET and Logical Clear without a service request. There are no specific updates for PCM in this patch. It is recommended to perform regression testing on the patch, but the new functionality is not significant for most EPCM applications so standard regression testing can be done. The patch will be pushed to production environments on July 21, 2023, so complete regression testing soon.