Cliff Godwin, Oracle’s Senior Vice President for Applications Development, reviewed the strategic investments the company is making into Oracle EBS during OpenWorld 2019. Although Oracle Corporation’s emphasis on Cloud ERP Applications is clear, Cliff Godwin promised users that the E-Business Suite will continue to provide “substantial value now and into the future.”
Godwin detailed several strategic investments which will benefit users by:
- Reducing downtime with on-line patching
- Delivering actionable information faster via Enterprise Command Centers
- Boosting productivity with a more modern User Experience (UX)
Godwin also delivered detailed breakdowns of new functionalities available to 10 key EBS applications.
Below, we take a closer look at Godwin’s announcements followed by a deeper dive on some of the Oracle R12.2 Financial Management Enterprise Command Centers.
EBS Enterprise Command Centers and On-Line Patching
At OpenWorld, Cliff Godwin in his keynote reiterated Oracle’s commitment to reduce the downtime associated with patching Oracle E-Business Suite.
On-line patching at the database level has been a stable, turn-key feature of Oracle RDBMS available to EBS customers since 12c was certified with the applications. With the 12.2 release of E-Business Suite, this on-line patching capability was expanded through the introduction of AD Online Patching (ADOP).
ADOP allows users to remain online while patching occurs, limiting downtime during cutovers and making R12.2 maintenance windows predictable. Most importantly, critical business operations and revenue generating activities do not need to stop simply because an AppDBA has to apply a routine patch.
It should be noted, however, that while this is a big benefit for business users, execution of on-line patching requires additional effort and expertise on the part of a company’s AppDBA team.
Oracle EBS Enterprise Command Centers Expand
In the fall of 2018, Oracle launched its EBS Enterprise Command Centers (ECCs), promising to empower users to “Identify and act on priority transactions without custom operational reporting.” A year later, Godwin confirms Oracle EBS users have 22 Command Centers comprised of 72 Dashboards at their disposal.
- Access to specific Enterprise Command Centers varies by release level.
For example, Oracle EBS R12.2.8 users have 6 new command centers available to them and 16 new dashboards. Oracle EBS R12.2.8+ users enjoy an additional 13 new command centers, and 45 new dashboards with the added benefit of multi-lingual support for their ECCs. Finally, Oracle EBS R12.2.9 users have access to 3 more new command centers, an additional 11 new dashboards and enhanced UI components.
Godwin emphasized that ECCs are fully integrated with the latest Oracle EBS UI and honor all EBS security protocols, which minimize the need to make configurations. ECCs also offer multi-lingual support, making it easy for users to deploy different languages within a single EBS instance, further reinforcing the EBS’s ability to offer a Single Source of Truth for global corporations.
The ECCs are supported on Oracle EBS 12.2.4 versions and above. Best of all, the ECCs are available to licensed users at new base cost.
Oracle 12.2 Financial Management ECC Key Enhancements
In the fall of 2018, Oracle announced its Enterprise Command Centers for EBS, which they promised would give users the ability to “Identify and act on priority transactions without custom operational reporting.”
Oracle Financial Management has long been the lifeblood of the Oracle E-Business Suite, and during OpenWorld 2019 the company detailed the key ECC features and functionalities for:
- Accounts Receivable
- iReceivables
- Accounts Payable
- Fixed Assets
- Leasing
Oracle R12.2 Financial Management Accounts Receivable Command Center
Every AR manager’s enduring goal is to reduce customer account delinquency, and the Oracle Financial Management AR’s Enterprise Command Center is designed to do just that. The Oracle Financial Management AR ECC allows users to reconcile current and delayed transactions against unapplied receipts and then expedite collection by allowing users to directly contact customers from the dashboard.
The ECC also helps AR teams cut their Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) numbers by allowing them to identify and resolve billing process bottlenecks by facilitating payment exceptions and discrepancy reconciliation.
The Oracle Financial Management AR ECC also gives users the ability to analyze payment trends regarding outstanding balances, adjustments and credit memo history, all of which allow AR teams to tailor the collection strategies on a customer-by-customer basis.
Oracle R12.2 Financial Management iReceivables Command Center
The Oracle R12.2 Financial Management iReceivables Command Center is focused on giving users the tools they need to streamline dispute management.
This command center helps companies cut collection costs because it enables AR managers to monitor activities tied to disputed transactions, allowing them to quickly identify and eliminate invalid disputes. The ECC also helps optimize cash outflow by making it easier to take advantage of discounts and setting up flows that ensure that companies avoid late payments.
Oracle R12.2 Financial Management Payables Command Center
The Oracle R12.2 Financial Management Payables Command Center gives AP managers the tools they need to streamline invoice processing while taking full advantage of supplier discounts.
Experienced AP managers know that optimizing Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) is the key to streamlining AP-related cash flow. The Command Center allows AP teams to do this with a number of key processes. First, the ECC gives AP departments the visibility they need to detect and eliminate early payments and pre-payments when necessary. However, there are also times when accelerating payments will allow a company to obtain discounts from suppliers, and the Command Center also helps AP departments take full advantage of those opportunities.
The Command Center’s dashboards further optimize outbound cash flow by providing outflow estimates based on invoice due date and providing the tools needed to forecast cash requirements in multiple currencies.
Finally, the R12.2 Financial Management Payables Command Center facilitates improved relationships with suppliers by giving AP managers the ability to quickly release invoice holds and ensuring that payment deadlines are met.
Oracle R12.2 Financial Management Assets Command Center
The Oracle R12.2 Financial Management Assets Command Center provides users with the tools they need to accelerate period close by allowing them to identify discrepancies between Fixed Assets and the General Ledger.
The Command Center allows users to forecast and manage capitalization events and access the impact of those events on key financial indicators, while providing advanced monitoring to gain transparency into capitalization spending.
The Command Center’s dashboards will also give FA managers the data they need to increase asset usage and allow them to locate and remediate discrepancies between asset usage, assignment and location.
Oracle R12.2 Lease and Finance Management Command Center
The Oracle R12.2 Lease and Finance Management Command Center provides the functionality that users need to increase usage-based revenue and dealer and/or partner cash flow.
The Command Center’s Dashboards allow users to quickly ID and track down key usage amounts and contact dealers to expedite read collection. It also allows users to not only analyze and validate meter readings at time of entry, but also to spot and remediate reading errors to improve the overall meter capture process.
Finally, the ECC also helps improve cash flow from dealers or partners by accelerating the payment cycle.
Connect with Syntax for Oracle EBS Consulting Support
Want to know more about how you can take advantage of Oracle R12.2’s Executive Command Centers? Do you need support for upgrading to the latest version of Oracle R12.2? Do your DBAs lack the bandwidth to conduct on-line patching activities?
Then check out Syntax’s Oracle EBS Consulting Services and/or our Oracle Applications Managed Services. Contact us to request a 1-1 meeting with one of our experts.