The February 24.02 Oracle Cloud EPM patch has arrived on all test instances, and in this blog, we will take you through what we feel are the most relevant feature updates related to Oracle Cloud PCM and EPCM. For the full list of Oracle Cloud EPM Feature updates in the February 24.02 patch, be sure to check out the updates here.
The most important features of the 24.02 (February 2024) patch
EPM Common
Option to disallow Service Administrators from assigning predinged roles in OCI (Gen2) environments
- Organizations can now request Oracle to prevent Service Administrators from assigning predefined roles to users.
- This update would ensure that only Identity Domain Administrators can assign predefined roles to users on any environment in that cloud account.
- This update assists clients who must align to a strict separation of duties in the cloud.
New Export Dimensions and Export Dimension Mappings Pipeline Job Types (EPCM Only)
- New Export Dimension by Name (EDMCS), Export Dimension, and Export Dimension Mapping job types are available in Pipeline.
- These Job Types will help clients further automate their master data management and dimension mappings maintained in EDM to EPCM.
Enterprise PCM Updates
Improved page load time for Calculation Control and Calculation Analysis
- The time taken to load the Calculation Control and Calculation Analysis screens has been reduced.
- This update will positively impact all EPCM Power Users, especially clients with a large number of POVs.
Enhanced search features in the Rule Designer
- The Search field on the Waterfall setup and Mass Edit tabs in the Rule Design has been expanded to accommodate 40 characters, and when a value is typed into the Search field, a list of Rules and/or Rule Sets that match will be displayed.
Enhanced to model or Rule Set Context
- When an addition to the Rule Set Context is made, the rules will now be updated automatically.
- Previously, when adding to the Rule Set Context, each rule had to be opened and saved manually. This could take a significant amount of time depending on the number of rules.
Calculation Statistics and Model Documentation reports grouped by type
- In the Calculation Analysis page, the Calculation Statistics and Model Documentation reports are grouped by type under the Actions menu.
- This update primarily focuses on improving how a user navigates the Calculation Analysis user interface.
Change to the Intelligence card icon on the Home Screen
- Oracle has changed the icon of the Intelligence card on the Home Screen.
- This update is purely cosmetic and does not impact the user in any other way.
PCM Updates
Statement of Direction
- Oracle has released a Statement of Direction for Oracle Cloud PCM, officially informing customers that no future enhancements are planned for Oracle Cloud PCM.
- Oracle Cloud PCM customers will continue to be supported by Oracle in accordance with the Oracle Cloud Hosting and Delivery Policies.
- All customers are advised to migrate their legacy Oracle Cloud PCM application to Oracle Cloud EPCM.
There are no updates to PCM in the February 24.02 patch.
Regression testing requirement
Clients are advised to perform regression testing on releasing the monthly patches in their test instances. However, there are no features or updates that should have a significant impact on your users or your application. It is worth noting that Oracle did release several bug fixes in the 24.02 patch, which may require additional testing for those clients affected.
Enterprise PCM regression testing requirement
For the 24.02 Patch, we suggest you do your average level of regression testing, as none of the provided updates should be a cause of concern unless directly affected by any bug fixes.
PCM regression testing requirement
For the 24.02 Patch, we suggest doing your average level of regression, as there are no critical bug fixes or features for Oracle PCM in this release.
The 23.02 Patch is scheduled to be pushed to the Production environments at or after 22:00 UTC on Friday, the 16th of February, 2024, so be sure to be done with any Regression testing soon!
TL:DR:
The February 24.02 Oracle Cloud EPM patch introduces some minor updates for Oracle Cloud EPCM. Highlights include disallowing Service Administrators from assigning predefined roles in OCI environments, new pipeline export job types for dimension management, and improved performance in Enterprise EPCM’s Calculation Analysis UI. Notably, a Statement of Direction announces no future enhancements for Oracle Cloud PCM has been issued, urging users to migrate to EPCM.
Regression testing is recommended, but the updates are not expected to impact users or applications significantly. The patch, including bug fixes, is scheduled for production deployment after February 16, 2024.
In case you missed it: profitability patch release – 2023 in review
- Oracle released 44 feature updates for Oracle Cloud Profitability
- EPCM received 27 feature updates compared to only 3 in PCM. 14 updates were common to both EPCM and PCM
- Most features moderately impacted how they affect end users or the overall usability of allocation solutions. However, Oracle also released many features with significant or high impact levels
- The category that received the most feature updates was Model Validation/Documentation. However, Data Integration had the highest number of feature releases with significant impacts, followed by Reporting, Auditing, DSata Entry, and POV Maintenance.
- What feature releases have had the biggest impact? The below highlights the the most important features released in 2023 and shows the significant investment that Oracle is making in Cloud EPM and, specifically, in EPCM.
| Patch Release | Feature Category | Feature Name | Feature Description | Impact | Impact Notes |
| 23.10 | Calculation - Functionality | Access to Calculation Manager | Users can now access Calculation Manager to create Groovy business rules, view database properties, and execute a range of actions against the appropriate database (such as exporting/importing data, clearing data, executing aggregations, and so on). | 4.Significant | Groovy Business Rules opens a vast amount of possibilities in EPCM applications. |
| Calculation manager can also be leveraged for additional features such as loading data, clearing data, merging database slices, and more. | |||||
| 23.12 | Reporting | Ad Hoc Analysis Available in Rule Designer and Rule Balancing | Users can now use the Ad Hoc grid to analyze specific Allocation or Custom Calculation rule data elements. | 4.Significant | This feature makes troubleshooting significantly easier and enhances traceability, as previously, this could only be achieved by manually creating either Data Forms or SmartView retrieves, which is very time-consuming and error-prone. |
| 23.06 | Data Integration | Pipeline Feature in Data Integration/Data Exchange | The Pipeline feature allows users to orchestrate a series of jobs as a single process. | 4.Significant | It provides better control and visibility of the entire data integration process, including preprocessing, data loading, and post-processing jobs |
| 23.12 | Data Integration | Quick Mode – File-Based Locations (PCM & EPCM) | Quick Mode now supports file-based locations and enables the efficient loading of large files into PCM and EPCM applications. | 4.Significant | Quick Mode integrations are significantly faster than the traditional data load methods, and this functionality will enable file data loads not previously possible due to their size. |
| Quick Mode – File-based locations will also support member mappings using the explicit and like mapping times. | |||||
| 23.12 | Auditing | Auditing for Models, Rule Sets, Rules, POVs and Profit Curves | Auditing has been enhanced in EPCM to include auditing on Models, Rule Sets, Rules, POVs, and Profit Curves. | 4.Significant | This feature allows advanced auditing to track changes to the application at a significantly more detailed level than before. |
| 23.11 | Data Entry | Forms 2.0 | This feature provides a vast number of benefits when compared to Forms 1.0, including, but not limited to, usability improvements, better scalability and enhanced performance, calculation on the fly, and enhanced POV member selection. | 4.Significant | This feature provides many benefits to clients who leverage Forms for data entry and reporting purposes. |
| 23.05 | Model Maintenance | Ability to Find and Replace Members That No Longer Exist in A Dimension | The Find Member field in the rule designer Mass Edit tab now allows users to enter a member name that no longer exists in a dimension | 3.High | This allows users to fix multiple broken rules referencing an invalid member in an efficient way |
| 23.04 | Model Validation & Documentation | Enhanced Calculation Statistics Comparison Report | The Calculation Statistics Comparison report now has two worksheets: the Job Statistics worksheet, which contains the calculation record-level statistics and comparisons, and the Rule Statistics, which collects the rule-level comparisons. | 3.High | This feature enables comparison of up to 5 Calculation Statistic reports at a greater level of granularity than previously provided |
About Oracle Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Profitability and Cost Management (PCM)
A purpose-built allocation solution can make organizations more effective and provide greater insight into profitability and costs within key business dimensions. Profitability and Cost Management strikes the perfect balance between a business-owned allocation engine and a rich analytical tool to discover the fundamental drivers of cost. This solution accomplishes both by providing an innovative allocation framework that provides step-by-step transparency to calculations – all while ensuring ease of use and upgradability of an Oracle cloud-based solution.