Advantages of Oracle EBS (E-Business Suite) Upgrade

Recently, Oracle launched the upgraded Enterprise Business Suite (EBS) 12.2.11. This new release offers significant enhancements across security, performance and stability, new features, statutory, and regulatory updates.

We have enlisted five advantages that can help organizations that are still on 12.1 and earlier versions to plan their next upgrade.

Top 5 Benefits of Upgrading to EBS 12.2.11

#1 Long-Term Premier Support for Lower TCO

Oracle has adopted a Continuous Innovation strategy to deliver innovations and technology stack upgrades positioned around application functionality, scalability, usability, and commitment to reducing the total cost of ownership. Oracle EBS 12.2 promises new functionalities based on the latest technologies along with an assurance of premier support until 2031.

#2 Easier Installation with New Tools

Oracle’s Rapid Install tool facilitates hassle-free installation and deployment of new versions of Oracle Fusion Middleware platform technologies, a new applications code level, and upgrade scripts to move the schema, PL/SQL, and data in place to the new Oracle E-Business Suite release level. In addition, Oracle EBS 12.2 comes with improved compatibility for installation on existing database servers and existing Real Application Clusters environments. With the provision of two tools, EURC-DT and ETPAT-AT, the upgrade process is seamless and error-free. EBS Technology Patch Automation Tool — Application Tier (ETPAT-AT) automates the patching of key EBS Release 12.2.0 application tier technology stack components such as Fusion Middleware and WebLogic Server. Moreover, the EBS 12.2 Upgrade Readiness Checker Tool — Database Tier (EURC-DT) performs important EBS pre-upgrade checks based on a set of key technical requirements by identifying mandatory pre-upgrade steps and mitigating common causes of failure.

#3 Minimal Downtime and Online Patching Feature

Oracle has rolled out a revolutionary feature known as Online Patching, which allows enterprises to upgrade their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications while the systems are running, and users are online. This ensures minimal downtime, especially for manufacturers and global organizations. Further, application updates are rolled out annually where the updates are cumulative and combined with bug fixes and new features through a suite-wide patch set. On the other hand, technology stack upgrades are rolled out separately wherein new versions of the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform technologies can be accessed without upgrading the Oracle E-Business Suite applications code.

#4 Better Business Value with New Applications

Oracle E-Business Suite 12.2 comprises several cross-functional applications that have been enhanced from the previous versions. In Order Management, Oracle iStore is upgraded with enhanced B2B features like search and filters to quickly find the best products and pricing. Secondly, the Oracle Advanced Pricing Command Center facilitates better pricing maintenance alongside offering greater visibility on pricing using charts, search, and metrics functionalities. Additionally, this command center uses Web Application Desktop Integrator (ADI) to provide a selective update of price lists and promotions using an Excel spreadsheet.

• The Order Management Interface is loaded with customer-focused features to give greater control and boost order flow productivity. These features include better visibility for promotional and included items, uploading quotes, and orders on an Excel spreadsheet using Web ADI and allowing custom attribute support in rules and frameworks.
• In EBS Logistics management, the Oracle Inventory Command Center has an overhauled Receiving dashboard that provides more control to streamline activities such as tracking materials by “Expected Date”, flagging pending inspections, managing overdue put away, prioritizing high value and in-demand products, and notifying back-ordered items that are flagged for shipping on that day.
• Oracle Inventory now features capturing and tracking of on-hand inventory using Material Classification Codes (MCCs) alongside improving warehouse productivity analysis.
• Oracle Inventory Command Center is integrated with the Activity Dashboard that facilitates better resource utilization and productivity through capabilities such as tracking labor and equipment time per activity, average resource utilization along with comparison, tracking performers and assigning training plans and assignments based on performance as well as providing more control over landed cost and item information.
• The Items Dashboard in Oracle Inventory Command Center offers better product catalog management through features like searching and browsing catalog items, comparing item transaction attributes, and viewing approved suppliers, manufacturers, and related items for the filtered products.
• The Oracle Procurement Command Center has an Employee Shopping feature that helps procurement professionals optimize catalog content using search queries, track products and services that are sought for but not available in the catalog and perform an advanced search.
• Additionally, it features the Sourcing Dashboard that improves sourcing efficiency by managing sourcing negotiations, tracking negotiation cycle times & savings, and identifying buyer workload.
• The Item Analysis Dashboard on this command center provides greater insights throughout the procurement lifecycle through better catalog management of items using parameters like history and performance and allowing comparison based on supply source, agreements, and approved supplier lists.
• In EBS Projects, the Oracle Projects Command Center now comes with an improved Budgetary Control Dashboard for more control and efficiency in billing agreements and project costing. Moreover, the command center offers better accuracy in financial management for US Federal Trading Partners through G-Invoicing support. Trading partners can now perform intragovernmental transactions, including processing and integrating with Orders and General Terms & Conditions.
• Oracle Project Costing is integrated with Oracle Payroll for Supplementary Payroll runs. Moreover, an Agreement Approval workflow has been added to Oracle Project Billing.
• In EBS Manufacturing, Oracle Process Manufacturing Command Center has an enhanced Outside Processing dashboard that can effectively identify external processing delays and expedite operations alongside analyzing and acting on delays of suppliers’ deliveries.
• Oracle Process Manufacturing is upgraded to improve traceability of multi-lot batches by tracking individual ingredient lots to a specific product lot and supporting continuous manufacturing in regulated industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Food & Beverages, etc.
• The MES in the Oracle Process Manufacturing command center has been updated to track multiple process parameter readings at different time intervals, especially useful in regulated industries such as Pharmaceuticals and Food & Beverages.
• Oracle Discrete Manufacturing now comes with Reservation Support for Components Items, which ensures better control of component availability for timely job completion using features like auto-reserve, manual reserve, and support for non-WMS organizations.
• Oracle Quality Command Center facilitates proactive management of products and asset quality by quickly identifying and resolving quality issues and finding ways to increase yield, thereby preventing costly recalls by monitoring quality deviations, tracking under-performing assets for corrective actions, and providing insights to assess business impact.
• Oracle Discrete Manufacturing and Oracle Process Manufacturing licenses enable streamlined flow for outsourced manufacturing by consolidating components from a single subcontracting purchase order to one replenishment sales order.
• In EBS Human Capital Management, Oracle’s upgraded EBS facilitates enhanced control and visibility of mobile timecards entry and processing for employees based on a time & labor rules evaluation engine. It also features EBS Personal Sensitive Data and EBS Person Data Removal Tool (PDRT) along with API support.
• In EBS Financial Management, the Oracle Payables Command Center and the Oracle Receivables Command Center now have a Period Close Dashboard that provides insights on the closures and SLA accounting events, identifies potential bottlenecks due to accounting errors & unaccounted events, and rectifies source transactions.

#5 Technical Improvements

Oracle has invested in automation to help companies run EBS on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) by provisioning EBS environments on OCI, enabling lift & shift of fully configured, on-prem EBS environments to OCI, and enabling lifecycle management of EBS environments running on OCI. These can be managed using the EBS Cloud Manager.

How To Seamlessly Upgrade Your E-Business Suite?

For existing Oracle EBS 12.2.x users, EBS 12.2.11 can be directly applied as an online patch. However, for organizations still on EBS 12.1, the environment needs to be upgraded to 12.2 first and then can be upgraded to the latest EBS release. If you are looking to upgrade from Oracle EBS 12.1, it is recommended to leverage the expertise of an Oracle E-Business Suite Partner. Suneratech, being a Platinum Partner of Oracle, has the best minds of the industry and optimized processes for enabling Oracle Cloud migration, Oracle EBS Upgrade services, and EBS upgrade to an on-premises environment.

Talk to our Oracle Cloud Migration experts today.