Overview of the Oracle Release 12 Upgrade Project
Users of the Oracle E-Business suite of applications will soon be receiving regular communications, training materials and documentation about upcoming changes to certain Oracle applications.
The Oracle E-Business suite community is large and diverse. The community consists primarily of related, yet distinct constituencies:
- Receivables: Those who use the central Oracle Accounts Receivable system, including our internal Accounts Receivable staff and staff in the schools
- Disbursements: Those who use the Online Vendor Form, PCard, the Harvard Crimson Online Marketplace (HCOM), Web Reimbursement, Fedex and AP Views applications, as well as our central staff who use the Accounts Payable application itself
- Accounting: Those who use the General Ledger, the Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA), Capital Projects System (CAPS), the Chart of Accounts Validator and the Sponsored Budget Tool
- Security: Our Authorized Requestors who grant privileges to their respective school staff to the Oracle applications
- Cash Management: The central Cash Management Office that utilizes the Cash Management Reconciliation Application (CMRA)
- Data Feed/Extract and Ad Hoc Reporting Users: Those who feed data into or extract data out of Oracle systems, as well as those who query Oracle tables to create customized financial reports in Interactive Reporting
- CREW Financial Reporting Community: If you have access to any of the Oracle applications listed above, you may also have access to CREW, our financial reporting application
The Oracle Release 12 Upgrade Project will impact all of these areas, focusing on moving the University from Oracle Release 11i to Release 12. The new features of Release 12 support and implement many of the critical emerging business needs identified here at Harvard for maintaining current and future customers.
Summary of the Major Impacts
To find out more about the upcoming changes in Oracle Release 12, please view this short video: Introduction to Oracle Release 12 (note: alternate viewing site available here). This presentation, as well as an accompanying PowerPoint presentation summarizing the changes, is now available for your review at the project's wiki site (note you will need to log in with your HUID and PIN).
Here is an overview of what to expect as a result of the upgrade:
All Users
All users will experience an enhanced look and feel on the Oracle homepage and within several applications.
Here is a comparison of the current Oracle Homepage and what it will look like in Release 12:
Over the coming months, you will receive regular communication regarding the project. Expect the following:
- Updated documentation, including job aids and work instructions pertinent to specific application changes
- Online training, webinars, brown bag lunches and instructor-led training in specific applications
- Targeted communication to specific constituencies about the changes in your area, and regular updates in e-News
- Information about go-live preparations, including timelines of when the Oracle E-Business Suite will be unavailable and impacts on systems outside of Oracle, such as PeopleSoft, HUBS, GMAS, etc.
Receivables Community
The Receivables community will also be introduced to a new module, iReceivables that will provide a dashboard view of customer information, and allow for the reprinting of invoices making this task obsolete in CREW. This community will also receive new customer set-up standards and a new collections/bad debt policy.
Disbursements Community
The Disbursements community will experience look and feel changes with HCOM, and a new process to feed employee vendor data directly into Web Reimbursement from PeopleSoft will be introduced. This new feature will save users significant time in that you will no longer have to create employee vendors through the Oracle Online Request Form. Speaking of the Online Request Form, the form will have a new look and feel and new vendor set-up requirements, as well as new documentation requirements, primarily in the submission of W8 and W9 tax forms for vendors will be promulgated. While the Web Reimbursements application will not change in look and feel, users will no longer process reimbursement requests for non-Harvard employees in this application. All non-employee reimbursements, as well as payment for 1099 services delivered by Harvard employees, will be processed in HCOM. There will be no changes to the FedEx application, AP Views or to the PCard Settlement System. Finally, the internal Accounts Payable staff will be implementing a completely new payables application.
Accounting Community
The Accounting community will see a look and feel change in the General Ledger application, and new functionality to allow for copying journal entries will be introduced. Users of the Chart of Accounts Validator will also experience look and feel changes, as well as a new URL to access the tool. Those who work with the Sponsored Budget Tool will use a new way to upload budgets directly into the General Ledger using ADI. ADI itself and the Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA) will have no changes. There will be a small change as to how to print using the Capital Projects System (CAPS).
Security and Administration Community
Authorized Requestors will be given instruction on how to add new responsibilities in certain applications.
Cash Management Community
There will be no changes for users of the Cash Management Reconciliation Application (CMRA), used by staff in the Office of the Treasury Department.
Data Feeds/Ad Hoc Reporting Community
Those who feed data into, extract data from, or query Oracle tables for Ad Hoc reporting will receive regular communications on how to test their information in the Release 12 environment to validate their data.
CREW Financial Report Users
Most existing CREW financial reports will be retrofitted to work with the Release 12 Oracle data; a few reports will no longer be necessary due to changes in Oracle Release 12. CREW financial reports will also be unavailable during the latter part of the upgrade in November.
On June 13, the financial managers who attended the Financial Manager's Forum were provided an update about all of the anticipated changes by project leadership. An email from University Controller Maureen Forrester will updated to all users of Oracle E-Business Suite applications provides an update about the project.
How to Get More Information
Oracle E-Business Suite users are urged review the presentation noted above and to look out for future communications. The Oracle Release 12 Project staff also strongly encourages your questions and comments throughout the project. Please send your feedback to the Oracle Release 12 upgrade mailbox at oracle12_upgrade@harvard.edu. You will receive a response within three business days.
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