EPM February 2025 Updates

Oracle EPM updates for February 2025 are here. There is some good stuff coming, these are the ones that caught my eye, especially improvements to Pipelines. Updates will go to test environments February 7^th and prod environments February 21^st.

EPM Automate

New compactCube Command

A new EPM Automate command is now available to compact the outline on ASO cubes. This helps keep the cube outline at an optimal size. I thought this command would have already been available given it’s a choice in Jobs.

New runPipeline Command

Another new EPM Automate command to run Pipelines will be available. While this is certainly a useful addition to EPM Automate commands, much more useful (in my opinion) updates to Pipelines are coming. Keep reading to see that.

Updated EPM Books Extension

For Smart View, an updated extension for EPM Books is being released. As a general rule, you should be updating Smart View extensions whenever they are made available, as well as updating to the latest Smart View version. This update to EPM Books contains general improvements and bug fixes.

Improved Performance in Function Sheets

I normally avoid using functions like HsGetValue because they are a huge drag on performance. There are certainly use cases for them, but it’s typically a last resort for me. However, if Oracle figured out a way to make the functions more efficient, then this could be a really good improvement.

Pipeline

There are two significant improvements to data integration Pipelines. I’d like to think that I had something to do with it based on the idea lab submissions I made a few months ago, but whatever the reason behind them, kudos to Oracle for these changes.

New Pipeline Table View

A frustrating thing with Pipelines has been the inability to change the size of the graphical flow. The larger the pipeline, the more difficult to read it. Now there will be an option to view the pipeline in a table. This will make it much easier to view the pipeline.

Saving Pipelines

Another frustrating thing with Pipelines was the auto-save feature. That has caused many headaches, and Oracle heard our pleas for a change. February brings the removal of auto-save on Pipelines, you will now have to manually save changes, just like virtually everywhere else in EPM.

Standardized User Interface for EPM Platform Artifact Pages

The user interface is being standardized for EPM Platform artifacts. This applies to dashboards, infolets, data, rules and documents. These interfaces varied depending on the business process, so standardizing common artifacts makes sense to me.

Ability to Drill into an Ad Hoc Grid from a Dashboard 2.0 Chart

This is a cool feature. An ad hoc grid can be created directly from a chart within Dashboard 2.0. Just right-click on a chart element and select Analyze. An ad hoc will then open for that set of data. I’m looking forward to trying this.

Auto Predict Predictions Can Run When the Last Historical Period Data Value is Empty

I have been vexed by this many times, when the last period in the auto predict historical range was empty, the prediction would not run. With this update, that will no longer be true. You will be able to define how the auto predict should handle a missing value for that last historical period.

Future Direction for Forms and Dashboard 1.0

I always read through the Actions and Considerations section of the updates to be sure I’m informed about important changes that I may have forgotten about or just missed. One this month that is very important is the upcoming de-support of Forms 1.0 and Dashboards 1.0 in the June (25.06) update. Anyone who has not already converted to Forms 2.0 and Dashboards 2.0 should do so ASAP. New environments will default to 2.0, and there will no longer be the option to switch back to 1.0.

There are other updates that may be of interest to you, check out the full document and be prepared when environments are updated.

As always, happy EPM’ng!