EPM April 2025 Updates

April 2025 Oracle EPM updates are on the way. There are a number of updates to Cloud EPM platform. Updates will go to test environments April 4^th and prod environments April 18^th. Here’s my summary of what I found interesting.

Secure HTTP Protocol Required for Data Integration, Task Manager, Narrative Reporting, and Oracle Enterprise Data Management Connections

This seems to be an expansion of last month’s announcement about HTTPS. The URLs specified for connections in the following business processes and components must use the secure HTTP protocol (https://).

• Data Integration and Data Management connections for registering Cloud EPM Applications and while configuring Oracle Cloud ERP connections.
• Task Manager connections in Enterprise Profitability and Cost Management, Financial Consolidation and Close, FreeForm, Planning, and Tax Reporting.
• Narrative Reporting connections URLs specified when registering Cloud EPM Applications and while configuring Oracle Cloud ERP connections.
• Oracle Enterprise Data Management application connections and global connections.

Block Upload of Files with Invalid File Extensions

I like this, reduces the chances of uploading incorrect files and wasting time troubleshooting or introducing corrupted data.

New Data Export and Data Import Option: Missing Data Label

Allows customization of how missing values are represented on imports and exports. At first, I was questioning the usefulness of this, I couldn’t think of a use case. But after talking with a colleague, he pointed out that different source and target systems may have unique naming requirements for missing values. The description Oracle uses is confusing because it states, “missing values to display in forms”, but it’s more than that. The default will remain #Missing.

New Data Export Option for BSO Cubes Only: Disable Implied Share

The default in data export has implied sharing enabled, meaning when data is exported for members with the same data in the parent and child, the parent is exported. Now the implied share can be disabled so the child can be exported.

New Copy Integration Feature in Data Integration

Finally!!!! This is a long overdue enhancement. Data integrations can now be copied with a new name. Existing locations and import formats can be kept or new ones created.

Summarizing Insights with Generative AI

Another big enhancement, GenAI will be available in Insights. Per Oracle, Insight summaries can be used in these ways:

• For a single insight, to provide additional context beyond the brief rule-based description in the insight.
• For multiple insights, based on a parent member, to generate a summary that evaluates the parent member and all of its children. This summary can help you zero in on the root cause for the insight, and makes it easy to share an analysis of a set of insights with colleagues.

I’ll be testing this as soon as it is in the Test environments, curious how much configuration will be needed.

Support for Manual Entry in both Reports and Books Prompt Selections

In prompts for Reports and Books, users can now directly enter member names. This is a nice improvement, instead of going thru extra clicks to select a member, just type it in.

New Version of Oracle Smart View for Office

This might be the best update to Smart View in quite a while. IPM Insights will be available in Smart View with this release. There are other updates and defect fixes as well. As always, I recommend updating to the latest version of Smart View when released.

Generative AI (Gen AI) Machine Learning (ML) Property File Changes

In the Actions and Considerations section, it is noted that the May 2025 update will have changes to Narrative Reporting GenAI property files. If you are using GenAI and have modified the ML property files, be sure to test the effect of the changes when they are released.

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!