Oracle has recently made available the Oracle Financials 24A Release, which includes some new functionalities and modifications that organizations should know. Before rolling out the update, it is necessary to make sure that multiple level of testing is performed and the changes are properly controlled so that it doesn’t impact business. These are the five critical things you should know about the Oracle Financials 24A Release.
- Determine the testing scope
In this phase, it is important to know what needs to be tested and what doesn’t need to be tested, despite the fact that testing is one of the most time-consuming exercises. The first aspect that should be established when testing any large-scale enterprise software application is to identify the parameters of testing for the 24A roll-out. Decide which business processes should be tested and to what extent based on the changes made to this release. It is important to perform some sanity testing on important or key financial processes so that there is a check done before the update is introduced. For the same reason, it becomes necessary to define which processes can benefit from the automation of tests to improve the speed of testing and which ones still have to be checked manually.
- Understand the technical changes
This usually means modifying the work of an application, which is easier for users to notice, rather than changes to an ERP release containing integration, customization, and utilization. Some of the notable technical upgrades in 24A include: The Oracle ADF Desktop Integration add-in has been released (v5.1.5.26655); this type of disapproval happens when certain BI View Objects cease to exist or are no longer useful; new data points have been introduced for the Purpose of Enhanced Receivables invoice extract; and there is a there is a new feature of uploading second payer rules in Zengin format.
- Evaluate functional enhancements
The 24A Release offers functional matters in every Oracle Financials segment, such as general ledger, payables, receivables, expenses, and tax. Some key capabilities organizations should evaluate include: the ability to transfer entries directly between journal and/or data open sets; tax integration with Avalara in an automatic manner; offering dynamic discounting to its sellers for the terms of payment; the use of audit rules in identifying and correcting those expenses that are duplicated; and storing signed contracts with parties in different folders.
- Update business processes
Further, along with the existing and new functions implemented in the 24A update, it may be essential to modify the business processes to utilize the new functions. Key processes that may need changes include: blanket purchase order approval and exception in Payables; transaction tax registration number approval in Receivables; creation of audit trail of the account in the General Ledger; and the following include the budget impact analysis that is likely to arise from the project change orders.
- Define a rollback strategy
However, since the application has gone through different testing, other issues may be faced from time to time after the application has been deployed. Perhaps in the update of 24A, it will be possible to make it obligatory to determine a clear strategy of what to do in case of an emergency. This should cover: in the case of such a massive disruption, the system should revert back to the previous state as soon as possible, if at all possible; a concept of modifying both the old and new versions side by side wherever possible; and a contingency plan for the particular integration or adjustment that caused the disruption.
Conclusion
This latest update of Oracle Cloud Financials, that is, 24A, has added new features that can be useful for improving the overall functionctionality. However, some specific testing crucial to the organization’s goals is essential to ease the transition. Further de-risking of this update can still be made through proper communication of the change management strategy and rollback plan. There is a lot of functional technical and business process knowledge surrounding this release, and organizations can get the most value out of all of this.
Opkey is aware that Oracle Financial clients will have a short window of two weeks to confirm that these modifications won’t negatively impact their current business procedures. Test automation is already transforming how businesses test and cutting down on quarterly update times from weeks to three days, albeit this can be difficult at first. Opkey is a certified partner of Oracle and its managed Oracle Cloud quarterly certification can help businesses go through the 24A update. Opkey offers a thorough advisory document outlining the precise modifications that must be made before updates are made.
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