Release Notes

The Spring 2020 FINDINI 4.0.17 release will be available to users on Monday April 20, 2020.

Please continue to review updated release messages and outage information that will be posted in the e-news articles, on the Oracle Financial splash pages, and on the sites listed below.

SUMMARY:

The focus of this release has been the development, testing, training, and change management of eProcurement/Accounts Payables and the Jaggaer & HDW Reporting for the ITCRB project, Buy-to-Pay (B2P powered by Jaggaer). This new integrated system, which is replacing the current University's HCOM procurement system, will be delivered to Production for the first wave of deployment (Cohort 0 – limited audience) during the last week of April. Even though our release implementation is taking place over the April 18/19 weekend, Cohort 0 will not be available for use until after 4/29. Further Cohort delivery, and the continued transition away from HCOM, will continue throughout the rest of this calendar year to meet our targeted project completion date of 12/31/20. Benefits of the new B2P system include an enhanced user shopping and purchasing experience, a paperless environment, more automated processes, enhanced reporting, and integration with B2P Supplier Portal, Sourcing, and Contracts, which have been previously implemented over the last year. B2P will also interface with Oracle Accounts Payables, Oracle Assets, the General Ledger, User Security, and the HDW. For more information on the Buy-to-Pay project (B2P), please visit the B2P website and reference the B2P Overview.pptx. Users who are granted application permissions by their Authorized Requestors to use B2P, will find the application link on the HUIT Financials Systems Applications page: HUIT Financial Systems Applications.

We have also worked on several new CAPs enhancements during this release timeline that have already been delivered to Production, along with upgrading the CPATH (Capital Planning at Harvard) infrastructure platform at the both the server and database levels. In addition, within FINDINI 4.0.17, we are addressing the standard security and compliance software and database patching to keep EBS, CPATH, and our automated testing platform OATS, up to date with many industry security regulations and requirements. These will include updates for PSU, ATG, CPU, JDK, JRE, & Linux & WebLogic Operating System patching.

Key deliverables of the Spring 2020 FINDINI 4.0.17 Release include:

• Testing & Delivery of the foundational interfaces for the ITCRB Buy-to-Pay project for the new Jaggaer ePro & AP. These include an enhanced User credential interface, an enhanced User Security Request form, the Approval Hierarchy tracking form, the Chart of Accounts interface process, the PO export process, the Invoice and Payment interfaces, & several updates to our AP Tax reporting programs
• Several new CAPs enhancements that have been worked on during our Release timeline and have already been delivered
• Upgrading of the CPATH server to Linux RHEL v7.7 & database upgrade to Oracle 19c platform which has already been completed in Production
• Security enhancement to the Oracle EBS Financials Harvard Key integration which will require users to clear their browser cookies upon first use following this release (training attachments can be found in the Appendix below and this only must be completed once)
• Applying the standard software security patching, weblogic upgrading, and database patching in order to keep the EBS, OATS, & CPATH systems up to date with many industry security regulations and requirements. These will include the January-2020 updates for PSU, CPU, JDK, JRE, Weblogic middleware, & Linux Operating System patching

SYSTEM OUTAGES:

The Oracle EBS Financial systems will be unavailable from Friday, April 17 at 6:00 p.m. until Monday, April 20 at 7:00 a.m. to complete the installation of this release. The Oracle EBS Financial systems that will be offline during this time include:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Payable Adjustment Form for Assets
• Accounts Receivable
• iReceivables & Collections
• Bottomline
• CAPS
• Cash Management (CMRA)
• Chart Security Maintenance Application (CSMA)
• Chart of Accounts GL Validator
• FedEx
• General Ledger
• Oracle Assets
• HCOM & iProcurement
• PCard
• Web ADI
• Web Reimbursement

CPATH (Capital Planning at Harvard) will be available during this release window, however, some of the data points within CPATH which are fed from CAPS will be as of Friday, April 17, until Monday morning, April 20.

DMS Financial Data Warehouse & HART reporting environments will also be offline at times during this outage. DMS Financial Data Warehouse is also having a release during this same window to prepare for the B2P implementation. The HDW load from EBS Financials will NOT take place Friday night 4/17. Instead, a special cycle will be run over the weekend, and once that completes DMS Financial Data Warehouse & HART reporting environments will have up to date data from EBS.

ADDITIONAL RELEASE DETAILS FOR FINDINI 4.0.17:

The FINDINI 4.0.17 release will include a Java JRE update to 1.8.0_241. For Mac desktop users only, when logging in for the first time after April 20, those users will be required to download this updated Java JRE. This is needed for Mac users who rely on the Safari 11 browser using Java JRE plug-in to open Oracle Forms. Please note, that Safari 12 and higher used on the Mac, no longer supports Java JRE plug-in, thus Oracle forms will not open using this browser. Any Safari browser can be continued to be used for any Web-pages/HTML based modules in Oracle EBS, however, Safari browsers on the Mac are currently incompatible with Java Web Start Technologies. Firefox version 60.x and greater will now allow Oracle Forms on a Mac to open using Java Web Start Technology as long as the base level of JRE 1.8.0_201 is installed. The Firefox browser can also be used for any Web-pages/HTML based modules in Oracle EBS. If users receive a popup message that a more recent version greater than 1.8.0_241 is available, they should NOT act upon the request.

Windows PC desktop users will no longer have to install Java JRE updates for Oracle Financials due to the Java Web Start technology. Oracle Forms will no longer prompt Windows PC users to update their Java JRE. All universal browsers, including Safari, will successfully open Oracle Forms on a windows PC using the Java Web Start technology.  At a minimum, they must have JAVA JRE 1.8.0_141 which was pushed to them several FINDINI releases ago. If needed for other applications, there is no harm for those users to update to JAVA JRE 1.8.0_241.

Further information regarding Java Web Start Technologies can be found at https://oracle.fss.finance.harvard.edu/user-resources.

PLEASE NOTE:

Always clear your browser cache and cookies if you encounter any screen issues or errors logging into Oracle Financials. Please follow the cookie clearing instructions found in the Appendix.

Oracle Financials desktop standards can be found on site https://harvard.service-now.com/ithelp?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=05d7a432dbacc7c083a2f3f7bf961977 under the Enterprise Application Supported Desktop Configurations section. These desktop standards will be updated for this release during our cutover. Further helpful tips & release information can be found on sites http://fss.finance.harvard.edu/popular-resources & http://oracle.fss.finance.harvard.edu/releases & https://oracle.fss.finance.harvard.edu/user-resources.

It is highly recommended for all users to subscribe to the https://status.huit.harvard.edu/ page. This will enable status alerts and notifications to be received by the users regarding all HUIT applications, as well as our specific Financial Applications. All Financial System links can be found https://huit.harvard.edu/apps/finance.

Click here for further E-news publication information regarding this release:

February Edition: https://admin-enews.eureka.harvard.edu/news/findini-4017-release-upcoming-april-system-outage-oracle-financials-systems

March Edition: https://admin-enews.eureka.harvard.edu/news/findini-4017-buy-pay-project-release-upcoming-april-system-outage-oracle-financial

April Edition:  TBD

For questions please contact the HUIT Service Desk at ithelp@harvard.edu or call them at 5-7777.

APPENDIX:

See Attachments for Summary of release changes and Training Tips: