Looking Back at the US Conference Season

The  conference season in the US is over and I am getting around to the blog. If nothing else this gives me a list of where I have spoken to look back on.

I try to be involved in 3 US user events, ASCEND, BLUEPRINT 4D and KSCOPE. This year the events all happened in a 2 week period and that made it impossible, and I had to miss Blueprint, but I hope I will be forgiven and that I can be part of 2026.

ASCEND for me is mainly about the E Business Suite, and I spoke 4 times, twice in their pre conference webinar series and then twice on site. 

First up was a conversation with Mia Urman from Auraplayer on Modernizing EBS, I always love speaking with Mia, her passion for EBS and getting the most out of it is infectious and no surprise she was announced as member of the year for OATUG. We have also just heard that we will speak again on this subject at Oracle Cloud World.

Then I did part one of AI in EBS and comparing it to Fusion. This was based on an earlier webinar that was so well received we split it into two. Part two was one site in Orlando. I also wrote about the topic here.

Finally I spoke with Mohan Dutt and Soumit Roy on Juicy Opportunities with Gen AI: Squeezing the Full Potential of Oracle E-Business Suite. Definitely a popular topic.

Important for me was understanding what people are doing with EBS, so as well as attending some sessions and meeting with both our customer's I asked lots of users what they are doing, and this will shape some of our upcoming webinars and services.

I also wrote a blog about how I interpreted the messages and what I learnt.

ASCEND also covers Fusion but with a smaller audience, as expected there was a lot here about AI as well. From Oracle the main message was about the soon to be released AI Agent Studio. I attended pre training a few weeks ago and the possibilities are endless. I came away with 2 immediate use cases. I always say you should be looking at challenges it can help resolve rather than just the new technology. At Ascend I spent time with Nancy Estell Zoder, giving feedback and explaining these use cases. Part of the ACE Director role is feedback to development and this was an excellent opportunity.

I love the chance to catch up with old friends and make new friends and  the loviest thing happened this year. Floyd Teter is an amazing advocate for Oracle applications and I knew was not going to be at ASCEND but after one of my sessions a delegate came up to me and introduced himself as Floyd's son. He is just starting his EBS career. 

Then it was a quick flight to Dallas to KSCOPE and I cover that here in another blog. I am on the board of ODTUG and so KSCOPE is my personal priority, and where I learn about the technology underpinning and enhancing the applications.

However between the two, at early o'clock on the Saturday morning, I took and passed the Fusion AI Agent Studio exam, which went live on the day before. User organisations need to know their partners are trained and certified in these new technologies.

My attendance at ASCEND was sponsored by Oracle through the ACE program and I have another post about that too.

Dates for next year:

Blueprint 4 D - May 4 - 7 Dallas

Ascend - June 8 - 11 Orlando

KSCOPE - June 14 - 18 Denver

KSCOPE 25 - Now I have finally recovered!

 

I love KSCOPE, but you would expect me to say that, I am a current board director for ODTUG, looking for re-election.

But I do love it, I am an applications person, but its success is the technology it is based on and how we can use technology to extend them. KSCOPE is where I come to learn about that. I attended my first KSCOPE in 2007 and have only missed one since.

This year KSCOPE was in Dallas, and although it started on the Sunday, the board arrived the Thursday before, for a full day of meetings on the Friday. 

The meeting started with a quick update on the conference but the rest was about ODTUG, we published a strategy earlier in the year and we each have areas to deliver on. Kurt Mayer and I are responsible for communities, and one area we have worked on is the OCI Community that was announced at conference. This is especially important to me as this is where we extend the Apps. Where we use APEX there is a vibrant community, but Visual Builder, Integration and other OCI services do not have a clear home. We have had content but they have been streams and more recently tags in the Database Track. So we pitched for and had approved by the board an OCI Community. I hope this will not only deliver for OCI but give more focus and clarity to the Database Community. We asked Basheer Khan if he would be interested in leading the community and he stepped up, and in the run up to the launch, organised a series of webcasts.

Monty Latiolas was the KEO for KSCOPE 24 & 25 but has handed the batten over to Sara Beth Good for KSCOPE26 and planning has started for that already.

After a very full day, Saturday started with a session to determine what we need in our mobile app, creating a purchasing document when the team is so technical means we often run down solutioning rabbit holes but as ever Jackie McIlroy our President kept us in order. However I did get up even earlier to take an Oracle AI Studio Exam! There was a welcome reception for volunteers in the afternoon.

Sunday is our Symposiums, where Oracle Product Managers who support KSCOPE in force. Many delegates come in early especially for these, I floated between a few and welcomed people to the event.

Then we had welcomes for speakers and newcomers in the exhibition hall before the first networking session. Conferences would be unaffordable for delegates if we didn't have sponsors and exhibitors. This year the exhibition was fun and lively and in no small way thanks to Elizabeth Ferrell who unfortunately had to miss the conference due to a virus. 

The theme of a state fair worked well with lots of fairground attractions, and money was raised for a local charity Cook Childrens including a very generous contribution from our top sponsor AppliedOLAP . One of those stalls was a dunk the board tank. I volunteered ahead of time, but when I saw it I almost pulled out, but my favourite quote is "Commitment is doing the thing you said you would do, long after the mood in which you said it has gone" - so I had a sneaky go when no one was looking to make sure I could actually get back out again. 

Some people enjoyed this just a little bit too much - you know who you are! Thank you Connor McDonald for the video.

Monday started early with rehearsal for the general session, and then I facilitated a panel session on Visual Builder v APEX. This is my bailiwick, and the discussion was really interesting. Both products are strategic to Oracle and the APEX team shared how they are working even closer with the SaaS development teams.

At lunch time it was the Women In IT event and I was a table facilitator, There was a good sprinkling of men in the room which I love and my table had a great discussion on how they saw themselves in the work place.

The general session was excellent and started with an opening video the board were very proud off. We recorded our parts individually (mine from a hotel room when travelling) and the team at YCC our management company did the magic with a sprinkling of AI and came up with the final clip. I loved it.

There was information, a thank you to Monty, a lifetime achievement award for Edward Roske who has finished his time on the board and stepping away a bit from the Oracle world (but I don't believe that). Videos for both of these are on our youtube channel.

I made the announcement of the OCI Community here with Basheer. So pleased we have delivered. We made the plea for more volunteers and if you are interested sign up here.

Each year there are two awards, one for volunteer which for the first time was a repeat recipient, Karen Cannell. In the last year amongst many things she has done for ODTUG she took over from me as lead for the Innovation Incubator Committee (new ideas), and was the leading light for both the ACE Alliance launched just before conference but in full swing in the ACE lounge, and the APEX Boot camp initiatives. Her partner in crime on the boot camps, Product Manager Jayson Hanes was awarded the Oracle Volunteer Award. Both so well deserved.

Then there was a magician, or rather Keelan Leyser is a World-leading Tech Magician, Mentalist, Digital Illusionist and Optical Illusion Expert. I was a bit sceptical as I don't like magic as I need to know how things work, but I actually really enjoyed his show. 

Back to sessions and then the evening there was more networking (and dunking for me), the ACE Dinner (more about ACE activities here) and then community events such as Open Mike and the very popular Silent Disco. Obviously there was also the traditional Werewolf games played into each night.

Tuesday and Wednesday plenty of education content starting very early, I don't get the opportunity to attend as much as I would like as the board try and meet with each Product Management group whilst they are on site and look at what they can improve and work on together over the next year. This is so important as these relationships are key to our success. I truly believe that improving what we do between the conferences in the communities will make the annual KSCOPE even better.

The special event Wednesday evening is something everyone looks forward to. This year the theme was Stars over Texas and there were many interpretations from celestial goddesses to 4th of July. I went for the later. Love this picture from the official photographer of myself with Wayne Van Sluys.

My board task for the evening was to get everyone who wanted to go back to the resort on the buses. Easier said then done when everyone had had such a great time. The venue was inspired, food and drink flowed and the drone show was magic. 

Thursday morning, had yet more sessions but more community focused and then we had a final session where top presenters were acknowledged. A tradition from KSCOPEs before that had been missing for a while. Back by popular demand. Monty, you and your team delivered a great event.

Now, if I can just get elected again for next year......

If you want to know more about KSCOPE this is the video for you.

ACE DIrector Duties / Fun

I am very proud of being an ACE Director but sometimes I wonder if we look to others like an elitist group of speakers just having fun. So I thought I would share my last few weeks as an ACE Director during a couple of user group conferences, ASCEND and KSCOPE. 

The ACE program, in my words, is an advocate program run by Oracle recognising those with Oracle knowledge that share it.

The official description - "It recognizes, rewards, and promotes technical experts and community leaders for their amazing contributions to the Oracle community".

There are currently three levels which recognise the varying contributions to the community, which can be blogging (technical), Articles, webinars and presentations, books etc. ACEs are also recognised for their contributions creating the community, user group leaders etc. Your contribution is reviewed each year. 

I am an ACE Director, the top level which requires a constant flow of sharing, it cannot be crammed in to get over the requirements line. The number of ACE Directors is just under 100 but varies as people come and go, often by going to work for Oracle itself. You can see who is in the program here.

One benefit at ACE Director is some funding towards attending events. There are strict rules and it doesn't cover all the costs but much appreciated. My attendance at ASCEND was partially funded by the program. They also sponsored some at KSCOPE but as I am on the board and they rightly exclude sponsorship for board members.

At most conferences there is an ACE dinner, for all ACES, and at ASCEND we left the resort and a big thanks to Jen Nicholson who runs the program for Oracle and Connor McDonald who is responsible for the group photos on this post.

AT KSCOPE we stayed on site, and had a great evening.

Sometimes we also have ACE Adventures, a fun outing where there are a number of ACEs attending. At ASCEND conference our ACE Adventure was to the Kennedy Space Centre. I was hoping it would be more than a theme park and didn't really know what to expect, and I was surprised at how interesting I found it. The area I enjoyed most was the area remembering astronauts who have died. For each one there was a display of things important to them, not just their space program credentials. Very human.

Then we did the Shuttle Launch Simulator, and I didn't want to do it. I hate rides, but with gritted teeth I got into it. It was pointed out to me that there were children under 10 on it so it couldn't be too bad, and that made me realise i was being daft. Actually it wasn't too bad, a bit like a flight in economy with a child kicking the back of your seat the entire time!

These social events are fun, but they are also a chance to discus what we are up to and innovation in Oracle technology dinners. There is no fluff, these are experts, I can ask people questions in other areas without feeling stupid and they ask me application questions.

When the event also has Oracle Product Managers, the ACE Program try to arrange an ACE only briefing, no marketing, deep technical and open questions. KSCOPE which attracts more Product Managers than any other conference is an obvious place to have these.

Where possible there is an ACE session at events, the opportunity to encourage new people to join the program. I wasn't officially on the panel at ASCEND but attended to support and found myself upfront sharing my thoughts. Jen Nicholson who runs the program, attended both events so was able to talk to so many people who are interested.

At KSCOPE there was an Oracle area in the exhibition hall and included an ACE lounge where people could come and chat to ACES on duty about the program and see how they can get involved. I had several conversations with people who want to support the community this way. One gentleman took his photograph at an ACE poster which he says he will share when he reaches his ambition and gets into the program, it is seen as valuable. ACEs are expected to recruit others, look out for those they think are contributing and encourage them to look at applying. ODTUG has recently launched our ACE Alliance to support those wanting to join, but also help those who want to move through the levels. 

Two ACE members who have benefiting from ODTUG are Sarah Dow and Lydia Maksoud and here they are celebrating their recent promotion to ACE Pro at the KSCOPE special event.

Obviously I need to keep up the contributions, the speaking which I love, so in between the fun, I had many presentations to deliver and at KSCOPE with my other board members busy behind the scenes. No rest for the wicked!

If you have any questions on the program, look at the information available and feel free to reach out.

E Business Suite Thoughts from ASCEND User Conference

 

ASCEND is the conference for OATUG and OHUG. It covers a wide remit of applications and underpinning technology and is the unofficial home of Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS).

The sell out session is the Strategy and Update session from Cliff Godwin, SVP, EBS Applications Development.

This is my high-level review of his session and a later ‘ask the Experts.’ It does not do justice to the content and examples he packed into the two hours. His slides are available if you want to see more.

Nuts and bolts

The only 10 years of life for EBS myth has been put to bed and ‘rolling 10 years support’ seems to be understood. This means you will have at least 10 years notice if they decide to stop it.

All release 12 is supported, but 12.2.7 is the earliest release for Error Correction support. Lower releases are still supported but may have to wait longer for patches than later releases.

In general, there is an annual release of EBS—the last was 12.2.14, September 2024.

Enterprise Command Centers (ECC) are updated every 6 months. These dashboards let you drill into your data. There are currently 165 dashboards and over 36 Command Centers. No cost from Oracle and you don’t have to be on latest version to take ECC updates, just above 12.2.4.

Oracle Development look at EBS Ideas on My Oracle Support for new functionality inspiration. But you need to vote. Currently only 1% of ideas gets 20+ votes.

Most customers upgraded to 12.2 as a technical upgrade without taking new functionality, which is often true for point releases too—15 years of development investment going unused.

However there is a great resource to explore consolidated Release Content Document. Plus this Transfer of Information Document for level of training on these enhancements.

Digging deeper into ECC

Cliff gave several examples of ECC functionality. I believe Oracle are frustrated at the low uptake on ECC, and have previously discussed my theory that organisations are instead opting for investing in their own customisations or third party reporting tools, but I also see a move towards retiring customisations as a long term strategy in getting ready for SaaS. ECC could be a big part of that.

Here are just three ECC examples Cliff shared: 

• General Ledger budget dashboard. This summary of budget v actuals is a superior way of visualising the data and drilling through to details.

• Receivables cash application dashboard. Radically improves how you can manage unapplied receipts, especially useful when written or verbal instructions have been given of where payment should be applied. 

• The dashboard with the most votes for development was the enhanced ordering and billing or returning and cancelling internal sales orders. 

ECC helps you manage by exception in these operational dashboards.

Cliff made the point that if you have exposed this data via a third-party reporting tool, it isn’t integrated, and you can’t drill down to action. 

EBS trends and highlights

Cost and Profitability is worth highlighting as scenario planning on margins could help with tariff planning. EBS could do this previously, but with additional cost and needed OBIEE, an EBS native solution is coming soon in 12.2.15.

Cliff shared that 40% of EBS customers use OCI hosting. The move is quick and delivers improved cost and performance. Remember you are only paying for what you use and don’t have to size it for the highest peak load.

Ask EBS

The ability to ask Natural Query Language questions against your EBS, is not an EBS product, but a use of OCI AI Service with EBS. There is a small cost, OCI service and instance of autonomous database. 

Find out more here: Enabling Natural Language Query of Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) Release 12.2, Leveraging Oracle Generative AI (MOS Note 3059877.1). Always look at most current version of the document as it is being updated frequently.

One new myth has surfaced that you need to be on OCI to use this Ask EBS. You do not.

I spoke at Ascend, comparing AI in EBS to Fusion. My conclusion? If you want to use AI pervasively in your organisation, it may be time to reconsider your move to SaaS. You can use AI services against EBS data, but you need to build out each use case.  AI in Fusion SaaS is more embedded and with AI Agent Studio you can orchestrate your own AI processes within the safety rails provided. Watch an earlier version of that webinar here.

EBS on 23ai

The second new myth is that once you are using EBS on 23ai, you won’t need to follow the process to create the new AI schema. Not true, EBS does not have a ‘translation layer’ that AI can use to understand the data. To understand more, check Inoapps’ AI with EBS blogs. 

Technology Stack

Cliff suggested that over the next 2 years EBS customers should plan to move to 23ai database. Maybe not possible today as not all platforms have 23ai, so the EBS team cannot certify it. This delay is the 23ai release, not the EBS team. Today it is available on OCI and Exadata.

Currently an upgrade is application and technology combined. Oracle is separating these so a technical upgrade won’t affect on your code. It is currently being tested on Oracle hosted customers and will be available to all customers in due course. Another thing to plan for.

EBS and APEX

An enhancement that has appeared because of the work done to enable AI, is the ability to embed APEX extensions into your EBS application, same browser tab. This is done from a OA container frame – to the user looks like EBS, more natural. Some of the functionality is available from 12.2.7 but  the full functionality is from 12.2.14.

My take away from these sessions and conversations I had with many EBS organisations. If you are planning to stay on EBS for a while, look at your customisations. Compare them with what Oracle has delivered in the application and ECC and see if some can be retired. Then with what is left consider if you will need them in Fusion (ask a trusted partner like Inoapps), and if they will still be required consider extracting them from the EBS code today, rewrite in APEX or Visual Builder and co-exist. Make use of that new APEX embedding. These steps will make your eventual move to SaaS much easier and give your users a better experience in the short term.