Renewed Interest in EBS

Whilst I have reduced the time I work, I am still really busy and when I look at my to do list, there is a lot of E Business Suite content. I think of myself as a Fusion person and so have been exploring why this might be so.

I've always loved presenting

E Business Suite isn't going anywhere, and I believe most organisations now understand support is a rolling rather than fixed date, in other words you will get 10 years notice of any finish for EBS and that count down has not yet started.

For organisations using EBS they are not standing still, they have plans. At Inoapps we are running a survey on EBS use and I will be sharing the trends we are seeing with UKOUG this week, and hopefully in other events through the year.

One area under consideration is customisations. EBS was designed to be easily customised and we have all taken advantage of that. I am talking to many who want to catalogue, assess and modernise where it makes sense. Not just the application functionality, but user experience, integrations, reporting.

APEX is a real powerhouse in modernisation and Oracle have made it even easier to use in EBS.

There is a new release of EBS to be assessed, more functionality voted on by customers, and technology considerations, 26ai available for some and more to come.

Security is also a hot topic, recent patching and vulnerabilities have people checking out their setup.

EBS is not exempt from AI, Oracle have detailed how you can use AI services to setup 'Ask EBS', Natural Language Queries against your system. 

'Ask EBS' utilises the objects behind Enterprise Command Centres and I am seeing a renewed interest here. Just to be clear you don't have to be using ECC or even implement ECC, to setup 'Ask EBS' - you just run a few of the early steps to generate the objects. But this has led to people exploring ECC, possibly not having looked at them since they were new and immature. The thinking is if ECC design works as the backbone for 'Ask EBS' they must have some value.

EBS can like any other data source make use of other AI services from Oracle, and that is also being explored too.

Those who want an easier path to AI, are joining those planning their move to Fusion, for new both functionality and technology. 

My roadmapping conversation around a simple flowchart is still really popular and lends itself to all these conversations, because all conversations need to be centred on the organisation needs rather than the application itself.

I have been involved in webinars and presentations on all these areas discussed here and it is keeping me busy. (all are available online). I am privileged to work with EBS and technology experts and helping them to share these pathways is what I love to do. I hope to see and talk to many more organisations as the conference season ramps up.

2025 Review and Looking Forward to 2026

As we look welcome 2026 and share our plans, I want to start by looking back at 2025.

My plans post for 2025 was a big bold plan to achieve my bucket list for scuba diving whilst not actually retiring. It required cutting right back at work to 18 weeks and careful planning, but that started back in 2022 when I made the decision.

So did I achieve my plans? Not quite, but back to that later.

I did 255 dives, over 6 trips, in 4 continents, and 10 countries. That is more than 25% of my dive count to date. I started the year with 791 dives in the log book and finished with 1045!

• Jan / Feb Thailand and Indonesia.
• Mar / Apr Phillipines and Micronesia
• May Lanzarote with my home buddy and daughter
• July dives at home in N Ireland
• August in Mexico
• September in Eygpt
• Nov / Dec Singapore and Australia including 3 weeks on the Great Barrier Reef

And what about work? We decided on 18 weeks and I delivered. I supported projects with content and advice, I planned and delivered at Oracle CloudWorld London, Ascend and Kscope, HR tech (a new conference for me), and AI World in Las Vegas. I supported our AI capability build and am currently running a major study on EBS customers which I will present on this Spring.

Whilst not technically working I also, with ACE funding support, joined the Latin America Oracle Tour, presenting in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala. I returned to South Africa for their event and then when in Australia for my last dive trip, I was also able to present at the AUSOUG event in Perth. All this enabled me to retain my ACE Director which was one of the goals.

My bucket list was about experiences rather than just places. And some of the highlights were amazing adventures with Whale Sharks, and learning to muck dive in Indonesia. Both of these I talked about in my 'Joel Kallman Day' post.

I dived Historic wrecks in Chuuk Lagoon in Micronesia and was memorised by how respectful it was to history.

The Great Barrier Reef was a must and I was not disappointed, I travelled to the far North of Australia and dived places that don't even have names, it is so rare people go there, and travelled over 3 weeks down the reef back to Cairns and then went further out to the Coral Sea. Yes I saw some damage but deliberately visited places that have recovered or avoided damage. 

As well as reaching my 1,000 dive milestone, I also dived with Dolphins which has alluded me in my dive career to date, that was so special.

I spent time diving with my daughter who is newer to diving, along with my local dive buddy who simply is the reason I keep going.

I have made plenty of new friends and will dive with many again I hope. I have also had more time and been able to catch up with many people throughout the year, including several in Australia. And virtually, my friends have followed my adventure on Facebook and given me advice and ideas, like the man who was part of my original dive training who told me how to find Weedy Sea Dragons in Sydney, which I managed to fit in, before going on the boat. 

So why did I say I hadn't quite achieved my goals? Well what I learnt in 2025 is that I am not too old for diving, I met many older than me, and actually feel fitter than at the start of the year. My bucket list is not complete and in fact I have added to it!

So with those two important lessons, and continued support from Inoapps, 2026 will follow the same pattern. Just 18 weeks work and a lot of diving. But first a period of time at home, working on some of the projects in the house and with my daughter that got put on hold in 2025.