As organizations move from Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) to Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, they often face several key needs:

  • Maintaining access to legacy EBS data
    Required for regulatory compliance and ongoing reporting.
  • Leveraging Fusion capabilities
    Organizations want to utilize advanced features available in Fusion.
  • Meeting data retention requirements
    Certain industries mandate that EBS data be retained for specified periods.
  • Consolidated Reporting
    There’s often a need for combined reporting across both EBS and Fusion data sources.
  • Selecting the right approach
    Choosing the optimal strategy for data access, integration, and reporting is critical for business continuity and informed decision-making.

This article summarizes solution options for reporting on historical EBS data and combining it with Fusion data to help stakeholders evaluate each approach against their compliance, operational, and analytical requirements.

Common Customer Requirements

Based on our experience working with EBS customers migrating to Fusion, several common requirements have emerged:

  • Regulatory mandates in sectors like finance, healthcare, and government require organizations to retain EBS data for set periods and maintain ongoing reporting capabilities.
  • Many customers need to selectively retain data from critical EBS modules, for ongoing operational and compliance reporting, and to create consolidated reports combining EBS and Fusion data.

Solution Approaches

To address the first requirement, there’s a packaged solution known as EBS Archival.The EBS Archival solution helps customers maintain an archive of their EBS data on Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse (ADW). It has a well-defined migration path and packaged implementation modules. The solution is shipped with prebuilt reports across many modules. It also allows extension to enable users to create custom reports.

Below is the high-level view of the architecture:

High-level architecture
High-level architecture

The technology stack includes APEX and ADW.

To address the second requirement, the Customer Success Services (CSS) Global Services Center (GSC) team recommends the following solution approaches:

Approach 1

If the customer uses Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence (FDI) to report on their Fusion data, our team created a solution framework for EBS R12 (Finance modules) allowing integration of legacy data from EBS with data from Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for consolidated reporting. This solution offers:

  • Consolidated Reporting: The solution provides consolidated reporting across EBS and ERP sources.  
  • Customizable and Extendable: The solution can also be extended to ingest additional datasets from Oracle and non-Oracle sources. 
  • Predictive analytics: Leverage the in-built Machine Learning capabilities in ADW and Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) to develop statistical models for predictive analysis.
Solution architecture
Solution architecture

The technology stack includes FDI and ODI.

Approach 2

In scenarios where customers choose not to leverage FDI and instead pursue the development of a custom data warehouse, the CSS GSC team provides a prebuilt solution — EBS Accelerator. This accelerator offers comprehensive, pre-configured data pipelines, data models, and reports across a wide range of ERP, HCM, and SCM modules, streamlining the implementation process and accelerating time to value. This solution accelerates the journey to build an enterprise-grade data warehouse and reporting platform, and is capable of extensions at all levels.

Enterprise Analytics architecture
Enterprise Analytics architecture

For customers seeking standalone reporting on legacy data, the EBS accelerator can be deployed and activated to enable rapid access to prebuilt reports. This solution allows users to efficiently view and analyze legacy data, often within a few weeks of implementation.

When users require a consolidated view that integrates both Fusion and EBS data within their reports, it’s essential to implement a solution akin to Solution Approach 1 (FDI). In this approach, custom Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) pipelines for Fusion and EBS data populate the data warehouse’s landing tables, and the integration — or combination of — these data sources occurs either at the database level within the foundation layer, or at the catalog level.

The technology stack includes ODI, ADW, and Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC).

Key Considerations

To ensure that the consolidated reporting solution effectively meets all business requirements, consider these points during design and development:

  • Data structure differences
    EBS and Fusion may have different data models and business rules for similar objects; accurate mapping and standardization of metrics are essential.
  • Dependency on consistent master data
    Mashup reporting between EBS and Fusion data is feasible only when master data values are harmonized across both systems.
  • Ongoing maintenance of master data cross-references
    Accurate, up-to-date master data cross-references must be diligently maintained in the data warehouse as new codes or values are added. It’s advisable to evaluate master data synchronization solutions to reduce manual maintenance efforts.
  • Challenges due to evolving master data mappings
    Frequent master data changes during Fusion rollout causes rework; start mashup reporting only after Fusion UAT sign-off.
  • Need for strong source system subject matter expert (SME) support during validation
    Extensive involvement from SMEs familiar with source systems was necessary to ensure robust validation of mashup reports.
  • Master Data Management (MDM) as a separate initiative
    Master Data Management (MDM) is a separate discipline requiring a dedicated project approach, often addressed with custom MDM solutions within the data warehouse for analytics needs.
  • Historical versus current data handling
    Fusion often contains only migrated transactional history, while EBS may retain deeper historical data. Plan how to present time-based analytics and clarify any historical gaps for users.
  • Security and access controls
     Align security policies and data models across both systems to ensure consistent security attributes.
  • Performance optimization
    Optimize data models for both flexibility and performance when combining large data sets, leveraging summarization, and caching as needed.

Recommendations

Our experience indicates that most customers transitioning EBS to Fusion SaaS prefer to leverage the default analytical capabilities provided by EBS Accelerator. 

For scenarios where customers want reports combining data from both EBS and Fusion, Oracle recommends that customers provide high-priority mashup report samples or templates. This proactive sharing enables:

  • Early access to report layouts helps identify required master data cross-references, enabling more accurate effort estimation and resource planning for mashup reporting.
  • Clearly defined requirements and attributes improve risk management and support smoother, more efficient mashup implementation.

Conclusion

In summary, organizations migrating from EBS to Fusion Cloud Applications have several viable options for reporting on historical EBS data and integrating it with Fusion data for comprehensive insights. The best approach depends on specific business, compliance, and technical requirements. By carefully evaluating each solution, stakeholders can ensure seamless access to critical data and maintain regulatory compliance throughout the migration journey. Selecting the right strategy will support informed decision-making and drive long-term value from both EBS and Fusion investments.

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