[July 16, 2008: Added two more vital resources to this list, instantly rendering the title of this article inaccurate.]

[May 14, 2008 Update:  It turns out that the original diagram from Eugene’s presentation could use some refining.  Diagram replaced with an excerpt from the Official R12 upgrade guide itself.]

[Apr 29, 2008 Update:  The diagram below is excerpted from Eugene Weinstein’s excellent OpenWorld 2007 presentation describing Oracle’s own R12 upgrade.  That presentation was released prior to our recent certification of the 11g Database with Release 11i, which is why there’s no reference to that database version below.  

As of today,  the 11g Database is certified with Release 11i but not with Release 12.  The R12 certification with the 11g Database is still underway now, and — as usual, I don’t have any dates for this certification yet.  If you upgrade your Apps 11i environment to the 11g DB today, your upgrade to Release 12 will have to wait until the latter is certified with the 11g DB, too.]

A remarkable aspect of this year’s OAUG Collaborate 2008 conference was the abundance of customer-presented sessions devoted to E-Business Suite Release 12 upgrades.  I stopped counting after the first dozen sessions.  I wish I could have cloned myself to attend all of them.

Upgrade Paths Table: Table of Release 12 upgrade paths from E-business Suite 11.0, 11.5.1 to 11.5.7, and 11.5.8 to 11.5.10


Despite the plethora of customer case studies and other materials, I got the impression that some of you may be wondering where to start.  Here’s a round-up of the key Oracle resources to help you plan and execute your Release 12 upgrade:
  1. Whitepapers about R12 functional benefits
    As a reader of this blog, your focus is likely on E-Business Suite technology more than on the applications modules’ functionality itself.  Remember, however, that upgrading to Release 12 should be primarily driven by the improvements to business processes that R12’s new capabilities offer.  The site above has whitepapers that your end-users can review to build their own business cases for the upgrade (e.g. “The Business Value of Upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite Financials Release 12”).
  2. Oracle Applications Upgrade Guide: Release 11i to Release 12 (PDF, 1.6 MB)
    This is the official, authoritative technical upgrade manual from Oracle Applications Development. This is part of the official Release 12 Documentation Library (Oracle Technology Network).
  3. Oracle Maintenance Wizard
    Oracle Support has worked jointly with Oracle Applications Development to produce this essential tool which produces a personalized 11i to R12 upgrade plan — complete with detailed patching recommendations — based upon your existing 11i environment.  Highly recommended.

  4. Oracle E-Business Suite Upgrade Resources Roadmap (Note 461705.1)
    Oracle provides a massive (and sometimes intimidating) amount of documentation to support your R12 upgrade.  This roadmap helps organize that documentation into four phases:  Evaluation, Planning, Execution, and Optimization.  This is the one-stop Metalink Note for links to Release Notes, READMEs, Release Content Documents, Upgrade Notes for specific platforms, and much, much more.

  5. R12 Install/Upgrade Forum (Oracle Technology Network)
    Amazingly, this OTN peer-supported discussion forum can sometimes yield answers to R12 upgrade questions faster than a formally-logged Service Request. This forum is monitored by Oracle Applications ACEs such as Hussein Sawwan, Michael Taylor, and Fadi Hasweh as well as Oracle Development (I’m one of the Oracle co-moderators of this forum).  This should be your first stop if you’re having any technical issues with your upgrade.  If your question isn’t answered here, then logging an SR with Metalink is the next step.

  6. Best Practices for Adopting Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Metalink Note 580299.1)
    This whitepaper from Oracle Development pulls together a diverse range of tips and practical suggestions for implementation, preparation and cleanup, and product-specific considerations for the R12 versions of Oracle Financials and other products. Highly recommended.

  7. Case Study: Oracle’s Own Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 Upgrade
    In addition to being a useful primer about R12, this excellent presentation summarizes practical tips and technical insights from the Oracle internal team that upgraded Oracle’s own E-Business Suite Global Single Instance from Release 11i to 12. As you’d expect, and their notes represent an insider’s glimpse into how an organization with access to the most-skilled EBS talent on the planet performed this upgrade. Highly recommended.
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