An Open Letter to Discoverer Users…

June 16, 2017

An Open Letter to Discoverer Users…

Dear Discoverer User,

As you know, Oracle has now placed Oracle Discoverer into Sustaining Support this month. Oracle defines Sustaining Support as a service which, “maximizes your investment protection by providing maintenance for as long as you use your Oracle software. Features include access to Oracle online support tools, upgrade rights, pre-existing fixes and assistance from technical support experts.” However, what they don’t tell you are the following implications of how this change can affect your business.

Technology Risks

Oracle
Currently, all customers are continuing to use the version of Java that Oracle Discoverer needs. That version has long been de-supported by Oracle. Furthermore, as operating systems and Java versions are upgraded, at some point the version of Java required by Discoverer will cease to work.

As an example, many years ago when Oracle/Sun released an upgrade version of Java, Oracle had to issue a special patch for Discoverer. With Oracle moving Discoverer to Sustaining Support, patches will not be available.

In summary, Oracle Sustaining Support does not include:
• New updates, fixes, security alerts, data-fixes, and critical patch updates
• New tax, legal, and regulatory updates
• New upgrade scripts
• Certification with new third-party products/versions
• Certification with other Oracle products

Microsoft
Microsoft continues to develop new technologies for its Microsoft Office suite. The Java version required for Discoverer will always need to be in sync with the Microsoft suite of products, otherwise you run the risk of losing the ability to run and view outputs when reports are run in Discoverer.

If customers cannot stay current on the latest and most secure releases of both the Microsoft Operating System and Java, there is an increased risk of their systems being hacked (as was the case with the latest ransom ware “WannaCry” for Windows XP, which lead to significant loss of data for those affected).

Another example of this risk: Windows 8 and beyond pose great challenges to customers continuing to run the Discoverer administrator, and it is highly probable that versions beyond Windows 10 will not work at all.

In short, this means that Discoverer cannot be guaranteed to work with any future release or patch of Oracle database, Oracle EBS, or Microsoft. Given how heavily many organizations rely on Discoverer for financial and operational reporting, we consider this a significant risk to your Oracle Operational Reporting Platform.

Business Risk

Reporting, Visualizations, and Business Intelligence have become an integral part of running a business, sometimes to a crippling extent. Therefore, it is imperative that businesses assign a monetary value to the business risks associated with such systems. Are you able to monetize the value and risk of each of the following?
• Competitive Advantage
• Decrease in Productivity
• Decision Making
• Governance
• Government Compliance
• Decrease in Stock Value
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)

Financial reporting is a key requisite of all stock exchange listed companies, and therefore anything that puts this at risk needs to be communicated to the shareholders. This is normally done in the company’s risk register.

Global Stock Exchange corporate governance code requires companies listed on a Stock Exchange to report their risk management activities. The publication of information on risk management activities enables shareholders (and other stakeholders) to evaluate the attention that the company pays to the management of significant risks it faces. Good standards of risk management reporting help to give confidence to shareholders that the company is resilient and is more likely to be successful in the short and long term.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires the chief executive and chief financial officers of public companies to attest to the accuracy of financial reports (Section 302) and requires public companies to establish adequate internal controls over financial reporting (Section 404). SOX resulted in an increased focus on IT controls, as these support financial processing and therefore fall into the scope of management’s assessment of internal control under Section 404 of SOX.

We have been talking for some months now about the need to replace Oracle Discoverer as part of your plan for a new Oracle Operational Reporting Platform. Hopefully, this letter serves as a comprehensive explanation of the risks that a company faces should Discoverer continue to be used as a main source of reporting. We are happy to discuss these with you further and help put together a plan to ensure Discoverer related risks are eliminated.

Let’s discuss further how we can best help your team mitigate its reporting risks!

Yours sincerely,

SplashBI Discoverer Migration Team

FAQ

How do specialized reporting platforms handle the reconciliation of legacy Oracle Discoverer or on-premise data with modern cloud financial records?

SplashBI's solutions for Discoverer platforms are specifically designed to address complex data integration challenges like reconciling legacy on-premise data (such as data originally reported via Oracle Discoverer) with modern cloud financial records. The process is generally handled through a sophisticated Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) or Extract, Load, and Transform (ELT) architecture that unifies the disparate data sources into a single, standardized data model.

Migrate EBS financial reporting: what timeline and costs should organizations expect when moving from Discoverer to modern BI?

Industry estimates and the actual timeline and costs can vary based on the complexity and volume of your specific Discoverer workbooks. One case mentioned that migrating nearly 2,000 workbooks can be done in approximately 42 days. The cost comparison for migrating 400 Discoverer workbooks, estimating the cost to be around $60,000 using SplashDM, which takes about 10 weeks. Building custom reports from scratch for the same number of workbooks could cost between $370,800 and $659,200, requiring over 4 man-years.

What are the best practices for migrating existing Oracle Discoverer reports used with Financial modules to a modern, cloud-compatible BI platform?

The best practices for migrating existing Oracle Discoverer reports to a modern, cloud-compatible BI platform involves a strategic approach that prioritizes data integration, security, and user experience.

Strategic Planning: Carefully evaluate new BI platforms to ensure they meet business needs and align with IT strategy.
Data Integration: Prioritize solutions that can seamlessly integrate data from various sources, including legacy systems and cloud platforms.
User Empowerment: Choose tools that enable business users to create reports and access data with minimal IT reliance.
Security and Compliance: Ensure the chosen platform offers robust security features and supports data archival and storage regulations.
Phased Migration: Consider a phased approach, especially when dealing with complex data landscapes.

Why is Oracle Discoverer replacement still a critical concern for companies migrating from Oracle EBS environments to Oracle Cloud ERP?

The replacement of Oracle Discoverer is a critical concern for companies migrating from Oracle EBS to Oracle Cloud ERP due to several factors: Outdated System, Lack of Automated Migration, Loss of Self-Service Functionality, Cost and Time-Consuming Manual Effort. These points indicate that the migration is not straightforward and requires careful planning and execution to avoid loss of functionality.

What is the benefit of shifting to conversational HR analytics?

Conversational analytics allows leaders to move away from static dashboards and ask questions of their data in plain language. This shift turns HR reporting from a compliance ritual into a decision engine, where curiosity replaces static charts and insights are generated on demand.