Oracle INTERNAL FAQ E-Business Suite Financials Release 12

August 2006

Last Updated August 23, 2006

Oracle Internal Use Only Not for Distribution

FAQ E-Business Suite Financials Release 12 August 2006

The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract.

ORACLE INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION ONLY

THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INTERNAL USE AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED TO CUSTOMERS OR PARTNERS WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL FROM ORACLES GLOBAL BUSINESS PRACTICES (HQAPP@ORACLE.COM) AND GLOBAL REVREC (GLOBALREVREC_US@ORACLE.COM) ORGANIZATIONS. THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A FIRM DEVELOPMENT PLAN. THE DEVELOPMENT, RELEASE, AND TIMING OF ANY FEATURES OR FUNCTIONALITY DESCRIBED HEREIN ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME AND AT ORACLES SOLE DISCRETION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH ORACLES REVENUE RECOGNITION POLICY, DISCUSSIONS WITH CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS ABOUT FUTURE PRODUCT RELEASES SHOULD BE LIMITED TO (1) GENERAL STATEMENTS PREVIEWING FEATURES ALREADY PLANNED FOR RELEASE AS PART OF OUR OVERALL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PLAN, AND (2) GENERAL STATEMENTS THAT DO NOT MEET THE DEFINITION OF A SPECIFIED UPGRADE, PURSUANT TO ORACLES REVENUE RECOGNITION POLICY AND (3) GENERAL STATEMENTS WHICH DESCRIBE THE PRODUCT DIRECTION USING TERMS SUCH AS PLAN, FORECAST, AND EXPECTATION, AND (4) GENERAL STATEMENTS THAT DO NOT INCLUDE TERMS SUCH AS COMMITMENT, GUARANTEE, AND WILL DELIVER, WHICH MIGHT IMPLY A COMMITMENT TO DELIVER SPECIFIED FUNCTIONALITY ON A SPECIFIED DATE, AND (5) STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT INCORPORATED INTO ANY CONTRACT OR OTHER FORM OF AGREEMENT.

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Table of Contents
GENERAL ARCHITECTURE Ledgers/Ledger Sets: Subledger Accounting (SLA): Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC): Bank Account Model: Tax Engine: Other: PRODUCT-RELATED Financial Consolidation Hub: Receivables: Advanced Collections iReceivables: Credit Management: UPGRADE TECHNOLOGY/FUSION MIDDLEWARE XML Publisher: Business Process Execution Language (BPEL): Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): Other: WHO CAN I CONTACT IF I HAVE ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS?

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FAQ E-Business Suite Financials Release 12 August 2006

The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract.

General
1. When will Release 12 be generally available? Release 12 is currently scheduled for a CY 06 delivery, for all customers, new and existing. 2. When Release 12 becomes generally available, are we still able to sell 11.5.10 (for upsell opportunities)? Current 11.5.10 customers have all 11.5.10 products in their database instance. They would simply activate the additional products once the license agreement is signed. 3. How do I find out more detailed information about Financials Release 12? Self-Study: Release Content Document (RCD) for Financials Release 12 for internal use only (not to be distributed to customers) will be available after September 1, 2006. RCDs will be available for customers approximately 30 days prior to GA. Oracle E-Business Financials Release 12 Statement of Direction. Available on or after September 1, 2006 on the Release 12 portlet on the ERP Portal. Functional TOIs Targeted delivery starting September 1st. Accessible via Oracle University. Technical TOIs Targeted delivery starting September 1st. Accessible via Oracle University. Oracle Applications Upgrade Guide: 11.5 to Release 12 will be available with the documentation CD included with the release. Internal Oracle employees can get this document via the Virtual Documentation CD available on OracleMetaLink when the release becomes generally available. Preview Presentation of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Cross family) (can be shared with customers). Field Readiness Training recording (available in October). Sales Consulting Readiness Training (October 9 20, 2006, Financials specific training October 16 20, 2006). Consulting/Support Readiness Training (September 11 October 6, 2006 for entire suite; Financials specific training September 18 29, 2006)

In Person Training:

4. When will training at Oracle University be available for Release 12? The timeframe to begin releasing the initial Release 12 Financials courses to OU for classroom deployment is Q1/CY07. This release will begin with the high performing courses that demand frequent updates (GL, AP, AR, PO, etc.) and following this we will begin to release the strategic offerings (Internal Controls Manager, etc.). The priorities of the release schedule are based on the popularity of the courses with GL, Financials Functional Foundation, and Financial Applications Overview being the first three releases.

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract.

5. What can be shared with customers at this point? Preview Presentation of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Cross family). TOIs will be available to customers and partners post GA of Release 12. Release Content Document (RCD) will be made available to customers approximately 30 days prior to GA. Statement of Direction. Will be available shortly on MetaLink for customers.

6. Are there going to be any upgrade or implementation programs where customers can participate? We are pleased to announce the Strategic Implementation Program (SIP) for customers that plan to aggressively implement and / or upgrade to E-Business Suite Release 12. The SIP, formerly known as Early Adopter Program, is designed to ensure the smooth implementation of new features/products and/or upgrade of an Oracle Applications product/product set. The SIP starts immediately after Release 12 is released. From project kick-off through go live, a cross-functional SIP team will provide active support (recurring calls) to customers. Oracle will engage with these customers to ensure they receive timely and high-quality support, knowledge transfer, and executive oversight to accelerate project timelines and reduce risk. This program is intended to assist selected customers with their go-live, making sure these customers are successful in their implementations and are referenceable. The SIP was announced August 1, 2006. Use the following link for specific details regarding how to nominate customers, selection criteria, etc. http://ebizops.us.oracle.com/launch/release 12/mrp/customer.html. For immediate questions please contact Rebekah Jackson (rebekah.jackson@oracle.com). 7. What new products will be available as upsell opportunities in Release 12? The following are new Financials products in Release 12 (on price list): Financial Consolidation Hub (FCH) Released after 11.5.10 as a standalone product prior to Release 12 but would be considered new to most 11.5 customers. Financial Services Accounting Hub (FSAH) - Released after 11.5.10 as a standalone product prior to Release 12 but would be considered new to most 11.5 customers. Profitability Manager (consolidates Activity Based Management and Performance Analyzer) The following are new Financials products in Release 12 internal classification only (not on price list): Subledger Accounting (SLA) E-Business Tax (ZX) Legal Entity Configurator (XLE) Financial Common Modules (includes Advanced Global Intercompany System, AP/AR Netting) Renamed Financials products in Release 12: Payments (used to be called iPayments in 11.5) Obsoleted products in Release 12: Activity Based Management Performance Analyzer

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract.

8. If I have questions regarding licensing, who should I contact? eSource contains information regarding pricing and licensing. Key Contacts are provided on this site: http://esource.oraclecorp.com/pls/esrc/esr_main.home 9. Will there be any changes to the standard Oracle Financials "bundle" (e.g., is it still GL, AR, AP, FA, CM) or are there additional products included now)? E-Business Suite Financials now includes: Oracle Payments (formerly called iPayments is included), Subledger Accounting (SLA), E-Business Tax, Legal Entity Configurator, Financial Common Modules. 10. What's after Release 12? Will family packs be continued by product, or will there be additional point releases? What is the prioritization process of how things get into Release 12+ vs. Fusion? Oracle is moving to a general manager model for the E-Business Suite product line. As part of this organization and process change we have not yet determined the formal release mechanism or schedule for enhancements and bug fixes on top of Release 12. At a minimum we expect to provide product family packs and division level cumulative patch sets. The criteria for determining whether an enhancement will be delivered on the E-Business Suite or Fusion product line is based on the timing and criticality of the requirement for the specific market or customer base. Within Financials we have already identified some key enhancements planned on top of Release 12: US Federal FSIO 2006 Requirements Certification UK Construction Industry Scheme forward port (target Dec. 2006 on 11.5) Norwegian Payment Processing

11. To what extent will the new User Interface require users and staff to be retrained? The new user interface is designed to enhance usability without requiring re-training. It incorporates many usability-science improvements - easier clicking, more accurate selection, reduced wrist movements, new colors, new buttons, etc.: in short, an improved user experience with a focus on ease of use. The transition should be simple and straightforward. 12. Why should customers upgrade to Release 12 instead of waiting for Fusion? Companies with global operations or a shared service center model should expect substantial efficiency gains and improved financial reporting capabilities in Release 12. The parallel accounting as well as multiple ledger processing capabilities in Release 12 will enable global companies to meet diverse local and corporate financial reporting requirements more efficiently and with higher levels of control. Release 12 also delivers significant enhancements for shared service processing. In addition, Release 12 will also offer 300+ additional features across the E-Business Financials Suite including more rapid reconciliation of subledgers with GL, data partitioning, automatic COGS reversal on deferred revenue, etc. Release 12 also will bring customers further down the path of Fusion with a number of Fusion Middleware technologies integrated directly in the applications. For example, Release 12 has a highly adaptive financial value chain architecture with the addition of suppliers and web services to the Trading Community Data Hub; XML Publisher will allow business users to format reports using familiar desktop tools, reducing the reliance on expensive IT resources to create custom reports. Release 12 delivers cross-application flows from Oracle Financials to Oracle Retail using BPEL Manager.

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. 13. Will the upgrade to Fusion be easier from Release 12 or 11.5.10 or the same? Technically the upgrade from Release 12 may be easier because customers will have had early exposure to Fusion Middleware concepts and features. Functionally the upgrade from Release 12 may also be easier for customers that have implemented and worked with Subledger Accounting (SLA), Ledgers, Ledger Sets and Legal Entity concepts. As far as the actual upgrade process, the project management is the same. In general, the upgrades will be very similar, but the upgrade from Release 12 to Fusion may take less time because the data models and technologies will be more similar. 14. What are the Financials themes for Release 12? Operational Excellence Gain processing efficiencies through standardized accounting and shared service centers of excellence. Standard accounting rules applied to all source systems, Oracle or non-Oracle, using common accounting engine One place for defining and maintaining accounting set up Concurrent multiple ledger processing Streamlined reconciliation between sub-ledgers and general ledger; and intercompany trading partners Seamless transaction processing across operating units for shared services organizations Streamlined payment and collection shared services processing with centralized bank account information End-user customizable report layouts Governance, Risk and Compliance Management at Every Level Oracle delivers unparalleled controls and security integrated into every business process and at every level of your enterprise software. Parallel accounting to meet diverse regulatory and global accounting requirements Full auditability of multiple accounting representations generated from single business transaction Central transaction tax engine to comply with global tax rules Only Oracle links control assessments to financial accounts with financial statement certification dashboard Greatest Business Insight Get an accurate picture of business performance with information you can trust. Data consistency across sub-ledger applications with common data model Granular view of data across sub-ledger applications Single source of financial and operational data for management reports and inquiry Legal and management results in one system Consolidated information from disparate financial systems Profitability analytics

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract.

Architecture
Ledgers/Ledger Sets:
1. Whats the difference between Ledgers and Ledger Sets and Sets of Books (SOBs) (is it just a name change or is there more to it?)? How is the upgrade handled? Do customers have to repoint subledgers from SOBs to Ledgers? It is not just a name change; however, it is more correct to say that Release 12 replaces "Set of Books" with Subledger Accounting (SLA), Ledgers and Ledger Sets. There are important differences between SOBs and Ledgers. A Set of Books was a general ledger with its associated subledger books (AR. AP, etc.), and was self contained as to management, calendaring and reporting. In Release 12, SLA tables provide formal accounting for the subledgers. Ledger is the general data - transactions and balances - for a particular accounting entity. And the Ledger Set is where the management, calendaring and GL Reporting live. The new multiple ledger approach keeps the data segmented, similar to a set of books, but unlike the set of books approach allows for processing and reporting across different accounting entities. From an upgrade perspective, the upgrade process will automatically map currently defined SOBs to a Ledger within a Ledger Set (youll get one Ledger and one Ledger Set associated with one SOB). Operating Units will be pointed to the Ledgers that were created respective to the SOBs. 2. What do Ledgers have to share in order to be combined into Ledger Sets? Ledgers have to share a COA and a common calendar to be in a Ledger Set. Different currencies and accounting principles are OK. You can do translation and remeasurement within the set on individual ledgers to manage the currency differences. We anticipate that customers will create adjusting balancing segment values or ledgers to produce apple-to-apple IAS/IFRS or US GAAP totals from nationally compliant local ledgers. Ledgers in a Ledger Set must have a common chart of accounts. A common chart of accounts is defined as a single global chart of accounts shared across the enterprise. In order for existing 11.5 customers to leverage Ledger Sets, they will be required to standardize on a single global chart of accounts if they currently dont share a common chart of accounts in their 11.5 Sets of Books. Ledger Sets allow you to perform cross-ledger functions (e.g., allocations, reporting, open/close periods, etc.) significantly increasing processing efficiencies. 3. Are Ledger Sets supported in the sub-ledgers? (e.g., AP, AR, etc.) No, Ledger Sets are not applicable to the sub-ledgers. However, MOAC (Multi-Org Access Control) enables the management of transactions across multiple operating units.

Subledger Accounting (SLA):

4. How is Subledger Accounting implemented in the subledgers? The transaction processing systems (e.g., AP, AR, etc.) identify which transaction types might require accounting. Once identified as accounting transactions, SLA creates the accounting entries and writes them to the SLA tables automatically upon saving. A centralized posting process creates tremendous efficiency by simplifying the subsystem close management process. Now customers can choose to post transactions realtime or according to a schedule. Confidential Internal Use Only 8 of 18

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. 5. Since Release 12 Subledger Accounting (SLA) uses a new methodology to produce accounting, will the results be consistent with those in Release 11.5? Yes, the results will be the same. Release 12 uses the accounting rules set up by the customer in the previous release until they decide to replace them. For example, the distributions used by a customer remain and become data for the accounting process. Subledger Accounting provides full audit trails of and transparency into different accounting representations of the same business event in accordance with mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the EU Eight Directive. 6. I understand that Subledger Accounting can be used to derive accounting from non-Oracle data. Must all non-Oracle data be processed by SLA? No. SLA does provide a mechanism that an organization can use to derive accounting from non-Oracle data, but its use is absolutely not required. Financial Services customers using the FSAH product (Financial Services Accounting Hub) use this facility to post from non-Oracle banking system to Oracle General Ledger.

Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC):

7. How does MOAC impact responsibilities? In Release 12 you can now give a responsibility access to more than one Operating Unit with MOAC. MOAC is a role-based approach to facilitating user and process access to data in different operations (this is a competitive differentiator against SAP). 8. What do I have to do in order to use MOAC? When defining security profiles, you will link multiple Operating Units to an individual responsibility. 9. Can MOAC execute all processes across Operating Units? Developers will be able to leverage the MOAC feature in Release 12 to build any number of cross Operating Unit processes. Release 12 will deliver the following cross Operating Unit processes: Accounting Setup, Collections, Requisition Demand & Purchase Orders, Invoices & Payments, Customer Data Management, Receiving & Drop Ship. 10. Does MOAC in Release 12 allow a user to apply cash across different OUs, or to make disbursements across different OUs? If the OUs are serving the same legal entity, a customer can disburse payments across different OUs (pay invoices stored in different OUs). The introduction of MOAC and Ledger Sets facilitates mapping individual OUs and Ledgers to a customers complying entities, such as companies, or in the US, groups of companies; while mapping groups of responsibilities and Ledger Sets to a management or administrative organization. At this point, you cannot apply cash to Receivable invoices stored in different OUs.

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract.

Bank Account Model:

11. How does the new bank model affect the subledgers? Cash Management, Payables, Receivables, and Payments all plan to use this new bank model. For example, you can now use a single payment instruction to pay invoices from multiple OUs that are associated with a single ledger.

Tax Engine:
12. Since Release 12 Tax Engine uses a new methodology to calculate transaction taxes, will it arrive at the same tax values as it did in Release 11.5? Yes, the Release 12 Tax Engine produces the same results. Release 12 uses the tax rules a customer set up in the previous release until they decide to replace them. The Tax Codes remain and become data for the Tax Engine process. With Release 12, tax rules can be audited easier, controlled centrally, and accessed by shared service centers outside the tax jurisdiction.

Other:
13. Is AX (Global Accounting Engine) and MRC (Multiple Reporting Currencies) going away in Release 12? AX and MRC are fully incorporated into Subledger Accounting, Ledgers and Ledger Sets in Release 12. SLA provides multiple accounting for any accounting event, under different accounting conventions, and/or using different currency valuations. The different accounting is posted into separate Ledgers that exist in respect of the same accounting entity. You can create currency valuations of transactions at the transaction, posting, and balance level in General Ledger and at the balance level in FCH (Financial Consolidation Hub).

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Product-Related
Financial Consolidation Hub:
1. Do I need Enterprise Planning and Budgeting (EPB) in order to use Financial Consolidation Hub (FCH)? No. Enterprise Performance Foundation is required, but is bundled as part of the purchase of FCH. 2. Can you drill-down from FCH to GL to the sub-ledgers (e.g., AP, AR, Payroll, etc.) The drilldown capabilities planned in Release 12 are from FCH to a journal entry line in GL (which may be a summary line) to the detailed subledger journal entry line containing transaction information, and the journal entry. From the subledger journal entry, it is possible to further navigate to the transaction itself in the subledger system. This is available for all subledgers that have implemented SLA in Release 12, which includes: Payables, Receivables, Projects, Fixed Assets, Costing (Inventory, Receiving, WIP), OPM (Oracle Process Manufacturing), Purchasing, Public Sector/Federal, Payroll, Property Manager, Loans, Cash Management, Globalizations (Latin America).

Receivables:
3. Will there be any changes to the Bills of Exchange functionality in Receivables in Release 12? The Bills of Exchange feature will be obsolete in Release 12 and replaced by the Bills Receivable feature. The Bills Receivable feature provides a comprehensive solution to managing the entire life cycle of bills receivable: creation, acceptance, remittance, updates, history, and closing. 4. Will there be any changes to the Trade Accounting functionality in Receivables in Release 12? The Oracle Trade Accounting feature will be obsolete in Release 12 and replaced by Oracles Deduction Management solution. The Deductions Management solution is delivered in partnership between Oracle Receivables and Oracle Trade Management products and provides a robust and efficient way to handle customer deductions and overpayments. A Deductions Management whitepaper is currently available on Metalink.

Advanced Collections
5. Is Advanced Collections in Release 12 MOAC enabled? If so, how is MOAC used and not used for a collections organization? Advanced Collections will use MOAC to enable collections agents to view Operating Units in which customer data resides without having to change responsibility. This is visible on the Collectors Work Queue where a new Operating Unit field and filtering tool are visible on the upper right corner, and then on the Collections header again on the upper right corner above the View By field. So if a customer is severely delinquent in one Operating Unit and current in all other Operating Units, the collector can use that information to focus on the problem and resolve it quickly. Advanced Collections also uses MOAC in a number of concurrent programs (scoring and promise to pay reconciliation) but not in strategy management. Strategies will run across all Operating Units in Release 12. 6. What if customers choose not to use MOAC for their collector responsibilities when they upgrade to Confidential Internal Use Only

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. Release 12, how will their responsibilities work in Release 12? Current collector responsibilities which are pointing to single Operating Units in will still work for those Operating Units in Release 12. When they set up responsibilities in 11.5.10, they assigned them to specific Operating Units through the MO: Operating Unit profile. Customer will not need to set up additional MOAC security profiles for these collectors. 7. Is the Collections Workbench in Oracle Receivables going to be replaced with a limited version of Advanced Collections? What are the functional differences between the two? AR customers will be able to perform the equivalent tasks and activities they do in the AR Collections Workbench through the Collector Work Queue, Search Tool and Collections header and tabs. Collector Work Queue Search Tool Collections header and tabs Preconfigured delinquency creation engine Preconfigured customer scoring engine Correspondence via XML Publisher Configurable Dunning tool (dunning notices and callbacks) Assignment via AR collector field View by customer, account, bill-to, or delinquency AR and Collections Reports Customers who license Advanced Collections (great up-sell opportunity!) will have additional functionality: Configurable scoring Configurable strategies and work items Configurable segmentation Additional Collections functionality including: Strategy, Lifecycle, Loans*, Case Management*, Contracts* Collections Territory Assignment Work Reassignment Call Center/Interaction Center integration* Trade Management Integration iReceivables Integration (internal use) Loans Integration* Lease Management Integration* (* Requires additional licensing)

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. 8. Is there additional information or training available for customers who will want to migrate to this new solution? A white paper called Migrating to Oracle Advanced Collections: An Overview for Oracle Receivables Users will be available shortly before the GA of Release 12 (Advanced Collections page on the Financials Portal) for sales and implementation consultants and customers looking for more information on what the new collections solution will include for existing AR customers, along with the migration steps needed to use it. The ADS demo scripts will point out the differences between the functionality in AR and in Advanced Collections. Also, a TOI/demo on How to Demo Advanced Collections will be available (Release 12 Readiness Training), to help demo the new features. 9. Is the new Collections Setup Checklist tool applicable for existing customers as well as new customers? Yes. The Setup Checklist tool was designed to streamline the setup process and significantly reduce the time it takes to setup an out of the box system. Implementation consultants can use it to quickly setup a system for pre-implementation planning, proof of concept, or pre-production testing. Sales consultants can use it as part of their demo to customers, too. It can be used to change and fine-tune settings in a production system as well. 10. Does Advanced Collections use any of the new Oracle Payments features? Advanced Collections will use the centralized repository maintained by Oracle Payments to store all customer bank account and credit card information. Once that data has been entered, a collector can quickly see it on the payment processing screen with the customers account information appropriately masked on the payment processing screen to avoid improper usage of the customer data.

iReceivables:
11. iReceivables is about managing and making payments, in Release 12 are there plans for any new payment functionality? Yes, using the paying party relationships that are setup in TCA users can view and pay across or within related accounts without being required to register for access to each specific account. 12. How does the new self service registration work in iReceivables? The self-registration process starts on the login page where a user can click on Register Here. The registration pages walk the user through a series of validation questions and information pages. Registration is completed via a notification email going to the user. 13. What set up changes will my customers need to make for iReceivables? In Release 12, iReceivables leverages the Oracle User Management application to support self-service registration flows customized to a companys specific operational and customer management requirements. Customers can configure the challenge-response information required for self-service registration, by different operating units if desired. This allows the deploying company to configure their own validation questions according to their business practices for a high level of security and greater flexibility.

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Credit Management:
14. What initiates a credit review? Does it have to be someone in my customers credit department? Oracle Credit Management integrates with other Oracle applications, so business events across the EBusiness Suite can initiate a request for a credit review. For example: An order entry clerk places an order in Oracle Order Management that causes a customer to exceed its current credit limit. A sales representative or leasing agent enters a new lease application in Oracle Lease Management for a customer. Six months have passed since a customers last credit review date, automatically initiating a periodic credit review A loans officer creates a loan package for a customer. A credit analyst manually enters a new credit application for a prospect.

Once initiated, a credit review can either be completely automated, or managed by a skilled credit analyst. Your customer controls how credit reviews happen when defining their credit policies. 15. And can credit applications be created by someone outside of the credit department? Yes, your customers can now let non-employees submit credit applications. Non-employees are users who are not in Oracle HRMS and who are not assigned the credit analyst role in Resource Manager. 16. Can customers include an organizations financial data that spans multiple periods in credit analysis? Yes. When information is entered on a credit application for use in credit analysis and decision making, it is key to be able to compare the organizations financial data over several periods. Customers can now select from previously entered periods and compare multiple periods of financial data to assess positive or adverse trends of any organization. Reviewing summarized order, invoice, and payment data over a period of time can provide your customers with an overall picture of an organizations past credit history and can help to predict future performance. 17. I understand that Oracle Credit Management includes about 300 pre-configured data points for determining credit scores. Can new data points be added? If so, how? Credit analysts can use data from other E-Business Suite sources such as Invoices & Payments: receivables, orders, collections, etc., Aging Loan and lease data D&B: Enterprise Management package, Commercial Credit Score package, etc. Other credit data sources Collateral, guarantor, venture funding, etc. Even additional Data Points with business logic execution 14 of 18

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The content in this document is intended for information purposes and may not be incorporated into a contract. These new data points are created via SQL functions that are entered on the Additional Data Points subtab on the Policy Management tab. Additionally, a new data point called External Score automatically bypasses an assigned scoring model and extracts case folder content for scoring by an outside scoring engine. 18. And what about better ways to use these data points in my customers credit scoring models? Several enhancements to Credit Management's scoring module are available in this release: With the addition of SQL function capability in defining additional data points, scoring models take advantage of those data points to extend credit scoring and fit specific business requirements. Also, you can now create scoring models without assigning weighting factors, so that raw data values are passed as the actual score. This feature is useful for those data points where the value itself is part of a score, such as Dun & Bradstreets Paydex Score. When defining a scoring model, you can treat null data point values as zero, which prevents the scoring process from failing when null data point values are encountered. Use a new data point called External Score to automatically bypass the assigned scoring model and extract case folder content for scoring by an outside scoring engine.

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Upgrade
1. What should be considered and analyzed before undertaking the Release 12 upgrade? Due to the significant architecture changes planned for E-Business Suite Financials Release 12, Development has created a new document to assist customers with assessing the business/functional impact of upgrading to Release 12. This document will provide greater detail than what is in the Applications Upgrade Guide, and should be used as a companion with this guide. This new document is tentatively referred to as the Financials and Procurement Upgrade Guide (name to be finalized shortly). There is also a new functional section in the Oracle Applications Upgrade Guide that customers should review in conjunction with the new Financials and Procurement Upgrade Guide. Internal Oracle employees can get this new guide via the Virtual Documentation CD available on OracleMetaLink when the release becomes generally available. For customers, this new guide will be available on the documentation CD that comes with the release. 2. What are going to be the supported upgrade paths to Release 12? 11.5.7, 11.5.8, 11.5.9, and 11.5.10 are all currently supported releases that will have upgrades paths directly to Release 12. 11.5.6 and prior releases are desupported as of 7/31/06 (Extended Support is available to 7/31/07), therefore, will require an upgrade to 11.5.7, and then an upgrade to Release 12 is possible. 3. Do you need to apply a maintenance pack in order to upgrade to Release 12? No, you do not. This is an upgrade that employs Rapid Install. For additional information related to the upgrade process, please refer the Oracle Applications Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install and Oracle Applications Upgrade Guide available on the documentation CD that comes with the release.

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Technology/Fusion Middleware
XML Publisher:
1. What release do customers have to be on to take advantage of XML Publisher? 11.5.10 was the first release that actually delivered XML reports out of the box (a few key GL reports and external facing documents). Also, FSG has been supporting XML Publisher since 11.5.10. 11.5.7, 11.5.8 and 11.5.9 customers have the ability to develop reports using XML Publisher. 2. Have all of the reports in the Financials Suite been converted to XML Publisher in Release 12? No, not all of the reports in the modules within the Financials Suite plan to be converted to XML Publisher; however, many of the modules plan to convert their key reports (or most commonly used reports) to XML Publisher (e.g., Account Analysis, Trial Balance Detail, Journals-General, etc.). 3. Where are XML Reports being delivered? New reports in Global Accounting, Payments, Subledger Accounting, and Tax are all being delivered using XML Publisher. In addition, the majority of the products in the E-Business Suite Financials delivered select reports in XML Publisher.

Business Process Execution Language (BPEL):

4. Where is BPEL being used in Release 12? The integration between Retek and Payables uses BPEL. In the integration solution, BPEL acts as the bridge between an Oracle Financials instance and a Retek instance. The built-in adapters, the easy-to-use transformation designer, and the engine's extensive ability to monitor, correct, and resubmit transactions at runtime were some of the key factors that made it the best choice for the solution.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA):

5. Where is SOA being used in Release 12? The Trading Community Architecture (TCA) leverages SOA (web services).

Other:
6. Have all of the ADI (Application Desktop Integrator) components been converted to be web-based? Will they be released for 11.5.10? For Release 12? All components that have not been delivered yet are planned to be available in Release 12, except for Report Wizard. All components will also be available in 11.5.10.

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Who can I contact if I have additional questions?

Financials Product Strategy FOCUS NAME Terrance Wampler

Overall Financials Product Strategy

Financials Product Marketing FOCUS

NAME Deborah Hamilton Annette Melatti

Overall Financials Applications Marketing E-Business Suite Financials Applications Marketing

ORACLE INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION ONLY

THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR INTERNAL USE AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED TO CUSTOMERS OR PARTNERS WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL FROM ORACLES GLOBAL BUSINESS PRACTICES (HQAPP@ORACLE.COM) AND GLOBAL REVREC (GLOBALREVREC_US@ORACLE.COM) ORGANIZATIONS. THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT A FIRM DEVELOPMENT PLAN. THE DEVELOPMENT, RELEASE, AND TIMING OF ANY FEATURES OR FUNCTIONALITY DESCRIBED HEREIN ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME AND AT ORACLES SOLE DISCRETION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH ORACLES REVENUE RECOGNITION POLICY, DISCUSSIONS WITH CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS ABOUT FUTURE PRODUCT RELEASES SHOULD BE LIMITED TO (1) GENERAL STATEMENTS PREVIEWING FEATURES ALREADY PLANNED FOR RELEASE AS PART OF OUR OVERALL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PLAN, AND (2) GENERAL STATEMENTS THAT DO NOT MEET THE DEFINITION OF A SPECIFIED UPGRADE, PURSUANT TO ORACLES REVENUE RECOGNITION POLICY AND (3) GENERAL STATEMENTS WHICH DESCRIBE THE PRODUCT DIRECTION USING TERMS SUCH AS PLAN, FORECAST, AND EXPECTATION, AND (4) GENERAL STATEMENTS THAT DO NOT INCLUDE TERMS SUCH AS COMMITMENT, GUARANTEE, AND WILL DELIVER, WHICH MIGHT IMPLY A COMMITMENT TO DELIVER SPECIFIED FUNCTIONALITY ON A SPECIFIED DATE, AND (5) STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT INCORPORATED INTO ANY CONTRACT OR OTHER FORM OF AGREEMENT.

Confidential Internal Use Only

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