Oracle continues to enhance its EPM platform with a new set of improvements deployed in July 2026. Although this release does not include any major new features for Oracle Planning, it introduces several capabilities designed to strengthen data analysis, automation, collaboration and platform reliability.
The updates will be available in test environments from 3 July 2026, ahead of deployment to production environments scheduled for 17 July 2026.
More realistic load testing
Oracle continues to enhance its simulateConcurrentUsage tool, used to simulate concurrent usage scenarios for EPM applications. This release now supports multi-value Runtime Prompt parameters when launching business rules, rule sets, forms and reports.
This enhancement enables IT teams to reproduce real-world usage conditions more accurately and assess application performance more precisely.
Artificial intelligence enhances IPM analysis
Intelligent Performance Management (IPM) capabilities continue to expand with the introduction of a new analysis type called Period Movement Variance.
This feature automatically detects significant variances between a current period and a reference period, whether it is the same period in the previous year, the previous period, a custom period or a historical average. Alert thresholds remain fully configurable by administrators.
Oracle is also simplifying access to this analysis by allowing users to view IPM Insights directly from forms and dashboards. Users therefore no longer need to leave their workspace to view information generated by artificial intelligence.
A Reporting Agent for querying data in natural language
One of the most notable new features in this release is the introduction of the Reporting Agent. This feature enables users to ask natural-language questions about their reports in order to quickly obtain insights into trends, comparisons, rankings or changes in data.
This approach is intended to make report analysis simpler and more accessible, including for non-technical users.
Easier collaboration in reporting processes
Oracle is also improving collaborative processes by supporting @mentions in review comments and Doclet notes.
Users can now directly notify a colleague to draw their attention to a question, validation or comment, facilitating exchanges during the preparation and approval of financial reports.
Improved metadata reliability
This release also delivers a significant improvement in metadata management.
Oracle now automatically removes invisible Unicode characters placed at the end of member or alias names. These spaces could cause inconsistencies between Oracle EPM Cloud and Essbase, sometimes resulting in errors when refreshing cubes.
With this enhancement, the platform ensures greater data consistency and displays an explicit message when a uniqueness issue is detected.
An update focused on performance and user experience
Although the July 2026 update is relatively light in terms of new features, it confirms Oracle's strategic direction. The enhancements primarily focus on strengthening artificial intelligence-assisted analysis capabilities, improving the user experience, collaboration between teams and platform reliability.
These improvements, although targeted, help make Oracle EPM Cloud increasingly high-performing and better suited to the needs of finance departments in their management and reporting activities.
source: Paul Lewis, Oracle EPM expert and consultant
