Oracle continues to evolve its EPM platform with a new series of enhancements deployed in July 2026. Although this release does not include any major new features for Oracle Planning, it introduces several functionalities designed to strengthen data analysis, automation, collaboration and platform reliability.
The updates will be available in test environments from July 3, 2026, before being deployed to production environments on July 17, 2026.
More realistic load testing
Oracle continues to improve its simulateConcurrentUsage tool, which is used to simulate concurrent usage scenarios for EPM applications. This version now supports multi-value runtime prompt parameters when launching business rules, rule sets, forms and reports.
This enhancement enables IT teams to replicate real-world usage conditions more accurately and assess application performance more precisely.
Artificial intelligence enhances IPM analyses
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 this is the same period of 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 these analyses by now allowing users to view IPM Insights directly from forms and dashboards. Users therefore no longer need to leave their workspace to view the insights generated by artificial intelligence.
A Reporting Agent for querying data in natural language
One of the most notable new features in this update is the arrival of the Reporting Agent. This functionality enables users to ask natural-language questions about their reports in order to quickly obtain information about data trends, comparisons, rankings or changes over time.
This approach is intended to make report analysis simpler and more accessible, including for non-technical users.
Streamlined collaboration in reporting processes
Oracle is also improving collaborative processes by supporting @mentions in review comments and Doclet notes.
Users can now notify a colleague directly to draw their attention to a question, approval or comment, facilitating exchanges during the preparation and validation of financial reports.
Improved metadata reliability
This update also brings an important improvement to 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 remains relatively light in terms of the number of new features, it confirms the direction Oracle has taken. The enhancements focus primarily on strengthening AI-assisted analysis capabilities, improving the user experience, fostering collaboration between teams and making the platform more reliable.
Although targeted, these improvements help make Oracle EPM Cloud even more performant and better suited to the needs of finance departments in their planning, performance management and reporting activities.
source: Paul Lewis, Expert, Oracle EPM consultant
