Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) started its life as Oracle Financials all the way back in 1987. It functioned as separate modules and applications till the early 2000s, when EBS was first released as a bundled ERP and CRM software.
Since then, it has come a long way with its most recent R12.2 series, which was first released in 2013. Almost every year, EBS 12.2 has received new minor upgrades, with 12.2.12 being the most recent one, released in November 2022.
EBS Support Deadlines
Oracle EBS’s support services come with a deadline date, moving into lessening degrees of support at each stage. Most EBS users are currently on EBS 11, 12.0, 12.1 or 12.2 instances.
The last instalment of EBS 11 – EBS 11.5.10 – was released in 2004. Premier support for EBS 11.5.10 ended in 2011, Extended Support ended in 2014 and Market-Driven Support (MDS) ended in 2020. Since then, EBS 11 is no longer supported and needs to be upgraded.
EBS 12.1 was first released in 2009 and Premier Support for it ended in 2022. Since then, it has entered MDS or Sustaining Support. This means that as an EBS 12.1 user, you will no longer receive new fixes, updates or security patches. Running business-critical applications on just Sustaining Support poses a high risk, as the software is no longer being patched.
EBS 12.2 is the latest stable release and the one that every user should ideally upgrade to sooner rather than later. 12.2 is different than its predecessors in that it is a continuous development release. This means that Oracle will be delivering ongoing applications and updates without requiring any major upgrade (EBS 12.x – 12.x+1). Premier Support for 12.2 will be available till at least 2031/32. This date is being reassessed regularly and can be extended further.
Types of EBS Support
EBS users typically pay somewhere around 20-25% of the licensing fee of EBS for Premier Support. Once the Premier Support period ends, Extended Support is offered usually for a period of 3 years. Users have to continue to pay the fee for Premier Support and purchase Extended Support in addition.
Some of the major elements that are covered in both Premier and Extended Support are:
- Program updates, fixes, security alerts and critical patch updates
- Tax, legal and regulatory updates
- Upgrade scripts
- Major product and technology releases
- 24×7 assistance with service requests
Unlike Premier Support, Extended Support doesn’t cover certification with new third-party products/versions.
Sustaining Support (or MDS) on the other hand, is an extremely limited form of support. Users are only able to access resources which were already created during Premier and Extended Support periods, meaning supporting new issues is almost impossible. It does NOT include:
- New program updates, fixes, security alerts and critical patch updates
- New tax, legal and regulatory updates
- New upgrade scripts
- Certification with new third party products/versions
- Previously released fixes or updates that Oracle no longer supports
Why You Should Upgrade To 12.2
Neither EBS 11, nor EBS 12.1 are on Premier or Extended Support anymore, even though many EBS users still use these releases. This means that since November 2022, only EBS 12.2 has Premier Support from Oracle, and will continue to have it at least till 2031/32.
EBS 11 and 12.1 only have access to extremely limited or no support at all. Running your business on older releases is an extremely risky prospect. At SoftArt, we have often come across users on older releases, whose entire business is thrown into disarray because of unavailability of sufficient support when they needed it most.
If you’re using EBS 11 or EBS 12.1, we strongly recommend beginning your journey to upgrade to EBS 12.2 as soon as possible.
