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Windows update breaks WebADI for Oracle EBS customers

  1. By Giles Taylor
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Windows update breaks WebADI for Oracle EBS customers

For large organizations master data is a single source of truth for major business decisions. For many, Oracle 11i is still the mainstay for their Oracle e-business suite environment (EBS).

Windows Update Breaks Oracle WebADI

To upgrade to Oracle r12.2, organizations would have to invest money, resources and months of execution for a huge migration project to take place.

Unfortunately, a Windows update affected thousands of Oracle EBS customers who used Oracle Web Applications Desktop Integrator (Web ADI) daily. However, many corporations are being saved by More4apps EBS Toolbox, Especially the General Ledger (GL) Wizard as their solution to the Windows update.

What is Oracle Web ADI?

  • Web ADI offers a combination of readily available and customizable solutions for desktop PCs
  • End users can complete EBS tasks and data input activities fast, like Word and Excel.
  • Users can copy and paste data from existing sources and auto-populate cells.
  • Data can be shared fast before being imported into the Oracle database.
  • There are over 300+ template documents users can choose from, and they can upload the data to Oracle in Excel.

How did a Windows update break Oracle Web ADI?

In Spring 2019, a transportation and shipping organization (that chooses to remain anonymous) upgraded their Office 365 to a greater version through a security patch MSO (16.0.13929.20206) 32-bit. Immediately, they noticed Web ADI did not work on their version of Oracle (11i). 

Data is a crucial part of any business. The transportation and shipping organization creates multiple files and needs to load 6000 lines of data securely into Oracle EBS every day. With no access to their original data sets or ability to load information at the pace the organization was operating, this became a big problem for the business. 

As a result, they had to downgrade over 30 people’s Office suite to the older version to get Web ADI to work again. This is also the case for any user who wanted to upgrade to the latest version of Excel or Oracle (r12.2) – Web ADI could not work. 

According to Oracle’s blog, Web ADI for 11i can only work with Excel 2010 and no newer version. The transportation and shipping organization was fully aware that this wasn’t a viable, long-term solution as Microsoft Office continues to upgrade their software packages.

Put simply, Web ADI heavily depends on Excel. So, any update to Excel, from 2016, can cause Web ADI to fail. 

Does this mean businesses are left with the painful task of rolling back IT updates and downgrading individual workstations to catch up on their data loading? Sadly, yes. Organizations have to cope with potentially unsafe workstations, which requires more time and IT support management in the process. 

In the case of the transportation and shipping organization, More4apps came in and provided a much sought and sustainable solution to the Windows update – through our EBS Toolbox General Ledger (GL) Wizard.

The limitations of Web ADI

  • Web ADI has its limitations as it does not cater to the specific needs of an organization. For example, Web ADI does not provide a customized Lists of Values (LoVs), or pre-built extensions to help the users adjust what they want the integrator to do. 
  • Also, the look and feel of each template lack functionality and consistency that most organizations need.
  • The Web ADI setup process requires a high level of interaction between the developer and the end-user, which can also be a setback in retrieving information and data when a user urgently needs it.
  • Some users have also complained about Web ADI’s inability to upload large data, often requiring patching, which is a long, time-consuming process where technical input is needed.  

A More4apps solution that works with all versions of Oracle and Windows Excel

More4apps General Ledger (GL) Wizard fully supports Office 2003 as well as the latest desktop and online version of Office 365. It doesn’t matter if an organization has Oracle 11a or Oracle R12, More4apps EBS Toolbox GL wizard can work for you and do what you need Web ADI to do, without the headache.

More4apps GL Wizard has more flexible functionality and better performance. It can load attachments, journals, and large data lines seamlessly.

The benefits of More4apps General Ledger (GL) Wizard

  • Users can work on multiple ledgers and data sheets at a time.
  • The GL wizards allow users to process data loads quickly with Excel functionality.
  • Create actuals, budget journals, and amounts in Excel and let the GL Wizard send your data and information back to Oracle.
  • Utilize multiple periods, categories, and sources in a single sheet.
  • Load attachments against journal headers, which is not possible with Web ADI.
  • More4apps EBS Toolboxes works on any version of Oracle, Windows or Office Suite, from 2003 upwards.

Want to know more about More4apps General Ledger (GL) Wizard and save yourself the hassle of downgrading every team member’s Oracle suite for the sake of Web ADI?   

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