As part of Quest Forum Digital Event: Innovation Week, David Bain, Director of Product Management at Oracle, presented the PeopleSoft PeopleTools roadmap.

Today’s PeopleTools

The image below gives you an idea of today’s PeopleTools – one with a regular cycle of releases, patches, configuration tools, and lifecycle management features.

PeopleTools 8.58.03 is available for on-premises downloads as well as subscription delivery through PeopleSoft Cloud Manager.

Several changes have been made due to COVID-19. PeopleSoft has extended PeopleTools 8.56 patches to April 2021 and has also extended MF Cobol Migration to April 2021. Support for features has also been extended. PeopleSoft Support has been extended to 2031 and they have prioritized SR with COVID-19 impacts. You can stay informed by keeping up with the COVID-19 page on www.peoplesoftinfo.com.

PeopleTools Strategic Investments

There are four main strategic investment areas within PeopleSoft:

1. Simplification and modernization
2. Analytics
3. Cloud and advanced technology
4. Configuration

Additionally, there are five major PeopleTools initiatives driving the roadmap:

1. Migrating to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to leverage the value of the cloud
2. Integrating with Oracle Platform as a Service (PaaS) to enable emerging technology
3. Analytics for action and visualization
4. Utilizing configuration to apply changes more easily
5. Simplifying and modernizing to make users more productive

Migrating to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Migrating your applications to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) enables you to reap the benefits of the cloud while preserving your PeopleSoft applications and customizations. You can start with something simple like creating Disaster Recovery from on-premises environments to OCI.

With Selective Adoption, users can leverage Cloud Manager through subscription, PUM deployment, or PUM configuration. This will provide quick availability of the PUM Dashboard, is platform-independent, and enables PRP automation.

Another option would be a hybrid approach where you run pre-production environments (Dev, Test, UAT, Demo, Pilot, Training, Sandbox, Benchmarking) on OCI.

Ultimately, you can decide to run your complete operation on the production-ready Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. This will also enable you to leverage the Database Cloud Service. The benefits include scalability, performance, and reduced cost.

Some of the OCI benefits and metrics that Bain shared include:

• 15 percent increase in the number of processes that run in less than 30 seconds (about 5,000 more processes per month run in under 30 seconds in OCI)
• 60 percent reduction in PO/AP print run time
• 70 percent reduction in pre-release report run time
• 50 percent reduction in PO dispatch run time
• 50 percent projected cost savings over five years
• 50 percent reduction in nightly environment refresh run time
• 40 percent reduction in production backup run time
• Elimination of downtime during quarterly patching

PeopleSoft Cloud Manager

Some of the items on the roadmap include:

• Auto Configure Network with OCI Resource Manager
• Support for Oracle 12.2.0, 18c and 19c Database versions
• Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) support
• Automated Cloud Manager patching
• Provision Windows-based process schedule for use with NVision

Integrating with Oracle Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Integrating with Oracle PaaS and adding features through PaaS products is an easy way to extend your PeopleSoft capabilities.

Common PaaS options include:

• Database as a Service
• Exa Cloud Service
• Identity Cloud Service
• Integration Cloud Service
• Management Cloud Service
• Autonomous Database Cloud Service

You can also leverage the Application Directive to integrate with the Asset Monitoring Cloud to track asset location in real-time. This is delivered with FSCM Image 33.

PeopleTools frameworks like PeopleSoft Chatbot Integration Framework and Data Distribution Framework are also available. With the PeopleSoft Chatbot Integration Framework, you can simplify and standardize the use of Oracle Digital Assistant (ODA). With the Data Distribution Framework, you can leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) using models made from data extracted from PeopleSoft.

Analytics

Analytics improve the visualization of PeopleSoft data and the actions that can be done. You can leverage a variety of analytics within PeopleSoft, including:

• Pivot grids: Either use Oracle’s or build your own. Put them on dashboards. Use them in Related Content.
• Simplified Analytics: Extend the power of your Pivot Grids. Allow end users to personalize.
• Personalized Analytic Notifications: Put the system to work for you. Monitor thresholds set on your pivot grides. Centralize, or even better, personalize.
• Kibana: These in-app data visualizations won’t impact system performance. Leverage new data discovery capabilities and powerful drillable analytics.

Here’s a breakdown of when to use Kibana vs. pivot grids:

• Kibana
  • Data only exists in index
  • Large volume
  • Performance is important
  • Complex analysis
    • Time series/historic
    • Data trends
    • Interactive exploration
• Pivot grids
  • Actionable
  • Real-time
  • Online-relevant
  • End user model
  • Triggers notification
  • Transactional data

Configuration

PeopleSoft changes and customizations are made using configuration frameworks or by isolating customizations – allowing maintenance and new features to be adopted much more easily.

Customization/configuration options in PeopleTools 8.58 include:

• Event Mapping
  • Subpages, secondary pages, and nested pages
  • New events: FieldEdit, FieldDefault, SearchInit, SearchSave
  • Single AppClass for multiple events
• Page and Field Configurator
  • Secondary pages
  • Inactive sequences
  • Hiding sensitive data
• Drop Zones
  • Support for Classic Pages
  • To be delivered in application Images
• Pluggable AppEngine
  • Insert steps before or after delivered
  • Skip steps without removing
  • Limited to SQL and PeopleCode steps

For lifecycle management, you can leverage:

• PeopleSoft Update Manager
  • PUM Dependency Calculations in Update Manager have been optimized to support large volume
  • Target Database Upload has been optimized to support large change logs
• Change Assitant
  • Improve visual Apply Validation pages in Change Assistant
• Compare and Copy
  • Option to copy all properties for a Materialized View
• Data Mover
  • New option: SET IGNORE_IMPORT_ERRORS to continue import if error is encountered
  • Support for DB2 Universal Tables Spaces
• PeopleSoft Test Framework
  • Additional Command Line Parameters (stop on error, leave browser open)
  • Date time stamp for comments
  • Minimum browser support (Chrome and Firefox)
  • Support for 32 and 64-bit browsers

Simplifying and Modernizing

When you simplify and modernize, PeopleSoft applications will be more intuitive and take advantage of the latest user interface features.

With PeopleTools 8.58, when you get an environment up and running, the first thing that’s going to pop out is the new visual stylesheet. Oracle continues to make applications better looking and easier to use as they move forward.

Oracle has also simplified the notification process with Central Notification Preferences. Users can set notification preferences centrally, choose notification channels (text, notification window, email), and take action directly from the notification window.

Legacy PeopleSoft components are still supported in the PeopleSoft user interface (UI) with Classic Plus. You can also leverage the responsive Fluid UI and guided processes with Activity Guides. There is also a new conversational interface that leverages chatbots. This interface is user-driven, interactive, and requires Oracle Digitial Assistant (ODA).

Some of the Fluid UI highlights in PeopleTools 8.58 include:

• Long Edit Counter: Configure edit boxes to display the number of characters remaining.
• New Window Feature: From the Action Menu, chose to open a new window.
• Spell Check and My Dictionary: On Fluid pages, you can turn on spell checking for edit and long edit boxes that support text input.
• Activity Guides: Indicator for multi-language and hidden steps; no longer require a Portal Administrator role to create and maintain activity guide templates and instances.
• Configuration Specialist Role: Activity Guide, Manage Dashboard Pages, Navigation Collections, Notifications, Pivot Gride, Related Content Service, and Tile Wizard can be placed on a Configuration Specialist homepage.

It is important to note that PeopleTools 8.57 is the last PeopleTools release that supports Classic Navigation. Oracle will not remove the Classic Navigation style so it can still be used “out of support.” Oracle encourages the use of Fluid Navigation. Users can reference My Oracle Support Tech Update Doc ID 2585909.1 for more information.

Recent platform enhancements include:

• Infrastructure DPK
  • Latest fully patched infrastructure components
  • Used to override infrastructure delivered with Tools DPK
  • Available after every CPU
• DB2 Universal Table Space
• 8.58 based PUM Images will be based on Oracle Linux 7.x and Oracle Database 19c
• Elasticsearch update with 8.58
  • Incorporates ES and Kibana 7.x
  • No need to do full indexing for an upgrade

PeopleTools has also transitioned from Net/Server Express to Visual COBOL. PeopleTools 8.57 will be the last release certified with MF Net/Server Express. There is no additional cost to transition to Visual COBOL. It is low impact – testing uncovered no changes to COBOL code. Net/Server Express will go into sustaining support for PeopleSoft after April 2021. Additional information can be found at FAQ – PS Visual COBOL (Doc ID 2525494.1) and Tech Update – Main Page (Doc ID 764222.1).

Recent security enhancements include:

• Updates to data masking, including PSQuery
• OAuth 2.0 Support for REST Service
• Updates to Red Paper, for example:
  • Understanding OAuth vs. Authentication
  • New “real” IP Addresses
  • Need to protect email servers and DNS (internal, external, and poisoning)
    • Including Ransomware mitigation
  • Discussion on CSRF and SSRF
  • Restrict access to log/trace files
  • Clarify use of certs for JSL and WSL