The challenge
One surprise for many customers migrating to Oracle on-premise EPM 11.2 is the change to the user's home page in the workspace. By default, users no longer see their favourites. This has been replaced by a grey screen.
The loss of the landing page may not seem like a significant change, especially given that it is still relatively easy to access your applications via the top menu. It has, however, proven to be a sticky point for some business users. In an upgrade project, there is a risk as many users can confuse the lack of a home screen with a technical issue. If this happens, the helpdesk can be swamped with tickets. If users believe there is an issue, they also often stop working and wait for a resolution.
This can, therefore, create unnecessary noise in your upgrade project.
Cause
As part of 11.2, Oracle has wholly dropped the Reporting and Analysis Framework as most people now use SmartView and Financial Reports. The home page with links to your applications and your favourites is an indirect victim of this decision.
For the moment, Oracle has no intentions of reviving the home page. If enough customers request it, they may introduce a new version, but given that Oracle's focus is on all things cloud, this is unlikely.
Solutions for a smoother rollout
The obvious approach to resolving this is communication. Letting the users know of what is coming is the first step. The limitation of this approach is that users sometimes ignore or forget what comes through in emails. In these times of remote working, the means of communication to a broad audience are a little limited.
To better mitigate the risk during rollout, an alternative is to set a default landing screen for the users. There are two good simple options: setting an image like your company logo, or setting a default application.
Changing the users landing page to the logo will not change the users' experience. They'll have to get used to using the menu to open the application they want. The only advantage is to fill in that grey screen with something to welcome your users and avoid them thinking there is an issue.
Adding the default application will, on the other hand, help your users get straight to the tasks at hand however this only works if you have a limited number of applications or you know reasonably well what user groups need which applications.
Have a plan
The conclusion here is that the lack of home page is probably going to cause some noise and that you should plan for it in your on-premise EPM upgrade... or you maybe reconsider the cloud!
