Retiring DRM Without Losing History: Why This EDMCS Idea Matters (and Needs Your Vote)

One of the most common conversations I have with clients migrating from Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) to Enterprise Data Management Cloud Service (EDMCS) isn’t about current hierarchies.

It’s about history.

Specifically:

“How do we retain years of historical DRM versions for audit, compliance, and comparison — without keeping DRM alive forever?”

Right now, that answer is… complicated.

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The Gap Today: Historical DRM Versions vs. EDMCS Time Awareness

EDMCS already has strong native concepts around time labels and time-labeled viewpoints. These are designed exactly for “as-of” analysis and point-in-time comparison.

What’s missing is a first-class, supported way to load historical DRM Versions into EDMCS and bind them to date-based time labels.

During a DRM → EDMCS migration, teams often have:

• Multiple “final” DRM versions per fiscal year

• Regulatory or audit requirements to retain those versions

• A desire to fully decommission DRM once EDMCS is live

Without this capability, customers are forced into:

• Parallel systems (keeping DRM alive “just in case”)

• Custom archival solutions

• Manual exports stored outside governed EDMCS structures

That defeats the purpose of consolidating governance into EDMCS.

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The Idea: Date-Based Time Labels for Historical Loads

This Idea Lab proposal introduces a clean, native pattern:

• Each historical DRM Version is loaded into EDMCS

• Each load is assigned a specific, date-based time label

• All versions coexist in a single EDMCS application and data chain

Example

• DRM Version FY2020_Final → Time Label 2020-12-31

• DRM Version FY2021_Final → Time Label 2021-12-31

From there, EDMCS can do what it already does best:

• Point-in-time hierarchy comparisons

• “As-of” structure analysis

• Governed access to historical master data

All without custom workarounds.

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Why This Is Bigger Than Migration

This isn’t just about getting off DRM.

This capability supports:

• Audit and regulatory compliance

• Restatements and historical financial reporting

• M&A pre- and post-transaction analysis

• Long-term reference data retention

• True lineage across time — not just current state

It establishes EDMCS as the system of record for both current and historical hierarchies, not just the present moment.

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Oracle Has Already Acknowledged Feasibility

This isn’t a blue-sky idea.

Oracle product management has already responded that this enhancement is:

“Potentially feasible with sufficient guardrails in place”
and is being evaluated for a future release.

That matters.

Ideas with:

• Clear use cases

• Multiple customer confirmations

• Product team engagement

…are exactly the ones that move forward — if the community shows demand.

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👉 Take Action: Vote and Comment in Idea Lab

If you:

• Are migrating from DRM to EDMCS

• Need to retain historical versions for audit or compliance

• Want to fully retire DRM without losing access to the past

• Believe EDMCS should be the authoritative, time-aware source for master data

Please take 30 seconds to help move this forward:

🔗 Vote and comment on the Idea Lab entry:
https://community.oracle.com/CustomerConnect/discussion/933008/support-loading-historical-drm-versions-into-edmcs-using-date-based-time-labels

Even a short comment like “We need this for our DRM decommissioning roadmap” helps establish real customer demand.

Oracle looks closely at votes, comments, and customer breadth when prioritizing roadmap decisions.

Let’s make sure this one gets the visibility it deserves.