Having a Patching Strategy for your E-Business Suite system is a great way to manage your system downtime, identify the proper resources needed to perform the necessary task and familiarizing yourself with the Patching Tools in EBS.
Proactive Patching is a preventive measure allowing you to have a complete patching strategy when applying patches periodically. Oracle provides several tools to help you get started to set the foundation for a solid and proactive patching strategy in Note 313.1 - "Patching & Maintenance Advisor: E-Business Suite 11i and R12". It details all the steps and tooling available for the patching strategy along with the benefits.